Collegiate Connections
Written by Brad King
McConnell Golf, The Magazine: Spring/Summer 2024
McConnell Golf VP of Golf Operations Brian Kittler recalls his earliest days in the golf industry working as an assistant professional at Old North State Club. He started the job in April 1998, just two weeks before ONSC was slated to host the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) Men’s Golf Championship. The star power arriving at ONSC that year was an eye-opener for Kittler. Highlighting the event, Georgia Tech’s Matt Kuchar was the defending U.S. Amateur champion and had made the cut at the Masters Tournament the week before. Clemson’s Charles Warren was the defending NCAA individual champion, while Tim Clark from N.C. State was the defending U.S. Public Links champion.
“We literally had people from ESPN, CNN and some other national outlets calling us and, since this was in the days before the Internet, we had to fax in the results,” Kittler recalled. “So, I was in my first month, and I’m thinking, like, ‘Wow, this is the big time.’”
The most recognizable connection between McConnell Golf and collegiate golf is the club owner’s relationship with the ACC. It’s a hand-in-glove fit between a company whose portfolio includes many of the finest golf courses and clubs in the Southeast and a conference that has produced some of golf’s best players. Now in its 71st year of competition and 15 members strong, the ACC has long enjoyed the reputation as one of the strongest and most competitive intercollegiate conferences in the nation.
From 1995-2019, Old North State Club played host to the ACC Men’s Golf Championship for 22 of 24 years. The 2017 men’s ACC Championship was competed at the Arnold Palmer-designed Musgrove Mill Golf Club, following 15 consecutive years at ONSC.
Also in 2017, the ACC contested its women’s golf championship for the first time at The Reserve Golf Club, following a nine-year run at McConnell Golf’s Sedgefield Country Club — the site where the ACC was originally formed in 1953 and annual host to the PGA TOUR’s Wyndham Championship. The ACC women returned to The Reserve in 2022, and held the conference championship at Sedgefield in 2019, 2021 and 2023.
“Overall, especially the men’s and women’s ACCs, you get to see these junior golfers, whether it’s Matt Kuchar or Brooks Koepka or Daniel Berger, Bill Haas, or Webb Simpson, Lucas Glover, you can go down the line,” Kittler said. “You see these kids playing Old North State and then going on to have careers on the PGA TOUR.”
This year, the ACC Women’s Championship will be contested at another McConnell Golf property, Porters Neck Country Club. “I think they’re going to enjoy Porters Neck,” Kittler said. “It’s down at the beach, it’s a challenging course, good restaurants to choose from, in addition to lodging. It should be an ideal venue for them.”
In early February, the ACC announced that Charlotte, Greensboro, Cary, Durham and Raleigh will play host to numerous future neutral site conference championships as approved by the league’s membership.
“We are incredibly proud to announce this tremendous package of neutral site championships that will be held in the state of North Carolina, where the league was founded more than 70 years ago,” said ACC Commissioner Jim Phillips. “We are pleased to have been able to deliver so quickly on our commitment to continue to hold numerous tournaments and championships in cities across the state of North Carolina as part of the ACC Board of Directors’ decision to relocate the conference office headquarters to Charlotte.”
With the announcement, the ACC Women’s Golf Championship will return to Sedgefield in 2025, ’27 and ’29, and will be hosted at yet-to-be-announced McConnell Golf properties in 2026 and ’28.
Sedgefield will also play host to this year’s inaugural High Point Invitational, in association with nearby High Point University, in October. “High Point’s coach was a former assistant coach at Virginia Tech,” Kittler said. “We’re creating an invitational, hosting it at Sedgefield and we may host it at Old North State in the years to come, but there will be a brand-new event this October.”
“(The collegiate golf connection) just goes back to what McConnell Golf stands for,” Kittler said. “It goes with the philosophy that we always want the best players playing at our properties. We enjoy seeing the best players when they’re young, building those relationships, and then when you happen to see them 5, 10, 15 years down the road, it’s neat to relive those memories.
“With the colleges and universities that are in close proximity to a lot of our courses, it’s good to have these elite players playing. And in addition, when they’re hosting their events, you get to see junior players from all around the country come play our facilities. It’s a great opportunity, a great atmosphere, for these kids to come play.”
