Organization & Early Dev.

The Matthews family built and lived in three separate homes along the Ridge.  Their daughter remembers how worried her Grandmother was that the children might fall over the cliff.  They had fun picking blackberries where green velvet ribbons of fairways now cover the slopes.  The interior of one of their homes, which was featured in "Good Housekeeping" magazine, is pictured on an early Wildcat brochure.

The "Atlanta Journal" published several articles about the Club and Bill Matthews' efforts to develop it.  This excerpt is from one that appeared in its full-color Sunday magazine section in 1965:
        Dr. Matthews now serves patients of three hospitals in Western North Carolina and Cadillacs around the sharp curves to serve wherever and whenever he is needed, while in his spare time he, with Lewis Reeves, the banker and merchant of Cornelia, Clarksville, and Clayton, as his co-worker, strives to further develop Wildcat Cliffs into one of the finest spots in the South for golf and mountain sports.  Dr. Matthews and his family live in a remarkably handsome mountain home, a combination of castle, cottage and cabin, which rests safely on the mountain top overlooking the matchless beauty of the valleys beneath the cliffs of towering Whiteside Mountain.

Mable Boutwell, whose family was close friends with the Matthews, tells how Bill Matthews not only carefully chose in George Cobb of Greenville, South Carolina, a well-known golf course architect who would be sure to preserve the natural beauty of the area but also personally walked over the land with him time and again choosing which trees would have to go and which could be protected from the heavy equipment.  Some of the early meetings of the Wildcat organizers were held at The Old Toll Gate, the Boutwell home in Cashiers, and the family commissioned an oil painting of Bill Matthews which they have presented to the Club.

On March 3, 1961, articles of incorporation for Wildcat Cliffs Country Club, a non-profit entity, were filed with the Secretary of State of North Carolina.  The original incorporators were William A. Matthews, Beverly C. Matthews and Joe L. Jackson.  Aerial photographs of the property were made, and lots were platted, surveyed and staked.  At the first organizational meeting, held on May 20, 1961, a drawing for home sites was done from a hat.  How excited Sara Richards' young son, Gil Flowers, must have been when he reached in and pulled out the first choice for his parents!  There were only gravel roads or muddy logging trails, some of them sprayed with oil to keep down the dust, so to actually see their chosen lots, members had to bounce over potholes and rocks in a jeep.  At this time, an equity membership with a lot cost $4,000.

Since it was very difficult to find the necessary help, Dr. Matthews hired Highlands High School and Western Carolina University students at $1.00 an hour to clear the smaller trees.  One high school class pooled its earnings toward a trip to Washington.

Bulldozers were called in for the heavy grading.  Tom Dillard of Cashiers was the contractor responsible for doing most of the construction on the first nine holes and Keener Construction Company completed the course.  In a June 1964 newsletter, Bill Matthews wrote, "Roots! Roots! Roots!  We have them by the trillion!  But they are getting fewer with each raking, and after another disking and drag-harrowing we will be nearly ready for the seeds!" 

To be sure that the fairways would be smooth, just before hand-seeding from five-gallon buckets, squads of workers marked of twenty-foot sections with string and picked up every rock and every pebble by hand where the first permanent shelter is also shown.  Bruce Mashburn was overseer of this work.  Greens were seeded with Penn Cross Bent, fairways with a mixture of reds, blues, fescue and bent.

The fairways that were easier to build were completed earlier so that play could begin, while those with lots of rock that required more costly dynamiting were delayed.  For example, the present number one fairway was number four during the first few years, and holes sixteen, seventeen and eighteen were one, two and three.  For awhile, members played the same six holes three times.  Numbers ten and thirteen were most difficult to build because of the rock, while the dam at Azalea Lane had to be constructed and the lakes filled.  Sara Richards remembers that she had to guess how high the water level of the lake would be when she situated her home on this site.

