McConnell Golf has agreed to a long-term deal with the Virginia Tech Foundation, Inc. to lease the Pete Dye River Course of Virginia Tech in Radford, Virginia, expanding its portfolio of premier golf courses into the Mid-Atlantic region.

The unmistakable elements of design by legendary golf course architect Pete Dye, along with Virginia Tech’s commitment to excellence and tradition are apparent from the moment you arrive at “The River.” There is the distinctive look and feel of links golf in a unique setting, where the extraordinary clubhouse rests on a rock cliff 70 feet above the historic and pristine New River. With two and one-half miles of frontage, every hole at The River Course offers memorable views of the New River Valley. 

The River Course hosted the 2011 NCAA Regional Championships and the 2016 Virginia State Amateur Championships, and is widely considered one of the best and most challenging courses in the region. It is also the proud home of Virginia Tech and Radford University’s golf teams. This layout has also been featured in multiple golf course rankings in recent years, including:

• No. 7 Golfers’ Choice 2022: Best golf courses in Virginia
• No. 7 in GolfLink’s 25 Best College Golf Courses in the U.S. for Student Golfers
• No. 10 in Virginia in Golfweek’s Best Courses You Can Play 2022: State-by-state rankings for public-access layouts
• No. 14 in Golfweek’s Best 2022: Top 40 Campus Courses in the United States

“This place has all the ambiance and qualities that make a golf course really good,” said Dye, who passed away in early 2020 at the age of 94. “Here you’ve got the sound of the river up and down the whole golf course the entire time. The river and scenery are unbelievable.”

Dye was inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame in 2008. Among the hundreds of highly regarded Dye-designed golf courses around the world are The Stadium Course at TPC Sawgrass in Ponte Vedra, Fla., The Ocean Course on Kiawah Island, S.C., Harbour Town Golf Links on Hilton Head Island, S.C., and the Straits Course at Whistling Straits in Sheboygan, Wisc.

McConnell Golf is no stranger to Pete Dye courses, having had the master himself renovate his original design of The Cardinal in Greensboro, N.C., in 2006.

Founded in 2003, McConnell Golf is the largest owner of private clubs in the southeast. McConnell Golf’s ownership collection — comprised of 14 golf courses, including 13 private courses and one semi-private course — includes Raleigh Country Club in Raleigh, N.C., the last design of fabled golf course architect Donald Ross, and another Ross design, Sedgefield Country Club in Greensboro, annual site of the PGA Tour’s Wyndham Championship.

The latest addition to the Raleigh-based company’s stable of premier golf courses and clubs is a homecoming of sorts for company founder and CEO John McConnell.

McConnell grew up on a farm about two hours south of The River Course in Abingdon, Virginia, where he and his brothers would hit rubber balls with homemade golf clubs into tuna cans that were used as cups. He played high school golf and continued to play casually as a student at Virginia Tech, where he earned a Bachelor of Science in Finance prior to his career in software sales. McConnell remains an avid and supportive Hokie alumnus.

The Pete Dye River Course of Virginia Tech is McConnell Golf’s second course in Virginia, joining The Water’s Edge Country Club on Smith Mountain Lake outside Roanoke.

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Red Velvet Cake Cookies

October in North Carolina seems to be the ideal wedding season. This includes my wife and I, which is why I wanted to share a little treat from our wedding. We passed around these delicious cookies on our wedding day. I hope you enjoy!

Ingredients:

½ Cup Vegetable Oil
½ TSP Kosher Salt
2 Eggs
1 15.25 Ounce box of Red Velvet Cake Mix
¾ Cup White Chocolate Chips

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350°F. In a medium-sized bowl, whisk together oil, salt and eggs until well combined. Add the cake mix and mix until fully combined, about two minutes. Refrigerate for 20 minutes.
Line two rimmed baking sheets with parchment paper. Portion out heaping tablespoons of dough and roll them in your hands to form round balls. Place each ball about two inches apart on the baking sheet. Note: The cookies will spread out considerably, so it's important to leave plenty of space.
Bake in preheated oven for 10-12 minutes, just until the edges begin to brown slightly. Allow the cookies to cool for 10 minutes on the baking sheet before removing them to a wire rack to finish cooling.

