Family is everywhere
A family legacy Brothers Jacob and Josiah Singleton came home to run the golf course, Jacob after time spent in California away from golf, and Josiah after time spent competing on“ American Ninja Warrior.”
Energized and looking forward
day to get a call from Jacob in the middle of the day.
“ So I was like,‘ I don’ t know why he’ s calling me right now, I’ ll answer.’ It was just kind of random,” Josiah said.“ And then he said,‘ I think I might come home and run the golf course. Am I crazy?’”
Josiah continued,“ And I said,‘ Yeah, but I also said I think you’ re telling the wrong person. You should probably tell dad if you’ re even considering this because he’ s about to sell it.’”
Family is everywhere
Long story short, Bill did not sell, and Jacob came home to run Hat Creek, even though he really didn’ t have any sort of training as a business or a golf professional. He grew into the inside role, keeping the books, stocking the pro shop, giving the occasional lesson, using his physical therapy skills, and continuing to find ways to raise the appeal of a little ol’ nine-hole course in Campbell County that you won’ t stumble upon unless you’ re really trying to find it. Bill remains as the course’ s superintendent.
In between stints on NBC’ s“ American Ninja Warrior,” Josiah came on board at Hat Creek last September and is sort of a jack-of-all-trades, helping out with maintenance, picking the range, providing customer service, among other things. An accomplished golfer himself, Josiah helped William Campbell to its first golf state championship before playing two years at LU, where he found himself at the same burnout crossroads his brother did.
“ The reason that I stopped playing was more because I realized that my entire identity and self-worth and everything was actually wrapped up in golf,” he said.“ And it was just a miserable way to live.”
Jacob is eight years Josiah’ s elder, and when Jacob was in college and Josiah was 12, Jacob desperately tried to get
A family legacy Brothers Jacob and Josiah Singleton came home to run the golf course, Jacob after time spent in California away from golf, and Josiah after time spent competing on“ American Ninja Warrior.”
Josiah to focus on his fitness. The younger brother declined at the time, but as he got older and moved away from competitive golf, he wanted another outlet to focus his energy and became enamored with the televised competition.
At 5-foot-7, 135 pounds, Josiah started with pullups on the playground by the driving range. Jacob eventually became an unofficial PR person for Josiah’ s ANW candidacy, helping create videos from clips of Josiah training around Hat Creek, flipping hay bales and such. Thus, Josiah became known as“ Country Boy Ninja” and advanced to Stage 2 of the ANW National Finals in Las Vegas in 2022. He’ s set to appear on the upcoming season 18 of the show, which will be televised starting June 8.
Energized and looking forward
As burned out as Jacob got on playing competitive golf, he’ s been energized by fostering community at Hat Creek. While golf-course expansion is not necessarily in the works— aside from potentially building a few more back tees and other nominal upkeep— Jacob has visions for making Hat Creek an even
CHRIS LANG, HAT CREEK GOLF COURSE
28 V IRGINIA G OLFER | M AY / J UNE 2026 vsga. org