Old North State Club also serves as a home course for Pfeiffer University’s men’s and women’s golf programs. Pfeiffer has honed its competitive skills on Tom Fazio’s masterpiece along a 2 1/2-mile peninsula in Badin Lake, which is regularly ranked among the Tar Heel State’s top 5 layouts. “When I was [at ONSC] back in the late ‘90s, early 2000s, Pfeiffer was one of the top Division II programs in country,” Kittler said.
“We enjoy seeing the best players when they’re young, building those relationships, and then when you happen to see them 5, 10, 15 years down the road, it’s neat to relive those memories.”
Brook Valley Country Club has a close relationship with East Carolina University and its men’s and women’s golf programs, as well as the ECU Pirate Club. Each March, Brook Valley plays host to some of collegiate golf’s top players during the ECU Intercollegiate.
“Hosting a home tournament is very important to our program,” said Kevin Williams, ECU’s director of men’s and women’s golf. “Conducting a true championship experience is a must for our program and I could not be prouder of the experience we have given the competitors at Brook Valley.”
“The staff as well as the members of the club have taken a lot of pride in the event and it shows. Hosting the home event allows us to save money from a travel standpoint plus we are able to provide extra revenue for the club who gives so much to us throughout the year. This extra revenue is our way of giving back and showing our appreciation for what Brook Valley means to our program.”
Williams said the ECU Intercollegiate competitors tend to rave about Brook Valley and the improvements to the club made by McConnell Golf.
“As someone who has been in this area a long time, I’m constantly amazed at how far the club has come under the McConnell umbrella and love the passion and pride the members have in the club,” Williams said. “This golf course is a beast — if there is a harder 6,700-yard course in the country, I want to see it.”
The newest club in the McConnell Golf stable, Wilson Country Club, enjoys a longstanding relationship with Barton College, with its men and women practicing and playing there, and the club also plays host in the spring to the college’s Barton Intercollegiate. In addition, Barton College also participates in the ECU Intercollegiate at Brook Valley.
Another recent addition to the McConnell Golf portfolio, Pete Dye River Course of Virginia Tech, is considered one of the country’s best college golf courses and has particular significance to McConnell Golf CEO John McConnell.
“As a Virginia Tech graduate, John McConnell has always had a love for the university,” said Michael Abraham, General Manager and Director of Golf at Pete Dye River Course. “His passion for golf coupled with the opportunity to add one of the best collegiate golf courses in the country to his portfolio of courses was just too good to pass up. We are ecstatic to be a part of the McConnell Golf team and look forward to what the future will bring.”
The River Course, which also serves as the home course for nearby Radford University, earned a fourth-place award from Golf Digest in its “Best Remodel” rankings of 2006, the highest of any public facility. “The River Course is also proud to be the home of Virginia Tech men’s and women’s golf teams along with Radford’s men’s and women’s golf teams,” Abraham said. “The golf course and practice facilities provide these collegiate athletes a wonderful opportunity to hone in their skills and compete among the best players in the country.”
The Cardinal by Pete Dye in Greensboro enjoys a longstanding relationship with the highly regarded Guilford College men’s program, which annually hosts its own Division III tournament, the O'Briant Jensen Memorial, at The Cardinal in October.
UNC Asheville’s women’s program practices at Country Club of Asheville. In addition, last year, CC of Asheville played host to the Bulldog Athletics Association (BAA) Scholarship Golf Classic presented by Harrah’s Cherokee Casino Resort and the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, with all proceeds going to support the UNC Asheville student-athlete scholarship fund.
In South Carolina, Musgrove Mill Golf Club serves as the host course for the Presbyterian College Intercollegiate golf tournament held in the fall, as well as one of two practice sites for the Blue Hose during the year.
Last but not least, Holston Hills Country Club has a close relationship with the neighboring University of Tennessee and its Southeastern Conference (SEC) powerhouse men’s and women’s golf teams, which often play and practice on the classic Donald Ross layout. Former McConnell Golf scholar Caleb Surratt enjoyed an illustrious college career in Knoxville, becoming the first University of Tennessee player to receive first-team All-America honors while also winning the 2023 SEC Championship individual title – the first freshman to do so since 2012. He recently turned professional and was recruited to join Jon Rahm’s new LIV Golf team, Legion XIII.
“It’s very fulfilling to see juniors like Caleb Surratt going on to play at the University of Tennessee, utilizing Holston Hills,” Kittler said. “It’s neat to see them at that age. It’s like the future of golf.”
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