 

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Pennsylvania Dutch Soft Sugar Cookies

Growing up in a small Pennsylvania town, the Amish community, along with their culture and cuisine, was a major part of my childhood. My father, who owned a hardware store, always joked that the Amish put me through college, due to their loyalty to my father’s business and their affinity to only pay with cash. This cookie was available at every bakery I went to as a child.

Ingredients:

4 Cups AP Flour
2 TSP Baking Powder
1 TSP Baking Soda
⅛ TSP Salt
1 Cup Unsalted Butter, room temperature
2 Cups White Granulated Sugar
1 Vanilla Bean, split lengthwise
1½ TSP Pure Vanilla Extract
3 Large Eggs
1 Cup Buttermilk
2 or 3 tablespoons of regular Granulated White Sugar

Directions:

Preheat oven to 375˚F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Place the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a large mixing bowl. Take whisk and stir until thoroughly combined.
Place the butter and sugar in the bowl of standing mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Cream the butter and sugar until pale and fluffy, about three minutes. Take the vanilla bean and using a sharp knife, scrape the seeds out of the pod into the batter. Add the vanilla extract and then beat until combined. Scrape down the sides of the bowl with a spatula and add one egg. Beat until incorporated and scrape down the sides again. Repeat with the other two eggs, pausing to scrape down the sides between additions.
Add ⅓ of the flour mixture to the batter and beat until incorporated. Scrape down the sides and add ⅓ of the buttermilk. Repeat, alternating with the flour and buttermilk, ⅓ each, remembering to scrape down the sides between each addition. Drop tablespoons of the dough about three inches apart from each other (the cookies will spread). Sprinkle the top of each mound of dough with granulated sugar. Bake until the cookies have spread, risen and turned lightly golden, about 13 to 15 minutes. Cool on the baking sheet for about 10 minutes and then remove them with a spatula to a wire cooling rack to cool further.

 

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Blueberry Cream Cheese Cookies

When I first became Chef at the Water’s Edge, I had no idea the talents that were hidden inside one of the ladies that cleaned the club. I slowly noticed all these wonderful and delicious desserts randomly appear around the club. I soon found out the hidden secret of who was creating these amazing desserts. Mrs. Mary Moore is a beloved staff member here at the club and makes some of the best down home cooked desserts I have ever had. These blueberry cookies are a monster hit when she makes them for the members. I hope that everyone enjoys them as much as we do here.

Cookie Ingredients:

½ Cup Unsalted Butter, softened
¾ Cup Sugar
1 Large Egg, room temperature
1 TSP Vanilla Extract
1 TSP Corn Starch
1½ Cups All-Purpose Flour
¾ TSP Baking Powder
¼ TSP Salt
4 Ounces of White Chocolate Chips
¾ Cups Fresh Blueberries

Filling Ingredients:

2½ Ounce Cream Cheese, softened
1 TBSP Powdered Sugar
½ TSP Vanilla Extract
4 TBSP Blueberry Jam

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350°F. Parchment cover baking sheets.
In a small bowl, mix together the dry ingredients; flour, corn starch, salt and baking powder.
In a mixer bowl, cream butter and sugar on high for two minutes until light and creamy. Beat in egg and vanilla extract.
On low-speed, mix in dry ingredients.
Fold in ¾ of the white chocolate chips and reserve rest for topping the cookies.
Fold in blueberries very gently with a rubber spatula. Dough will be thick and sticky. Cover and refrigerate for two hours.
For filling, mix cream cheese, vanilla extract and powdered sugar just to combine and place in fridge.
Once the dough is chilled, scoop one tablespoon of cookie drops on cookie sheets. Make a deep bowl in middle. Fill with one teaspoon of cream cheese, mix in ¾ teaspoon of blueberry jam. Top with ½ tablespoon of cookie dough and seal roll gently into a ball. Press white chocolate chips on top and sides of cookie ball. Put in freezer for 10 minutes before baking.
Bake 16-18 minutes. Cool on sheet pan for 10 minutes before removing then transfer to a cooling rack.

