It's Been 84 Year's: Why the Pga Tour Is Finally Returning to Asheville, North Carolina
By Maya Lin-Takahashi
Asheville occupies a foundational chapter in early 20th-century Southern golf. Wealthy industrial barons who wintered at George Vanderbilt’s Biltmore Estate funded pristine layouts designed by Donald Ross, turning the mountain city into a favored haven for early legends. The Land of the Sky Open, played at the Asheville Country Club, drew icons like Byron Nelson, Sam Snead, and Ben Hogan. Hogan won the final pre-war iteration in the spring of 1942, pocketing a modest cash purse right before the United States fully mobilized for World War II.
Post-war sports logistics shifted dramatically. As tournament golf expanded in the 1950s and 1960s, tour planners favored sprawling coastal resorts and major metropolitan hubs equipped with massive highway grids, sprawling hotel chains, and expansive acreage for corporate grandstands. Asheville’s severe mountain topographies, narrower two-lane access roads, and focus on summer leisure rather than arena-style sporting events left it sidelined. Decades passed, and while Charlotte and Greensboro anchored North Carolina’s modern tour presence, the Blue Ridge mountains drifted into regional tournament obscurity.
Maya is a hardware enthusiast who tests and reviews smart home devices, smartphones, wearables, and audio gear. She focuses on practical consumer value and build quality.
