Biltmore Forest Country Club

Donald Ross laid out his course in the shadow of the Biltmore Estate, and the Blue Ridge Mountain setting gives his crowned greens and strategic bunkers a dramatic backdrop that his Pinehurst work never had. Elevation changes are constant, autumn rounds are spectacular, and a century of Asheville history runs through every hole.

Biltmore Forest Country Club was born from the vision of Edith Vanderbilt and a group of civic leaders who, in 1920, acquired land from the historic Biltmore Estate to establish a planned residential community south of Asheville. The club itself was organized on June 8, 1922, with the official opening ceremony held on July 4, 1922, when the golf course welcomed its first members. Charter members included Junius G. Adams, Burnham S. Colburn, Thomas W. Raoul, and William Knight, prominent figures in western North Carolina's business and civic life. Donald Ross designed the golf course, working in coordination with two other specialists who helped shape the broader community: architect Edward L. Palmer of Baltimore, who designed the clubhouse, and Chauncey D. Beadle, the Biltmore Estate horticulturist who handled the landscape design. This three-pronged approach, with golf, architecture, and landscaping conceived together, gave Biltmore Forest Country Club a coherence that distinguished it from country clubs developed as standalone sporting grounds. Ross's design situated the course in the dense forested mountains just south of Asheville, creating a layout characterized by tree-lined fairways that demand accuracy over sheer distance. The terrain offered natural elevation changes, and Ross used them to create a course that plays differently depending on which direction the holes run. Accuracy off the tee is rewarded at Biltmore Forest; the mature forest pressing in on both sides of each fairway means that errant drives disappear into difficult lies or dense timber. The club attracted prominent visitors in its early decades. Between the two World Wars, notable visitors including Bob Jones made their way to the course, along with General John "Black Jack" Pershing, John D. Rockefeller, and U.S. Presidents Calvin Coolidge and William Howard Taft. From 1939 to 1942, Biltmore Forest served as an official PGA Tour stop for the Land of the Sky Open. Ben Hogan won the event three consecutive years during that stretch, and both Hogan and Cary Middlecoff were known to be regular visitors to the course during that era. In 1940, the club leased the property from the Biltmore Company for $10,000 annually, with a purchase option of $200,000. Eight years later, in 1948, the membership exercised that option and issued $175,000 in 30-year five-percent bonds, transitioning Biltmore Forest to member ownership. The course underwent significant restorative work by architect Brian Silva beginning in 1994, aimed at returning the course toward Ross's original design intent, rebuilding green complexes, restoring bunker shapes, and addressing changes that had accumulated over decades. A second major renovation followed in 2015, converting fairways, tees, and walking paths from bermudagrass to zoysiagrass, rebuilding the bentgrass greens, and refurbishing all bunkers throughout the course. In 1999, Biltmore Forest Country Club hosted the U.S. Women's Amateur Championship — won by Dorothy Delasin over Jimin Kang, 4 and 3, in the 36-hole final — which brought national attention to the course and confirmed its standing among the respected private clubs in the Carolinas. In 2013, the club hosted the U.S. Women's Mid-Amateur Championship. The club was originally scheduled to host the 2025 U.S. Senior Amateur before Hurricane Helene's damage to the Asheville region forced a relocation; Biltmore Forest was subsequently awarded the 2028 U.S. Senior Amateur as the rescheduled date. The course plays to 6,726 yards at par 70 — a configuration that emphasizes precision and shot-making skill over length, consistent with Ross's design philosophy of rewarding strategic play rather than simply punishing distance deficits.