Host venue for the 1947 US Women’s Open, the course at Starmount Forest Country Club was laid out by Wayne Stiles and John Van Kleek in the early 1930s and it’s the only North Carolina project the well-respected design duo ever worked on.
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Host venue for the 1947 US Women’s Open, the course at Starmount Forest Country Club was laid out by Wayne Stiles and John Van Kleek in the early 1930s and it’s the only North Carolina project the well-respected design duo ever worked on.
Starmount Forest
Planned as Hamilton Lakes due to the neighborhood it resides in, Starmount Golf Club (as it was originally named) opened for play in 1930, becoming a PGA Tour stop in 1938 when it first co-hosted the Greater Greensboro Golf Tournament along with Sedgefield Country Club.
It was a public course on a limited budget but managed one week a year during most of the 1940s and 1950s to make itself available as a presentable test for the best professionals in the country. The second edition of the US Women’s Open was also held here in 1947.
In the book The Life and Works of Wayne Stiles, authors Bob Labbance and Kevin Mendick write: “For reasons that remain a mystery, Starmount long considered itself a Perry Maxwell course, though no original source documentation can be found that ties the Oklahoma-based designer to the course.
George Cobb remodelled in 1970, but the level nature of the land and firm sub-soil prevented proper drainage until a Lester George revamp in 1999. With that problem corrected, and new L-93 planted greens, the course has delighted old time members and friends in the new century.”