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At Home in the Hills
Lifelong friends Scott Ferrell and Jeff Little have breathed new life into Holston Hills Country Club by JIM McCONNELL
If home is where the heart is , Scott Ferrell and Jeff Little never left Marion , the tiny southwestern Virginia town where they began a lifelong friendship more than 50 years ago and nurtured their mutual love of golf in the shadow of the Blue Ridge Mountains .
It was an innocent , idyllic time for two young boys . When they weren ’ t in school or working as cart attendants at Holston Hills Country Club , they were almost always out on the course , honing the skills that helped them lead Marion High School to the Virginia High School League ’ s Group A state title in 1978 .
So , decades later , when an unexpected opportunity came to assume management roles at the private club-turned-municipal course where they played their first round together as seven-year-olds , Ferrell and Little jumped in with both feet .
“ I think we did it more from the heart than the head ,” Little said . “ We ’ re both still those small-town , local guys who remember when people could leave their car and the front door of their house unlocked . But with our experience in the golf industry , we felt like we could make it a better place and more enjoyable for the community .”
On Jan . 1 , 2021 , Ferrell , Little and a group of partners began operating Holston Hills Golf Course under a five-year lease agreement ( with a five-year renewal option ) with the Smyth County Community Foundation , a local nonprofit dedicated to health , wellness and education . It was the culmination of a multiyear process and negotiations that everyone involved describes as amicable and constructive .
No . 16 at Holston Hills Country Club , set in the shadow of the Blue Ridge Mountains in Marion .
“ Everybody is doing this for the right reasons : because of our great memories of the course and wanting to do something good for the community ,” said Lynda Helton , executive director of the Smyth County Community Foundation .
Holston Hills opened as a 9-hole course in 1946 . In the late 1960s , Wytheville engineer and area golfer Harold Louthen redesigned the course with an 18-hole layout that opened in 1969 . It plays to a par of 72 , stretching 6,536 yards from the back tees with a slope rating of 126 .
The country club thrived throughout the 70s , 80s and 90s , with golf , tennis
10 V IRGINIA G OLFER | J ANUARY / F EBRUARY 2024 vsga . org