Innsbrook And Bertie, Magnificent Beauty - Arnold Palmer Opens Signature Course

Today was a great day in the move to expose the world to the beauty of Bertie County. The new Arnold Palmer Signature Golf Course was inaugurated by Arnie playing a round of golf at the new facility. There was a huge crowd on hand to see this milestone in Bobby Ware's Innsbrook masterpeice, the jewel of the Inner Banks.

Though his trip here this day had more to do with Bobby Ware selecting Arnold's design company to build his golf course than personal appreciation for our area, Arnold Palmer is the kind of man Bertie County can admire and take to heart. Palmer has an incredible number of golf awards, including victories in seven "major" events among his 92 wins, Arnold Palmer is also the recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Arnold Palmer is among golf's top handful of all time greats. He is considered the top for a great number of people who admire his grit and determination. As we learned on this beautiful day in Bertie, he still plays an amazing game of golf for a man approaching 80 years old.

It does not hurt that Arnold attended Wake Forest University here in North Carolina. That makes him one of ours.

As you approached the Innsbrook facility this day, Bobby had flags marking the way to the course.




At the Innsbrook Front Gate, U.S. and North Carolina flags proudly flew with the Innsbrook Crest Flag. Click on the title above to see the crest on the Innsbrook web site.




Driving into the facility, the landscape of the golf course is simply awesome.





Just before reaching the location of today's event, you pass the nearly completed Innsbrook Country Club building.




There were a number of tents set up to house the facilities used for today's Grand Opening of the golf course.




Chris Catron (below center) was meeting people at the registration tent to welcome them to the Innsbrook facility. Everyone who registered was provided with a great set of brochures on the facilities and a goodie bag of momentos for the occasion.




Very quickly things were organized and we head out for the first hole of the day. The crowd was so mobbed around Arnold that I missed getting a picture of the first shot. I learned my lesson though, and the rest of the day I hustled to get to the holes in time to get a good position for the shots I took.




Following are each of Arnies shots for the day, as he circulated the course. He may not be playing the pro tour any more, but he is still a great golfer. He definitely showed flashes of his old brilliance.










Windsor Mayor Bob Spivey and Commissioner Wallace Perry (shown above) were a part of the crowd.














Commissioners Norman Cherry (front left above) and Charles Smith (right rear) accompanied by local reporter Jennipher Dickens (left rear). Jennipher was present talking with all the dignataries and getting their views of the event and the new facility. I missed getting the name of the young lady driving the cart.




Three separate holes (pictures following) shows Arnies stroke.






A really long putt (below) that came up six inches short, but it was right on line.





Even the great Arnold Palmer (below) sometimes hits the sand traps. They are everywhere at Innsbrook so I was amazed at how Arnie avoided them. This is not an easy course. It is a great one.








Wayland and Lucy Spruill (below) were there to enjoy the day. They must be in pretty good shape as they were walking the course. Most of the crowd was walking. Though the weather looked rough when we first arrived, it turned out to be a glorious sunny day.




After the round of golf, everyone met in the tents for a great meal. Here (from left rear) Diane Hoggard (L.C.'s wife), L.C. Hoggard, Wallace Perry, Rick Harrell, and Lori Harrell (Rick's wife) enjoy their meal with some other local dignataries; Mike Freeman (left front) and Helen Freeman (Mike's wife), (and on the right) Belinda White and Morris Rascoe.




Holland Cayton sets up the hot plates for the food.





Johnny Ray Pierce (center rear) and his wife Rachel (not shown) of the local restaurant Heritage House provided the excellent food.



After lunch the golf continued with the shotgun start of the super ball tournament.





At the end of the day, I found Innsbrook developer Bobby Ware talking with some of our County Commissioners. (From left) Wallace Perry, Norman Cherry (Chairman), Bobby Ware (Innsbrook), L.C. Hoggard and Charles Smith.

Everyone agreed that Bobby had met his goal of buiding one of the truly great golf facilities in the world, right here among the magnificent beauty of Bertie County.



Follwing are links to earlier articles on the Bertie County Patriot covering this facility as it has progressed.

North Carolina's Greatest Golf Course - Pictures and layouts of all 18 Innsbrook holes, including the magnificent 17th! These were taken in early 2007 right after a severe freeze set the course completion back by half a year.

Click here for 2006 pictures and article from Innsbrook site.

Click here for the original 2005 pictures and article on the Innsbrook development.