Ravenwood CC Member Plans Reunion

Before the Hermitage, Tenn., club closes in December, a 22-year member is organizing a homecoming weekend for all past and present members of the semi-private club on October 12-13. Metro Parks bought 181 acres of the property in 2011 for $2.8 million as part of the city’s open space and greenways expansion.

A member of Ravenwood Country Club is organizing a homecoming weekend for past and current members in before the club’s planned closing on December 31, the Nashville-based Tennessean reported.

Metro Parks bought 181 acres of the 214-acre, Hermitage, Tenn., property in 2011 for $2.8 million as part of the city’s open space and greenways expansion, the Tennessean reported.

Mike Terry, a Ravenwood member for 22 years, is organizing a homecoming weekend for past and current members of the club on October 12-13 “to get the family back together one more time.”

“We’ll miss the golf, but we’re going to really miss the friends,” Terry said. “That’s what hurts the most.”

Founded in 1957, Ravenwood was a swimming and tennis club in its early years. An equestrian center soon followed, along with a short golf course built in two stages. The front nine opened in the mid-1960s and the more difficult back nine was built in the late 1980s, the Tennessean reported.

The club stayed private until 2006, when declining membership forced Ravenwood to open its tees to public play. It has remained semi-private since then, the Tennessean reported.

“If it wasn’t for the present owners, we probably would have gone under sooner,” member Bill Hooper said.

David Watkins bought the club in 2008 after being a member for nearly 15 years, the Tennessean reported.

“It had fallen on hard times and was on the brink of closing,” Watkins said. “I just wanted to keep the facility open. As things turned out, I went into business in the worst economic times we’ve seen in a long time.”

A lack of permanent financing forced Watkins to give up the property and he sold it to Metro because he didn’t want to see the land turned into a housing development, the Tennessean reported.

“My plans were to be here forever when I purchased it,” Watkins said. “It’s tough to let it go.”

Tommy Lynch, the head of Metro Parks, said a master plan will be created for Ravenwood and the adjacent 600-acre Stones River Farm, which the city purchased this year. Metro will schedule public meetings early in 2014 to hear how residents would like the combined 800-acre green space to be developed, the Tennessean reported.

“I couldn’t say whether in the long-range plans that golf would be a part of that property or not,” Lynch said.

Ultimately, Metro plans to link the two properties with the 648-acre Peeler Park and Taylor Farm across the Cumberland River to create a 1,500-acre park, the Tennessean reported.

Public golfers can test their games at Ravenwood through the end of the year. The course is a little overgrown in spots but still playable. Weekend rates are $45 for nonmembers, including cart, the Tennessean reported.