Myers Park’s present course traces to plans Donald Ross prepared for the club after it moved to its current Roswell Avenue site in 1921. Club history records that an 18-hole Ross course was envisioned then, but completion was delayed by “war, economics, and the land needed for [an] optimal layout.” The 18 finally opened 23 years later, coinciding with the 1944 debut of the PGA Tour’s Charlotte Open at Myers Park. The club’s own account thus establishes the temporal bookends: Ross planning associated with the 1921 relocation and the mid-1940s opening. Primary-source Ross drawings or correspondence have not been published; this directory therefore relies on the club’s summary and tournament records to anchor dates.
Prior golf at “Suburban Country Club” (a predecessor near Selwyn Avenue) began with nine holes in 1916. Some secondary literature attributes that earlier nine to A.W. Tillinghast; the club’s public history does not, and no primary documentation is cited in those claims. What is solidly documented is that the current site’s 18 was associated with Ross from its inception and that it opened during 1944–45.
The postwar decades brought periodic modernization. Rees Jones is recorded as having worked at Myers Park in 1978, part of a wave of late-20th-century updates at Charlotte-area courses. More recently, course-wide work occurred in the late 2000s under Kris Spence, followed by a 2017 renovation that converted greens to TifEagle. Richard Mandell subsequently led a phased program that restored flashed-sand bunker forms attributed to Ross, removed historically inaccurate features, rebuilt two greens, and upgraded the practice facility; his work received a 2018 Golf Inc. “Private Club Renovation of the Year” honorable mention.
Unique Design Characteristics
The routing moves in compact loops across modest relief, with Briar Creek creating both strategy and cadence. Two holes illustrate how the creek structures decisions today, consistent with the site plan attributed to Ross. The par-5 17th asks players from the high fairway knoll to decide whether to carry the creek fronting the green or to lay up to the right; the skyline of Uptown Charlotte is visible from the crest. On the long par-5 8th, the approach must again negotiate the creek near a green perched on its edge. These are not abstractions: contemporary profiles from independent raters emphasize the way fairway bunkers guard the preferred angles into often-geometric greens, and the club’s agronomic reporting highlights the downhill approach into 17 over Briar Creek as a signature sightline.
Shorter par-4s such as the 4th, which “tumbles southward” into a basin-like green site, retain the corridor scale necessary for ground options despite surrounding neighborhood constraints. The 4th’s topographic bowl and shade patterns have long influenced maintenance; the club’s public agronomy notes imply that the hole’s character derives as much from the native swales as from added hazards, a useful reminder that Myers Park’s distinctiveness lies in how the routing engages subtle Piedmont relief.
Where do the clearest Ross fingerprints remain? The strategic use of Briar Creek on 8 and 17, combined with fairway bunkering that defends aggressive angles into angular greens, are most frequently cited, and they survive today because subsequent work largely respected original corridors even as surfaces were rebuilt. The opening hole’s broad, visually uncomplicated tee shot—paired with a skyline backdrop—also reflects a routing that sought clarity from the start, rather than seeking drama solely from hazards.
Historical Significance
The course entered national golf consciousness during 1944–48 as host of the Charlotte Open, including Byron Nelson’s 1945 victory over Sam Snead in a two-day, 36-hole playoff—win No. 2 in his still-unmatched streak of 11 consecutive PGA Tour titles. The club itself emphasizes this moment in its historical narrative; multiple independent summaries of the 1945 season corroborate the details. A decade later Myers Park hosted the 1955 U.S. Women’s Amateur, where Patricia Lesser defeated Jane Nelson 7 & 6, adding a USGA championship to the resume. These events cement the course’s role as the Charlotte venue where a Golden Age layout intersected with mid-century tournament history.
Within Ross studies, Myers Park matters less as an untouched museum piece than as a case of a city-lot routing that adapted across a century while keeping the fundamental creek-and-ridge strategy intact. Contemporary raters continue to include the course in statewide rankings, and local panels list it among Charlotte’s leading private courses, an assessment that reflects both intact corridors and successful modernizations of surfaces.
