Tag: Buddy McEwen

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Editorial Opinion

Buddy McEwen Remembered

Buddy McEwen finished his final round at 67, which is five under par at his beloved Davy Crockett. There are a lot of us who wish his score could have been much higher.

McEwen died at 67 last week, after a four-year battle with throat cancer. He was a beautiful man, full of humor, spirit, and sass. I first met him in the early 1990s, when I began playing at Davy Crockett. He was the genial pro, more of a host, really. He’d greet you, chat you up about your life, the Tigers, your golf game, and sell you some used balls …

Read the rest of editor Bruce VanWyngarden’s column about Memphis golf legend Buddy McEwen.

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Letter From The Editor Opinion

Letter from the Editor: Buddy McEwen’s Final Round

Buddy McEwen finished his final round at 67, which is five under par at his beloved Davy Crockett. There are a lot of us who wish his score could have been much higher.

McEwen died at 67 last week, after a four-year battle with throat cancer. He was a beautiful man, full of humor, spirit, and sass. I first met him in the early 1990s, when I began playing at Davy Crockett. He was the genial pro, more of a host, really. He’d greet you, chat you up about your life, the Tigers, your golf game, and sell you some used balls.

He loved Davy Crockett, a city course in deepest Frayser. He always said — rightly in my opinion — that it was the most beautiful layout in town, with its precipitous hills and thick forests and swampy lowlands. It just needed money and attention. Mostly money.

Buddy was a community activist. He organized golf programs for the impoverished kids who lived in the area. He held benefit tournaments for the Memphis Police Department. And when the city proposed to shut down Davy Crockett a few years back, he fought fiercely — and successfully — to save it.

Two years ago, some friends organized a tournament to raise funds for Buddy’s medical expenses. Nearly 200 people showed up, so many that Buddy couldn’t get everyone in the picture he wanted to take. His voice was cracked, and he was thin, but his laugh is what I remember most, as he kept backing up farther and farther. All of us — black, white, working stiffs, white-collar execs, cops — kept squeezing together, trying to fit in Buddy’s picture.

If you live a big life, you need a wide lens.

In recent weeks, some of us began receiving e-mails from Buddy’s brother Tommy in Nashville, with whom Buddy lived during the last months of his life. The subject line of last Friday’s e-mail read: “Buddy is playing golf in heaven.”

The next day, my friend John Ryan and I went out to Davy Crocket to play. It was unseasonably warm. The leaves hung gold and red along the fairways under a bright December sky. The clubhouse seemed very empty.

A thought occurred: Davy Crockett couldn’t play golf worth a damn. They ought to change the name of this place. “The Links at Buddy McEwen” has a nice ring to it.

Bruce VanWyngarden

brucev@memphisflyer.com

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News The Fly-By

Fore in Frayser

Going south for the winter seems to be as popular among retirees as it is among birds. And, with a little luck, hard work, and the city’s help, golf pro Buddy McEwen wants to divert a few from
Florida to Frayser. The retirees, that is; not the birds.

“I’m hoping the city fathers can see what can be done around the golf course,” says McEwen, longtime pro at the beleaguered Davy Crockett golf course in Frayser.

“In Panama City, people moved down there so they could play golf,” says McEwen. “Anyone from north of Kentucky would appreciate the climate here. They think 50 degrees is wonderful. It’s twice that in the Panama City area, and they’re playing $100 to play a round of golf.”

It may seem an impossible dream for the almost-forgotten course once targeted for permanent closure but granted a reprieve by the City Council last October. It is now slated to be open at least until June.

Add in an AARP magazine article listing Memphis as one of the top 10 affordable places to retire, and McEwen sees a possibility to change Frayser’s image.

Last week, McEwen, along with Frayser Community Development Corporation (CDC) executive director Steve Lockwood and city government representatives, visited Atlanta’s East Lake, a golf course/revitalization community that once was home to one of the nation’s worst public-housing projects. Now the area includes a charter school and a mixed-income residential area nestled between the links.

McEwen has been involved in golf for over 50 years, starting as a caddy when he was 13. So he had heard about East Lake, once the home course of legendary amateur golfer Bobby Jones.

“East Lake Country Club at that time was the fanciest place in Atlanta,” he says. As with core city courses — and other amenities — in Memphis, Atlanta’s golfers moved to the suburbs. In the 1970s, public housing was built on East Lake’s second golf course, and the area was eventually deemed a war zone by local police.

Then, in 1995, a foundation was created to get East Lake out of the rough. Now the development is a national model. Five years ago, the average home there cost $40,000. Now that figure is at $200,000. The golf club is open again, and each corporate member is encouraged to donate $200,000 to the foundation.

In Atlanta, they had to tear down existing structures to build townhomes, duplexes, and garden apartments.

“We have literally thousands of acres of undeveloped property,” says McEwen. “We’re trying to convince a developer to develop that land into a community. Golf is a service to get people to move to the neighborhood.”

Davy Crockett is arguably the most beautiful course in the area, with rolling hills and gorgeous vistas. But in a city where golf courses have been vastly overbuilt — there are eight city-owned golf courses alone, including a new one in Whitehaven — it has been largely abandoned.

“It is a very dramatic piece of land,” says Lockwood. “Golfers love it, other than it is not well-maintained.”

For any change to occur, especially if it’s going to become a magnet for golf enthusiasts, it’s going to take a makeover and a marketing effort. At least.

Though it is already considered the most difficult course in the city, Crockett is also the least played and the most expensive to maintain. To “make par,” the course needs to do 30,000 rounds of golf a year. The city’s parks division last year estimated it would do about 8,000 rounds.

At the time, I wondered if the city should continue to subsidize something that the nearby community wasn’t supporting. But if someone can find a way to make it more valuable, I’m all for it. Just letting it sit there and slowly wither away is not doing anybody any good.

“This is a great asset that can draw investment into our community,” says Lockwood. “But we need to reinvest in it to let it be that.”

It’s early yet, but does Frayser have the potential to become a golf community? Or even something else? With the proposed Nike warehouse within a mile of the golf course, both efforts could drive success in Frayser.

“We’re really just starting to embark on this effort,” says Lockwood. “We’re trying to figure out how best to use the golf course and the acreage around it. … We don’t want to jump to the conclusion that we’ll put housing all around there, but that is one of the options.”