By David Rogers. HICKORY, N.C. — Good business models often capture complementary revenue streams — and that’s exactly what Rock Barn Country Club aims to do with its ongoing renovation and expansion plans.
It is a “club”, to be sure, with members, dining facilities and recreational amenities, as well as a spa and fitness center. Among its recreational opportunities are two golf courses, a members and member-guests course designed by Robert Trent Jones, Jr., as well as another course designed by Tom Jackson that is more readily playable by the public.
Rock Barn is also a popular spot for hosting events, including weddings, receptions and business conferences. Somewhat central to Rock Barn’s operations is the spa, which attracts add-on revenue from every other aspect of the operation: membership, golf, tennis, lodging and retail.
While Rock Barn currently has a lodge that accommodates groups of 10-12 people for overnight stays, in a recent interview with Blowing Rock News, General Manager Brad Ellinger reported that a high-end, boutique hotel is in the planning stages.
“Rock Barn is a destination for many people in our wide geographic market footprint,” said Ellinger, “so we need individual rooms for couples and individuals to serve that market demand. We are a coveted venue for weddings and other special events, so rather than force customers to overnight stays in Hickory, Statesville or Charlotte, for example, our boutique hotel will offer a more convenient option. We expect the spa will also see additional market demand because of the hotel’s draw.”
Playing Through
Another Rock Barn operation that promises to complement the hotel and the spa are the golf courses.
“We are restoring the Robert Trent Jones, Jr. course back as close as possible to its original design,” said Ellinger, “and we want it to be in prime shape for our members and guests well before the new hotel opens. The key focus is on renovating the bunkers and we are excited about the work that is currently being done.”
Studying the bunker renovations currently ongoing at Rock Barn’s Jones course is a multi-dimensional journey into history, architectural design, technology and business. It is an ambitious project, with more than 130 bunkers — AKA “sand traps” — dotting the 7,169 yards of scenic sporting landscape.
Understanding Golf’s Roots
Bunkers on golf courses evolved over time. Early golf was played on Scottish coastal “links” courses where natural, wind-swept sand depressions occurred naturally while grazing farm animals created sandy “hollows.”
Today’s golf courses are no longer modified sheep and cow pastures. Modern bunkers grew out of these natural hazards to make golf more strategic. The threat of a player’s ball landing in a sand trap increases golf’s difficulty for most. Skilled professionals might purposely navigate their ball into a sand trap to get closer to the hole but bunkers challenge a golfer to hit the ball more precisely, to safer landing areas for playing a next shot.
Today’s sand traps honor golf’s origins but they also serve a more practical double-purpose, too: adding beauty to the course experience while encouraging a more profitable course operation.
“The Jones course opened in 2003,” said Rock Barn’s Director of Golf, Marshal Robinson. “Over two decades of play, we found that some of the bunker edges had risen two to three inches as golfers played out of the sand. It may only be a little bit of sand thrown up on those edges at any given time, but it accumulates. So, one of the reasons driving this renovation is the aesthetic value of restoring the bunkers.”
Rock Barn contracted High Country-based Cutlip Golf Design to lead the renovation project. Cutlip added Blowing Rock native Rick Robbins to the design team. Robbins is a past president of the American Society of Golf Course Architects and Ron Cutlip was inducted into that prestigious organization in late 2024.
Cutlip and Robbins collaborated on designing the master plan for the bunker renovation, meticulously reviewing the Jones course, hole by hole. It was Cutlip’s experience on his last major project, designing the South Shore Golf Club course in Narragansett, Rhode Island, that answered a critical question for the Rock Barn management team.
“Ron (Cutlip) told us about a newer bunker technology that we had never heard of,” said Rock Barn’s GM, Ellinger. “It sounded interesting, but we were skeptical of investing in something with which we were unfamiliar. We became convinced, though, after the technology contractor provided us with a risk-free demonstration, renovating what was ostensibly our worst bunker to show us how it works.”
On a golf course, water-logged bunkers can slow down play.
“Golf course businesses make a lot of their money based on the number of rounds that can be played in a day,” said Cutlip. “When it rains, the older style of bunker often gets water-logged. It becomes unplayable. We are introducing newer technology with this renovation project, the same technology we used at South Shore in Rhode Island.”
Enter Mark Pribble, of Atlantic Installations, based in Maryland.
“My business partner and I saw this unique construction-related process in a completely different application and thought it could have profound implications for golf course sand traps,” said Pribble. “So we negotiated to license the technology for golf course applications. Below the layer of white sand that you see in a bunker, there is a layer of Portland cement mixed with sand. This layer quickly channels the water from rain into chambers at the bottom of each bunker. Each chamber is able to handle a very large volume of water, then releases it into drainage pipes that direct it to the course periphery, into creeks and ponds or spread out over wetlands. This technology leaves the top surface of sand dry and more readily playable, which speeds up play as well as enable play.”
Going Pro
One of the NCAA’s most memorable taglines was introduced in the early 2000s: “There are more than 400,000 college student athletes in the U.S. and most of them will go pro in something other than sports.”
Certainly that was true for Jon Robertson, Rock Barn’s golf course superintendent. In the late 1990s, he was on App State’s football team as a quarterback but after graduating he pursued another passion as his professional occupation: in golf course management.
“These bunker renovations are more player friendly, aesthetically pleasing, improve the lines of sight, and help with our golf course maintenance,” said Robertson. “Like a lot of courses, we use ‘Sand Pros’ to power sweep the bunkers. With our old bunkers, these devices were also a source of erosion as they break down the edges going in and out. With the new bunkers, that process is made much more efficient. That’s going to not only improve the aesthetics, but help out our maintenance crews, too.”
From a design perspective, bunkers can define a golf hole. They add visual contrast to the playing experience (white sand vs. green turf, for example) but fairway bunkers are strategically placed to challenge both the golfer’s skill and his or her decision-making: “Do I play it safe or try to carry the bunker and get closer to the pin?” Around the green, bunkers serve to “protect” a hole, challenging the golfer’s hitting precision.
Placing bunkers — sand traps — on a golf course reveals the mischievous devil at work in the minds of golf course architects. They create beauty and deception – and now also help a course’s management.
EDITOR’S NOTE: We plan a follow-up story with images during the summer, once the grass has “greened up” and the planted turf has matured.
