Cotton Greek Club At Craft Farms - Alabama, U.S.A.
The Craft
Farms Golf Resort on Alabama's Gulf Coast
originated as a gladiolus farm founded by R.C.
Craft in 1963. Craft expanded his gladiolus
operation over the years but since the flowers
only bloom for five to six weeks a year,
starting in 1975 he decided to switch to other
crops to ensure a year-round income stream. That
same year, his son also started a successful sod
farm after graduating from Auburn University. By
the 1980s, the Crafts had the land and the
turf-grass experience to build a golf course,
and they persuaded none other than Arnold Palmer
to design their course. Palmer's Cotton Creek
Club opened in 1988, followed by a second 18,
Cypress Bend, completed in 1997. In 1993, Craft
Farms also acquired the Woodlands Course,
designed by Larry Nelson, from a Japanese
company that was unable to complete the project,
giving the resort 54 holes of golf. Cotton Creek
runs through the original course, crossing the
dogleg 17th hole and flowing into the marsh that
separates the two nines.
East Lake Golf Club - Georgia, U.S.A.
East Lake Golf
Club is closely associated with the brilliant career
of Bobby Jones, for it was here that he learned to
play the game under the instruction of the
Carnoustie-born professional Stewart Maiden. The
East Lake property was acquired in 1904 by the
six-year-old Atlanta Athletic Club for its new golf
course. During the 1890s, the area had been an
amusement park, Atlanta's version of Coney Island.
The course opened on July 4, 1908, with six-year-old
Bobby Jones present at the opening reception.
Jones's father, "Colonel" Robert T. Jones, was a
member from the outset and served as president of
the club from 1937 to 1942. In 1915, when he was
13,13obby defeated his f.1ther in the final to win
the club championship. By the 1960s, East Lake had
become an inner-city neighborhood and in 1970 a
public housing project was built on the site of what
had once been East Lake's No.2 Course, designed by
Donal. Ross in 1928. Surrounded by urban blight, the
original East Lake Course, which had been completely
remodeled by Ross in 1913, was all but forgotten and
the Atlanta Athetic Club moved to the northern
suburbs. In a remarkable tale of urban renewal, a
local charitable foundation headed by Tom Cousins
purchased East Lake in 1993 and a year later course
architect Rees Jones was brought in to restore
Ross's lost masterpiece. The grandiose Tudor
clubhouse overlooking the lake was also restored to
its 1926 design. The reborn East Lake dazzled the
golfing world when it was unveiled at the 1998 Tour
Championship and has been the centerpiece of the
revitalization of the neighboring community.
Cotton Greek Club At Craft
Farms and East Lake Golf Club, U.S.A.
