Eastwood Golf Club, CLOSED 2000

Detailed description of Eastwood Golf Club, CLOSED 2000

Eastwood Golf Club, is a Public, 18 hole golf course located in Charlotte, North Carolina near the intersection of Eastwood Drive and Plaza.

Eastwood Golf Club first opened for play in 1947. The course was designed by Clayton Hefner.

The course closed on January 15, 2000.

The course was well known for attracting an eclectic, golf-loving clientele. Above all the folks were middle-class Charlotteans. The clubhouse was not paneled in oak or mahogany but fake wood. The grill room didn't serve pork tenderloin, it served hot dogs. Celebrities like Willie Nelson, Reba McIntyre and Morganna Robert the athlete-kissing stripper visited Eastwood. For years the course earned a reputation as being a gamblers' paradise.

The land that was Eastwood Golf Course changed over the years and these changes would partially contribute to the course's ultimate demise. The course sat on approximately 110 acres in east Charlotte that between 1947 and 1999 morphed from rural woods and pastures to land dense with middle-class apartments and housing as well as commercial areas. By the time the Eastwood closed, a gas station sat some 30 feet from the 10^th green and a Bojangles restaurant just across four lanes of traffic from the 11^th tee. 

The last owner of the course, Pat Whisenant, fought the good fight, The course had come to be known as "Eastweed" and when Whisenant purchased the land in 1991 he applied to it, in his own words, the "Course of Dreams Theory: If you rebuild it, they will come." He extended cart paths, added some 300 trees and shrubs, and completely closed down the front 9 and back 9 in alternating years. His attempts to spruce up the course did not to stop the decline in rounds played. Between 1991 and 1999 Whisenant raised greens fees three times and saw play decline each time. In 1999 he sold the land to Mulvaney Properties, a group planning an infill residential development with a possible park. And very quickly 110 acres of green vistas were overtaken by homes.

What made Eastwood Golf Course a rich piece of land was not the design therein but the people and memories attached. In one of numerous pieces eulogizing the old course Ron Green, (Sr.) described the place as "headquarters for hustlers, delivery-truck drivers sneaking off from work, hackers who wore Hawaiian-print shorts and black dress socks and no shirt, and the general run of public-course players." These players got all they could out of the 18 holes and it did not seem to matter that the fairways might be scorched dry in the summer or swampy in the winter. Whisenant's improvements to the course may have made for more attractive play but regulars had never made attractive play their top priority. In this respect, the old public course was a very versatile space because folks came for not only golf, but also for hot dogs and regular conversation. 

Blue tees: par-71, 5,936 yards, 67.1 / 110

White tees: par-71, 5,559 yards, 67.0 / 109

Red tees: par-73, 4,754 yards, 66.5 / 109