The 2015 Tellico Village Men’s Member-Guest Golf Tournament is set to cruise into Tellico Village next week, running June 17-20 at the Village’s Toqua Golf Course and The Links at Kahite.
Practice rounds will be held June 17, with a Stag Night party at 6 p.m. at the Toqua pavilion, in which players will receive their tournament gift and an official program for the event.
Tournament play will begin June 18 and run through June 20, with a championship shootout scheduled for 1 p.m. at Toqua that will include the winners of each of the tournament’s 12 flights.
Golfers will have three chances to win a car on a hole-in-one, with vehicles being donated by Rice Buick/GMC, West Chevrolet and Cadillac of Knoxville, which is a new sponsor for the tournament.
In addition to golf play that Friday, a ladies luncheon will be held for spouses and significant others of the players, with a 2015 Builders of Tellico Village Home Showcase set to take place from 1-5 p.m.
“The home tour is much bigger,” Jim West, golf director for Tellico Village, said. “Last year, we had one home on the tour. This year, we have three. We have three builders — Kit Keener, Kenny Mashburn and Fred Han — we have three builders that are supporting the event with homes for the home tour.
“... I want to try to get the builders as much support as they can,” he added. “They support us economically. We want to try to support them with as much traffic as we can get through the home tour.”
A focus on homes
The home tour is an important aspect for the tournament because the event often brings new residents to the Village, West said.
“One of the neat things about the event is the number of guests that ultimately become members and move into the Village,” West said. “... I don’t have the figures off the top of my head, but there are a lot of guests who are now members. It’s an opportunity for us to show off Tellico Village, show off the golf course, the Yacht Club, our operation.”
Howard Higby, who serves on the tournament board and will play in the event, said because so many guests may be looking at Tellico Village as a place to potentially move, it’s important for the Village to put its best foot forward.
During the last several years that has been the case more so than ever with the extra work golf course attendants have put into making the courses look as good as they can, he said.
“I think it’s made the courses really good and very presentable to an outsider,” Higby said. “If you look around the area here I think we’ve got the best courses in the area with the exception of maybe a couple of the private clubs. ... When they put their effort in to make it really spruced up for the tournament I think it puts on a good front for the Village and really shows off what we have here.”
West praised the work done at Toqua in recent months as much of the tournament will be played there, referring to damage done by winter ice storms earlier this year and recent work on bunker renovations.
“Chris Sykes and his team, this whole year, have just put together a Herculean effort,” West said.
Bunker renovations at Toqua are set to be completed ahead of the tournament, and West said he is excited for residents and visitors to the Village to see the results.
“The bunkers look so good,” West said. “I had really high expectations. Bill Bergin did great work with the bunkers last year that he renovated. My expectations were high. What he’s done on seven and especially 14. No. 14 at Toqua is going to be one of the best holes in the Southeast.”
The tournament field has been full for more than a month, which West said was especially impressive as several other large golf events will be taking place throughout East Tennessee during that time.
But filling the tournament is no surprise as it’s one that many in the Village look forward to all year, Higby said. Because so many in the Village have moved in from outside of the area, the Member-Guest is one of the few times each year that many golfers in the Village get to bring in sons, brother or other relatives.
“A lot of people get to play with their sons in this thing,” Higby, who will play with his son Charlie Higby, said. “They don’t get to play with their sons in many tournaments anymore, but this is a chance for them to invite their sons to play and play with them. ... It’s a chance for them to play a tournament with many people they don’t usually play with.”
That’s a big part of why the tournament is held in the time of June that it is,” Higby said. The event falls after the school year ends and before the summer months gets too intense to allow families to travel for the event.
An award ceremony and dinner will be held starting at 6 p.m. June 20 at the Yacht Club after the conclusion of play that Saturday.
