( atc )
Member Clubs
Homeward
Bound
Lifelong friends and former teammates return
to revitalize Falling River in central Virginia
by CHRIS LANG
10
where we literally hit our first golf balls.
We’ve been here 10 years now.
“I think it’s really interesting. I don’t
know if there’s another club in the country
that’s like that. I just think it’s something
that’s really cool.”
Jamerson’s name is well known in Vir-
ginia golf circles. A graduate of James
Madison University, he made a major
impact as both an amateur and profes-
sional. He was the stroke-play medalist at
the 1999 VSGA Amateur Championship
and reached the title match a year later.
He’s a three-time State Open of Virginia
champion and the only player since 1984 to
win the event both as a professional and as
an amateur. He competed in the 2011 PGA
Championship at Atlanta Athletic Club.
Now 42 and the father of four children,
Jamerson recognizes that his heavy play-
ing days are behind him. He puts all of his
energy into collaborating with Bass to
improve the golf course and member expe-
rience at Falling River, which is tucked into
the countryside a few miles from down-
town Appomattox.
V I R G I N I A G O L F E R | M A R C H / A P R I L 2 0 1 9
Now and then: Faber Jameson (left) and Chip Bass
today, and as high school teammates (Bass is
middle front and Jameson is behind him in the hat).
Bass began college at Hampden-Sydney
with a career in law in mind but quickly
reversed course.
“I just realized through all that time
that I really missed being on the golf
course,” Bass said.
He transferred to Virginia Tech and
entered the school’s turfgrass program
before beginning his career as the first assis-
tant at London Downs in Forest. Bass and
Jamerson briefly crossed paths profession-
ally at Poplar Grove. Bass was in Atlanta in
2010 when Jamerson reached out, gauging
his interest in coming back to central Vir-
ginia to help revitalize Falling River.
When Jamerson returned to Falling
River, the golf course was in disarray. The
fairways were sparse. The greens were not
in great shape. The bones of a great golf
course existed. Fred Findlay—who designed
vsga.org
T
he thought of home can be a powerful
draw. And for Chip Bass and Faber
Jamerson, Appomattox’s Falling
River Country Club is undoubtedly home.
It’s the place the two lifelong friends
swung a golf club for the first time. It’s
where they worked in the cart barn as
teenagers, trying to earn extra money. It’s
where they posed for a trophy photo after
helping their Appomattox County High
School Raiders to a regional title in 1994.
When opportunity arose for both men to
return to their home course as profession-
als in their respective fields, the draw was
too strong to resist.
Jamerson, a Class A PGA Professional,
returned to Falling River in 2008 after a stint
at Amherst’s Poplar Grove Golf Club. Two
years later, Bass—a Class A GCSAA super-
intendent—joined the team at Falling River.
“Chip and I have been together for a long
time,” Jamerson said. “We grew up here.
We kind of went away from each other for a
while. He got into the superintendent side
of the business. I got into the PGA side of
the business. But we’re back here together,