Six of the present first nine holes are routed through a basin, where at least twelve spring-fed streams form the headwaters of the Cullasaja River.  Throughout this 200 acre basin there is a stratum of water just three to four feet beneath the ground surface, trapped by a rock ledge at the western margin of the property.  Irrigation was derived from the strata, and seven trout ponds and lakes were carved along this six holes.  Everywhere, George Cobb and Bill Matthews used the many natural hazards, particularly those forming doglegs, to make the course challenging as well as beautiful.  Their hope was to provide a pleasant game for the steady "down-the middler" but an immediate, mounting difficulty for the "gambler".

Although the soil and temperature of the area are perfect for the bent and bluegrass seeds that were planted, Beverly Matthews Sossomon remembers the difficulties during the first few years:
        There were months of too much rain when soil did not stay where it should, months of too little rain when grass seeds would not germinate, and times when even scraping the bottom of the "money barrel" was not enough so that projects had to languish for awhile.

To attract members, promotional letters and over 8,000 brochures were mailed to individuals in other country clubs in the southeast.  The distinctive Wildcat logo designed by William Baily Campbell, at Ft. Lauderdale friend of Mike and Dottie Mumma, who was an advertising executive with Arvida, added a touch of elegance to these marketing efforts.

Parties featuring color slides showing the beauty of the area where held by Mr. and Mrs. James Flowers (Sara Richards) at Druid Hills Country Club in Atlanta, in spite of fast-approaching Hurricane Hilda; by the Charles Beeson and Ruth and Pappy Coleman for Riviera Country Club friends in Coral Gables; and by the Robert Websters of Pompano Beach and Belle Meade Country Club in Nashville.

Discounts were offered to members who convinced friends that they, too, should join.  On the ridge, a cottage, complete with a fireplace and stack of dry logs, was made available so that members could bring prospective Wildcatters to spend a weekend at the club.  The only charge was twelve dollars for cleaning and for laundering linens.  Reservations could be made by telephoning the Club at 4250, a fact that caused much excitement since it had taken months to have a phone line installed.

Early rosters show that most of those accepting Wildcat membership invitations were doctors, dentists or South Carolina textile executives.  Classes and numerical limits of membership varied in the early years, but since 1982, when J. Milton Newton was president, the equity (governing) class membership maximum has been 250 and the remaining 13 regular memberships, which cost $1,500 in 1964 and did not include a lot, are being phased out through attrition.  In 1996, when Ken McCall was president, an Associate Member category of 25 and a Senior Member category limited to 15 were added.  Guest play is regulated, so the course is very private.  Its beautiful, wide fairways are also uncrowded, and players need not call ahead for starting times.  The Pro Shop is superb at helping members make up foursomes, particularly for the men's mixers on Monday mornings and the ladies' Friday "just show-ups", as well as for the couples' twilight golf on Thursdays.  These events are planned to help everyone, but especially new members, become better acquainted and comfortable at the Club.

In the early 1960s, annual meetings were held at Highlands Country Club and at Kings Inn, as well as in the open air at Wildcat.  At one of these outdoor get-togethers, rain came down in torrents, drenching everyone so far the next time Bill Matthews hired a canopy to provide shelter.  The members were surprised and amused to see "Potts Funeral Home" printed on the scalloped flap of the awning. Trout picnics, Brunswick stew suppers and even a "Cider Sippin' N B'AR Meet Barbecue" celebrated the completion of new holes, temporary clubhouse buildings and other projects.  Bill Matthews swapped beef in exchange for bear and deer meat from some of the mountain hunters.  Pictured are the barbecue pit, with its tantalizing aromas, along with the authentic old cider press for "squeezin" a truck-load of apples.  "Singing round the fire" until midnight usually followed these festivities.  Once golf course play began, the wives of managers Jim Shirley and Jim Doherty either brought homemade sandwiches to sell at the desk or used a hot plate to cook hamburgers with ground-round purchased fresh daily from Rhodes market at forty-nine cents a pound.  To suggest how scarce funds were, Sara Richards recalls that her "prize" for winning an impromptu 1964 tournament was a pair of socks from the golf shop.

