I grew up in Augusta, GA, home of the Masters Golf Tournament. This proximity influenced my first career in the golf world. After college at Furman University, I helped build the golf course at Holly Tree Country Club in Simpsonville, SC. This led to a position on the golf professional team in the club under the leadership of John Gerring, once the PGA Golf Professional of the Year.
My career as a golf professional continued at the Scioto Country Club in Columbus, Ohio (where Jack Nicklaus grew up). There, I taught and played under the tutelage of Walker Inman, another PGA Golf Professional of the Year. Through his love of club design, I moved on to Ralph Maltby Club Design Firm in Ohio as their marketing manager. In 1980, I moved back to my adopted hometown of Charlotte, NC, working for the Titleist Golf Company.
In 10 years with them, I received 8 Gold Circle Awards for service and sales. I’ve been a happy resident of Waynesville since 2007, when I began selling real estate full time in the private community of Balsam Mountain Preserve. I’m married to a wonderful woman, CeCe Hipps. My personal hobbies include playing golf, of course, as well as traveling, hiking, and collecting old golf relics. A childhood of parental forced labor in the yard also grew into a love of gardening.
