1967–1969 · Golf course · Article 2 of 20
Two Doctors Draw a Golf Course
No outside architect was hired. Dr. Ben Ward and his friend Dr. John Madison laid out the course themselves, and Brierwood Golf Club, Inc. was formed to build it.
Many golf courses of the era carry the name of a well-known architect. Brierwood does not. According to the community's records, Dr. Ward and his friend Dr. John Madison created all of the course architecture and design themselves. Golf directories published decades later credit Dr. Ward as the designer; the community's own account adds Dr. Madison's name beside his.
The two physicians worked with what the land gave them: a gently rolling tract of pine forest, with the fairways cut through the trees rather than laid out over open ground. That is the character the course kept for the rest of its life, and it is the character the neighborhood still has today, with wooded lots backing onto the old holes.
On January 22, 1969, Bennie and Jamie Ward sold their interest in the property to Brierwood Golf Club, Inc., a corporation they owned, in preparation for opening the first nine holes. Around the same time Dr. Madison and Willie Ward, Dr. Ward's brother, became partners in the corporation to help with planning and construction.
The partnership did not last forever. The community's records say that Dr. Ward eventually bought out his partners and became the sole owner of Brierwood Golf Club, Inc. The course would remain in the Ward family's hands for the next 45 years.
The early recorded maps use the name “Brierwood Golf Club Estates,” a reminder that the homes and the course were conceived as a single project from the beginning. The finished course would play to a par of 72, with 36 strokes on each nine, and stretch to 6,643 yards from the back tees.