When Alvin Crowe began construction on the first two villas near the 14th hole, the area was solid rock.  Many tons of earth had to be dragged up and deposited there.  Some of this fill came from the site of the Fitness Center, some from the swampy end of Lake Ravenel.  All the deliveries to the Club were made at the Gate House with its white, Kentucky style gate guarding the graveled entrance road, which began where Country Club Drive meets Whiteside Road and only continued as far as the present Clubhouse.  Club manager Jim Doherty delivered everything deposited at the Gate House to its proper place.  One weekend a large shipment of washing machines and refrigerators arrived for the villas and Jim delivered the last one at 2:30 A.M.

The first nine holes were officially opened on the fourth of July in 1965, and to "christen" them, member Hobart Manley, Jr., nineteen-year-old Bill Boutwell, a colorful guest named "Dynamite" Goodloe, and our pro-manager Jim Shirley played an exhibition match for an enthusiastic gallery of two hundred.  The first hole-in-one at Wildcat was honorably executed that same summer by Dr. Leonard Annis of Tampa while playing with Angus Grace of Ft. Myers.  On number six, Angus had the "honor" and put his shot close enought for a "gimmee".  Under the pressure of this, plus being one down on a bet, Len proceeded to hole out!  Other stories of "wild" shots abound.  For instance, Gary Phelan Ames, who built the blue house, remembers that when she was on her back deck she heard a golf shot hit one of her chinmneys and then saw it bounce back right into the number sixteen hole.  The first annual member/guest tournament, October 23-24, 1965, was concluded early due to snow!

In 1966, the Club began its first full season of operation.  Light-weight, folding pull-carts were purchased for members who wanted to walk the course with them.  Caddies and, later, a fleet of twenty three-wheeled Harley-Davidson golf carts were available as well.  By 1966, the cost of an equity membership and lot had increased to $10,000, while annual dues were about $300.

By 1969, all eighteen holes of the golf course had been complted.  In additon, all bank loans had been repaid, and the Club was discounting all bills.  Everyone was happy to be "out of the mud and dust" with all the roads paved.  Country Club Drive had been opened up between the Clubhouse and State Road 64, where a nicely landscaped entrance had been erected.  Ball washers had been installed on the course.  Cart paths had been dug out, graded and given a rock base in preparation for blacktop.  Also, member Charles Ham had begun building several homes, designed by Foy and Lee architects, in the Mt. Ash, Laurel Lane area, which, in allusion to his name becoming known as "The Hamlet".  By that time, too, the present Richards, Barnes, Balli, Yancey and Boney homes were either completed or underway.

In their early history of Wildcat, George and Beth Flowles wrote, "On February 26, 1969, Mr. and Mrs. James Kirkwood and Frank Davis drove to Wildcat Cliffs pulling a trailer loaded with a very expensive cash register, a complete addressograph machine, a Royal typewriter, an electric adding machine, a metal key rack for house keys and two drinking fountains.  These were given to the Club by Frank Davis.  They described the course as impossible to inspect due to snow up to their knees, but in a four-wheel jeep they attempted to tour the course one night under a full moon.  Its beauty was indescribable."

In 1970, the first mower was purchased.  Earl Franks, who took over from Lee Roy Holden as Greens Foreman and Caretaker in 1967, recalls that at first they had only one pump, which had to be moved with the sprinkler heads from water hole to water hole.  In the 1970s, two more were added so that six greens could be watered at a time.  Still, watering had to go on till very late at night.  Earl and his wife, Ella Mae, worked ten hours a day, seven days a week and lived in a trailer until 1971, when a house was built for them at the end of Hickory Lane.  They checked the golf cart batteries and put the carts away every evening, then put them out, ready-to-go at seven o'clock each morning.