The Champions Club Tee Times and Reservations 423.238.6812
by
David Davis
Managing Editor
Cleveland Daily Banner
May 2006 - Toby McKenzie’s rise from a newspaper carrier to multimillionaire businessman is a well-known story to most local residents of Bradley County, but look at what he is doing now.
One of his recent visions was to create a world-class championship golf course and provide a gated community where players could live and call it home.
The perfect setting was Hampton Creek, a panorama of rolling countryside, valleys, forested ridges, streams and pasture lands as pretty as the pictures painted by its namesake — renowned artist Ben Hampton.
The Champions Club at Hampton Creek was originally built in 1999 as a nine-hole golf course. After McKenzie purchased the property, he contracted Jay and Carter Morrish to transform Hampton Creek from an executive-type course to one of the top courses in Tennessee. Jay Morrish has designed courses in Canada, Japan, Scotland, Spain and Australia. He was a key figure in Jack Nicklaus’ design career.
The Champions Club opened in October 2004 with a course rating of 75.7 and slope index of 144 from the Tennessee Golf Association. The higher-rated Honors Course, also in Ooltewah, is rated 76.1 with a slope index of 147.
“The course rating is 75.7/144,” Head Golf Pro Tony Cabrera said. “That means it is extremely difficult. The Honors is one of the really hardest golf courses in our area, and it’s rated at 76.1/147. They are really close together there, and that just shows you how hard the golf course is from the back tees.
“It’s very playable from the up tees. It’s a very well-designed golf course.”
The course is surrounded by four housing developments including 70 luxury town homes along the first and third fairways, and exclusive homes ranging from 1,927 to 3,979 square feet.
But, inevitably, it is The Champions Club at Hampton Creek that is the centerpiece of the 300-acre development with a Hampton-like old barn and spring house in prominent settings.
“That’s one of the characteristics of a Morrish-designed golf course,” said McKenzie spokesperson Becca Whitmire. “They are known for designing their courses to fit the land rather than the land fitting the golf course.”
Cabrera said the existing front nine were redesigned and built the back nine.
“It’s a very dramatic change for us in the past few years,” he said.
He said the course has been very well received and has about 185 members. Nine new members joined in March and eight in February.
“We’re gaining speed on our membership, and it’s very exciting,”Cabrera said. “It’s going very well — a lot better than we could ask for.”
Most of the news about The Champions Club is circulated by word of mouth by groups such as the Chattanooga Women’s Golf Association who had 48 members at the course on Tuesday.
“I’ve already had three to say they were bringing their husbands,” he said. “Things like that really get people out.”
Whitmire said the club also offers a catering service by Amy Parker. In addition to catering, she specializes in organizing weddings and private functions for up to 200 people.
“Our catering is all homemade. That’s No. 1,” Parker said. “We cater to the needs of the client.”
For example, if the catered event has a theme, Parker and her staff can serve everything from barbecue to fillet of oscar with the table decorated with cascading fruit baskets.
“The possibilities are endless,” she said. “We don’t do flat shaping dishes on a flat table. We build it up. We do art.”
Hampton Creek is also a premier gated golf community that is worlds apart from the interstate but only minutes away from Cleveland or Chattanooga.
“I love it here,” said one resident who was out walking his dog. “I wondered if I made a bad investment until Toby took over.”
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Other local projects include the McKenzie Financial Center on the corner of North Ocoee Street and Ocoee Crossing. It will be a five-story 43,240-square-foot office building once it is completed in December. The high-rise will be home to the corporate offices of Steve A. “Toby” McKenzie companies. The Cleveland Branch of the Athens Federal Community Bank will be on the first floor.
The remaining floors will house businesses owned by McKenzie and a state-of-the-art training center.
McKenzie Farm is presently under development on Ooltewah Georgetown Road in Hamilton County. The gated community features sidewalks, decorative street lamps, underground utilities, sewer and memberships available to The Champions Club golf course.
Eagle Creek is located off Mouse Creek Road, north of Cleveland in Bradley County. It is two miles from I-75 and Walker Valley High School. Eagle Creek will be a gated community featuring creek side walking trails, sidewalks, decorative street lamps, underground utilities and sewer.
Mouse Creek Crossing is a retail development located at the corner of Peerless Road and Paul Huff Parkway in Cleveland. There is no word on tenants or a completion date.