Black Mountain Golf Course

A public Ross design in the scenic mountain town of Black Mountain east of Asheville, this 1929 course offers accessible golf with spectacular mountain views at 2,400 feet elevation. The course is known for its dramatic mountain setting.

Black Mountain Golf Course is among the historically layered municipal golf facilities in western North Carolina, combining a Donald Ross original design with an expansion that introduced one of the longest holes in the history of the game. Located 17 miles east of Asheville in the heart of the Black Mountain community, the course traces its origins to 1929 when Ross laid out the front nine on land that would become the foundation for today's 18-hole layout. Donald Ross designed the original nine holes in 1929, drawing on the natural terrain of the Swannanoa Valley to create a routing that used the site's gentle elevation changes and tree-lined corridors. The front nine belongs to Ross's vigorous late-1920s work in western North Carolina, a body of designs that used the mountain topography and mature hardwood forests to reward precise ball-striking. The Town of Black Mountain purchased the land in 1933 during the depths of the Great Depression, later constructing Lake Tomahawk and a clubhouse in the surrounding area as part of a broader civic development effort.

The back nine was added between 1962 and 1964, with engineering and layout credited to Joe Holmes and Ross Taylor. Reverend Billy Graham — who lived nearby in Montreat and had deep ties to the Black Mountain community — participated in the groundbreaking ceremony and dedicated the new nine at its 1964 opening. The completion of the back nine gave Black Mountain a par-71 layout stretching 6,215 yards from the back tees. Among the expanded course's most notable features was the 17th hole, which at 747 yards became the longest hole in the world upon its completion — a par-6 that Holmes and Taylor promoted at the opening as a 745-yard marvel. The hole held the designation as the world's longest until 1993 when another course surpassed it.

The 17th at Black Mountain remains a par-6 today, a genuine anomaly in American golf and a tribute to the designers' willingness to let the terrain dictate something unusual rather than forcing the layout into conventional par categories. The course plays through a combination of mountain topography and flat valley land, the two nines providing genuinely different experiences. The Ross-designed front nine features the contoured greens and strategic bunkering that characterize his work throughout the Carolinas, while the back nine added by Holmes and Taylor reflects a different era of golf course design while still integrating naturally with the mountain environment. Black Mountain Golf Course has served the community as a public facility for nearly a century, maintaining open access even as private courses proliferated throughout the region. The course sits at approximately 2,400 feet of elevation in the Blue Ridge Mountains, a setting that moderates summer temperatures and extends the comfortable playing season relative to lower-elevation facilities.

The combination of historical significance, the novelty of the world-record 17th hole, and the genuine quality of the Donald Ross original nine make Black Mountain among the interesting public golf destinations in the mountain region. The reasonable fees and welcoming atmosphere have made the course a gathering place for western North Carolina golfers across generations, from competitive club players to families introducing children to the game.