 

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Raleigh Pro League is coming to The Country Club at Wakefield Plantation! Founded in 2010, Raleigh Pro League was created to showcase the best adult tennis players in the greater Raleigh area. Wakefield has been granted the opportunity to host one of their events on Friday, August 12 at their sports club, located at 3350 Canes Way in Raleigh. Wakefield's assistant tennis professional, Caitlin Whoriskey, will be joining Wake Ortho's team and competing that day. Whoriskey, who was a touring pro until 2020, has a long list of tennis achievements which includes being named a three-time NCAA Division I All-American while at The University of Tennessee in addition to playing Wimbledon and the U.S. Open.

Join us at the sports club at Wakefield as Team White Dahlia takes on Team Wake Ortho, beginning at 6:30 PM. The matches begin at 7 PM and admission is free for everyone. We will have a full bar and grill open in addition to live music, starting at 9 PM, from Dizzy Melon. Outside coolers are not permitted. For more information about this event at Wakefield, please contact the tennis shop at (919) 488-1930.

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Since its debut in 1927, Holston Hills Country Club on the northeast side of Knoxville, Tenn., has played an integral role in the game of golf.

Set near the foothills of the Great Smoky Mountains on 180 open acres of rolling old farmland tucked into a bend in the Holston River, Holston Hills boasts a magnificent, Donald Ross-designed golf course.

Holston Hills has always been highly regarded among the country’s most prestigious golf course rankings. Such recognition continues in 2022.

In Golfweek's prestigious “Best Classic Courses 2022” — the top 200 golf courses built before 1960 — Holston Hills ranked No. 101 in America. In Golfweek's “Best Private Courses 2022” — a state-by-state ranking of private courses — Holston Hills ranked No. 2 in Tennessee behind the Pete Dye-designed Honors Course in Ooltewah.

In the 2021-22 Golf Digest state-by-state rankings of all courses, public and private, Holston Hills was ranked No. 6 in the state. In addition, as it approaches its 100^th anniversary, the Ross design is consistently ranked among the country’s top 100 by Golf Magazine.

“Holston Hills takes great pride in its consistent recognition as one of the most well-preserved Donald Ross courses in the country,” said Chris Dibble, General Manager and Director of Golf at Holston Hills. “We believe this philosophy is the reason the golf course continues be recognized as one the country’s top classical designs.”

The co-founder of the Donald Ross Society, Michael J. Fay, has said that he would rather play Holston Hills on a regular basis than any other golf course in the South. Acclaimed golf course architect Tom Doak says Holston Hills is the closest golf course around to what Ross originally designed.

The club has played host to many national events in its history, including the PGA Tour’s Knoxville Invitational, which was captured by Byron Nelson in 1945 during a historic season that included a record-setting 18 victories. Holston Hills welcomed the 2004 USGA Women’s Mid-Amateur Championship and has also played host to numerous Tennessee PGA Championships.

McConnell Golf purchased Holston Hills in late 2015 and has invested millions in capital improvements. In 2019, the PGA Tour and TOUR Vision Promotions signed a five-year agreement with Holston Hills to host the Korn Ferry Tour’s Visit Knoxville Open.

McConnell Golf Founder and CEO John McConnell said he knew Holston Hills was a special place from the moment he set foot on the property. “It immediately reminded me of Shinnecock Hills,” McConnell recalls, referencing the storied eastern Long Island golf club that was a founding member of the USGA and has hosted five U.S. Open Championships.

McConnell Golf is the only individual golf course proprietor in the world that owns four Ross-designed courses.

“I knew when I saw Holston Hills that it would be a great addition to our golf portfolio,” McConnell said. “It’s a ‘must-play’ for our members. Holston Hills enjoys a proud past and we think that it has a great future as well.”

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Kids these days can get antsy, zooming off the walls, getting into a little horseplay. At The Water’s Edge Country Club, youngsters — and their parents — take advantage of a distinctive feature that lets them do just that: horse around. With actual horses.

“It’s one of the greatest amenities that we have here,” says Sam Lester, Manager of the Equestrian Center at The Water’s Edge since 2007. “It’s just a special place for families, kids, members and their guests to come down and just enjoy the outside, be around animals. And it’s an all-around spectacular place to be.”

