By Scott White

Woodford Sun Staff

The Woodford Club, the first golf facility The Woodford Club, the first golf facility in Woodford County, will turn back the clock on April 2 and April 3 to celebrate its 60th anniversary.

On those days, the semi-private club is inviting guests to play the original nine-hole routing of the course as often as they wish, and experience how The Woodford Club developed its 150 acres into today’s premier family golf destination.

The club’s opening day was April 3, 1966, as guests played a nine-hole layout designed by the National Golf Foundation. Part of the funding for building the course was a grant to Woodford County from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which allocated funds to smaller communities without golf.

The club’s opening day featured A.B. “Happy” Chandler, a former two-term Kentucky governor and legendary Major League Baseball commissioner, whose family would become a contributing part of the club’s history.

Chandler was joined by another key founder, L.D. Sweazy, the chair and chief executive officer of Woodford Bank and Trust Company, who guided the growth of club memberships, PGA Head Professional Ron Hacker and Leonard K. “Buzz” Nave, the attorney and spokesman for Woodford Country Club Inc., who was instrumental in fine-tuning details for construction with James M. Daniel, owner of nearby Moss Side Farm.

By the spring of 1967, the club expanded to 18 holes under the direction of Kentucky Hall of Fame course architect Clarence Riley “Buck” Blankenship, often called “the Pete Dye of Central Kentucky,” who designed more than 35 layouts spanning Kentucky, Tennessee, Virginia and West Virginia.

“For 60 years and beyond, The Woodford Club has been a journey of providing the best experience for local golfers and their families,” said Randy Clay, a current co-owner of The Woodford Club. “We are excited to share the history of our club, the fruit of the labor of the club forefathers and educating the next generation by offering state-of-the-art technology to establish a multi-purpose golf and recreational facility in Woodford County.”

The Woodford Club will present an upcoming club history publication to highlight the course’s evolution, its wide-ranging event calendar and unique contributors to its legacy.

As the club highlights its history in Woodford County, it is unveiling another “first” this year – a state-of-the-art performance training center, featuring three GOLFZON indoor simulators, which the Sun wrote about in February.

“The Woodford Club is the only Kentucky location among more than 30 nationally, and out of 340 total facilities across the country, to feature the newest TwoVisionNX technology,” Ryan Needles, director of Business Development at GOLFZON America, said in a statement. “We join in celebrating The Woodford Club’s anniversary and its staff delivering this technology to its members and the community.”

Since it became a Central Kentucky golf destination, The Woodford Club has been the site of significant local, regional and national events. The Woodford Legends Invitational will make its fourth visit Aug. 6-9, attracting many of the LPGA’s (Ladies Professional Golf Association’s) greatest players. It also hosts several regional Kentucky PGA (Professional Golfers’ Association) and high school tournaments, and events have also been held there. The club is the home course for Midway University’s men’s and women’s NAIA (National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics) golf teams and Woodford County High School’s boys’ and girls’ golf teams.

The club, which boasts a robust membership, is also open for play to the public, and Clay said it receives lots of play from visitors to the Bourbon Trail and area horse farms.