And what features…Mimosa Hills has at least one feature I have seen nowhere else. On the left side of the fifth hole there are a series of waste mounds commonly found in the low areas of the course. Ross used these as a repository for the rocks and stumps he found on the golf course. At Mimosa Hills, he went one step further, he had the tops of the mounds dug out and built bunkers.
Over the years this hole became the victim to an encroaching line of trees that has moved the fairway some twenty-five yards to the right. Now the bunkered mounds are really not near the line of play, all the better, as egress to the green is blocked by numerous trees. On the drawing it was clear that Ross intended the hole to be risk/reward on the left.
Enough said for now. Mimosa Hills is a great Club with a great course. It is a solid enough golf course to be the home course for the redoubtable Billy Joe Patton for forty years.
Mimosa Hills 12th Hole
The Club has engaged Golf Course Architect and Donald Ross Society Member, Kris Spense to restore the golf course. Kris was hired after his work was finished at the Grove Park Inn in Asheville. Kris gave an outstanding Power-Point presentation to the membership that was attended by Ross Society President Dr. Jerry Mitchell and myself. Kris took the assembled audience for a trip around the course that exists today, the drawing of which was superimposed on the original drawing by Ross in 1928. In this presentation, he showed graphically how the green surfaces had shrunk by about 30 %. He also conveyed his concern about the placement and agronomic effects of the over-treed ground.
13th Hole
3rd Hole
The quick, precise presentation won over nearly all those in attendance. The plan was drawn and by happenstance the Donald Ross Society was there to see the kickoff. The Members of the Long Term Planning Committee at Mimosa Hills had put all of this together without our aid.
Ross Society Jerry Mitchell
In the next few months with the help of Kris Spense, Mimosa Hills Members President Ted Wacaster, Historian Drew Conrad, Long Range Planning Chairman Bruce Hershock and others, we at the Ross Society are going to attempt to chronicle the work being done at Mimosa Hills. We will bring along some of the history of the Club and it’s long involvement in golf in Western North Carolina.
If any of the members of the Society have questions about any of what we report you can email me at mjfay@attbi.com.