The only one of its kind among McConnell Golf’s 14 clubs, the center lies nestled on 35 acres of pastureland amid some 75 acres of riding area with rolling hills and fields and 2.5 miles of riding trails.

“It gives us our own unique twist,” says Kathryn Turner, whose children, Karleigh, 12, and Carson, 14, have grown up around the Equestrian Center. She and her husband Jason own a home on the waterfront at The Water’s Edge, which they joined 16 years ago.

The center’s barn, situated a quarter-mile from the golf course, can stable up to 13 horses, with eight 12-foot-by-12-foot stalls, a brooding stall and other amenities to pamper the 12 current equine residents. A riding ring is nearby, while a dressage arena lies farther out, in the pasture.

Horses aren’t the only draw there. Several moms say their children get a kick out of the center’s mammalian menagerie: a Corgi named Gus; the sassy barn cat, Bear; a pot-bellied pig, Petunia; Russell, a spotted pig; and the donkeys, Elliott and Jenny.

Lester and her staff — Kristina Wray, the equestrian assistant manager, and Connie Schmidt, the barn staff member, both of whom have worked there for 10 years — oversee myriad activities.

During the summer, the center offers a three-day camp each week. Open to ages 4 and older, the camps offer lessons in horsemanship and the care and feeding of the mounts.

“I love the horse camps because they make them work. They have to understand the horse, how to clean the horse, feed the horse, shovel poop out of the stalls,” Hope English says of the center, the camps and her children, with a somebody’s-gotta-do it-and-learn-it laugh. “It's very holistic and I love that.”

Hope and her husband, Andy, live in Raleigh, North Carolina. In October 2020, they bought a home at Smith Mountain Lake and drive the two and a half hours to spend six to eight weeks there each summer with their five children.

“I like that there’s more than just horses,” says daughter Mallie, 11, who enjoys the facility along with her sister Campbell, 9. “So if you don't like to ride, which I do, but when my brothers come, they can feed the pigs, they can play with the dog and cat and feed the horses in the stalls.”

Campbell likes all of that, too: the barnyard chores, taking care of the horses and activities such as a horse-brushing competition and plenty of non-equine events.

Those include s’mores by the campfire, bingo, movie night in the barn on the Fourth of July, crafts, birthday parties, paint night and even finger-painting the horses, among so many other activities.

“So it makes it a fun place to go,” Kathryn says.

For Julie Buchanan, the facility provides even more. She and her husband, Sandy, have fraternal twins, Annie and Bebe, 14, who have been going to the Equestrian Center for half their lives.

The girls arrived 10 weeks early. Annie was born with gross motor delays. She had already been doing therapeutic riding in Greensboro, North Carolina, where they live, so they talked about that
with Lester, Julie says.

“She’s been so accommodating and careful and helpful and helped Annie gain her confidence and build her strength. They’re just sweet people that work there.”

Says Annie, “It feels very safe and comfortable. I’m not nervous.”

Bebe agrees: “They’re there to help with a little bit of independence. You can ride the horses around, you can do trail rides, trot around the arena, go get the horses out of the field.”

Hope says Mallie has been talking about becoming a veterinarian, and while the young rider says she enjoys “being able to communicate” with the horse, she adds, “Riding is really peaceful for me.”

Mom couldn’t agree more. With her hockey-team-sized brood involved in soccer, tennis, lacrosse and church activities back home, Hope says, “It’s such a treat to get to go to the Equestrian Center.”
And from atop a 1,200-pound animal loping along the trails and through the pastures, vistas of the hills and the lake are spectacular.

“You’re just riding through the woods. It’s just peaceful, it’s almost like we step back in time,” she says, adding that the Equestrian Center is a “perfect fit” for her and her hyper-busy family.

Lester says virtually the same thing: “I love every bit of it. Just watching them interact with that animal and watching the animal interact with them would bring a smile to anybody’s face.”

Clearly, Lester loves being around horses — and the families and the children.

“It just makes my heart melt. Everyone that I've had a chance to interact with and talk to and give riding lessons to, they have a special place in my heart,” she says, “and I love them all just like they were my own.”

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