Current Condition / Integrity
Routing integrity across the Briar Creek valley appears largely intact; holes 8 and 17 still hinge on crossing or skirting the watercourse, and short-to-medium par-4s retain corridor scale consistent with period aerials and descriptions. However, most surfaces are modern: the club reports conversion to TifEagle greens in 2017, following many years of bentgrass, and fairways and tees have been re-grassed and re-built in phases. Bunkering was both modernized and then, in Mandell’s program, reshaped to “flashed-sand” forms with selective tree removal to restore angles. Contractor notes also document targeted work such as a #16 tee-complex rebuild and bunker renovation. These interventions have favored fidelity to Ross’s strategic themes rather than wholesale re-imagining, but they necessarily mean that original Ross sand lines and green contours are largely reconstructed rather than preserved in situ.
From a clubhouse-course interface perspective, construction-industry case studies describe extensive works over the past decade—expanded terraces, new circulation, and landscape treatments—that affect how holes finish around the house without changing the essential routing. Practice facilities have also been rebuilt, supporting the club’s year-round program in the transition zone.
Primary Ross drawings, construction diaries, and detailed club minutes for the 1921–44 period are not publicly available. The club’s public history provides the most authoritative overview of the 1921 plan and the 1944 opening; the tournament record supplies external corroboration for the opening timeframe. Claims that A.W. Tillinghast authored the club’s earliest nine-hole course at a different site are repeated in secondary sources but are not supported by cited primary documentation on the club site; verification would require locating original contracts, period newspaper reports, or Tillinghast correspondence. Similarly, some secondary chatter suggests a late-1930s Ross re-plan before construction; this should be confirmed, ideally from dated plan sheets or board minutes. Finally, scattered references attribute very recent work to Andrew Green; as of this writing, credible, citable confirmation specific to Myers Park has not been located in official firm portfolios or club communications and should be treated as unverified.
Sources & Notes
Myers Park Country Club — “History.” Club’s official historical overview of the Suburban CC origins, 1921 relocation, Ross association, and the delayed opening of the 18-hole course. Also notes the 1945 Charlotte Open as genesis of Nelson’s 11-win streak.
Charlotte Open (PGA Tour) — tournament record (1944–48). Confirms Myers Park as venue and anchors 1944 opening-era play; includes the 1945 Nelson-Snead playoff.
Golf Compendium — “Charlotte Open, 1944–48.” Independent summary of the 1945 Nelson–Snead 36-hole playoff and event chronology.
USGA — “U.S. Women’s Amateur, 1955.” Confirms the championship at Myers Park and Patricia Lesser’s 7&6 victory over Jane Nelson.
Top100GolfCourses.com — “Myers Park Country Club.” Contemporary profile citing strategic intent on holes 8 and 17, fairway-bunker/green relationships, and skyline views from the 1st. Note: also repeats a secondary claim that Tillinghast laid out an early nine; this requires primary verification.
Golf Course Industry — “Transition Zone excellence” (Oct. 18, 2021). Agronomy-focused article noting the club’s 160-acre footprint, the character of the 4th and 17th holes, the presence of Briar Creek, and the 2017 conversion to TifEagle greens; recounts earlier sand greens and later bentgrass phases.
Kris Spence — trade press coverage. Reports of 2008 ground-breaking on Myers Park and Carolina GC Ross restorations situate the late-2000s modernization phase in Charlotte.
Richard Mandell Golf Architecture — firm portfolio and awards. Documents a Myers Park program restoring flashed-sand bunkers attributed to Ross, selective tree removal, removal of historically inaccurate features, and reconstruction of two greens/practice facility; cites a 2018 Golf Inc. award.
NMP Golf USA — project note. Contractor record of bunker renovation and a #16 tee-complex rebuild at Myers Park (architect: Richard Mandell).
Rees Jones involvement (1978). Cited in a university golf-architecture library listing among Myers Park projects; included to mark the 1970s modernization phase; details require confirmation from club archives.
Facilities expansions: Barringer Construction and Edifice Inc. case studies of recent clubhouse expansion/renovation phases that interface with golf-side terraces and circulation.