Today marks the 20th Anniversary of the opening of Black Creek Club. It's been a labor of love, and a lot of fun.

Here's a letter we sent to our membership:

Dear Black Creek Club members: 

Today, September 2, 2020, marks the twentieth anniversary of the opening of our Club.

There are many who thought that the vision of the course was too audacious, that the 6th and 17th holes (among others) were “over the top,” and that the Club would struggle as a result.  But even in the headwinds of the Great Recession a decade ago, our Club has continued to thrive and grow. 

We are sure you have seen the recent publicity in Golf Digest naming our 6th hole as the “best 6th hole built in the last twenty years,” and Golfweek ranking our Club the 5th best private course in Tennessee, as well as the 115th best Residential course in the country (and the only course in our state to make that list).

Here are the links:

https://www.golfdigest.com/story/Americas-best-18-holes-since-2000

https://golfweek.usatoday.com/2020/01/16/golfweeks-best-2020-top-200-residential-golf-courses/

https://golfweek.usatoday.com/lists/golfweeks-best-2020-best-private-courses-state-by-state/ 

Since we built Black Creek, other notable courses have adopted the idea: Old Macdonald at Bandon Dunes (Oregon), Arcadia Bluffs South in Michigan, and recently, Davis Love III’s renovation of the Plantation course at Sea Island. Imitation is indeed the sincerest form of flattery.

Over the last 20 years, the governing organizations of golf have also recognized Black Creek’s greatness. The PGA Tour chose Black Creek to host its Nationwide Tour’s Chattanooga Classic for 8 years, and the USGA picked Black Creek as the stroke play co-host to The Honors for the 2005 US Mid-Amateur. Black Creek continues to host the Tennessee Golf Association’s championships on every level.

And of course, Black Creek is proud to be the incubator of great golfers, including 4 who will be on the PGA Tour next year: Luke List, Harris English, Keith Mitchell, and Stephan Jaeger, all of whom played their high school golf at Black Creek.

Most importantly to us, though, is that all of you continue to enjoy the course and Club.

We thank you for choosing to be a part of the Black Creek story. We look forward to seeing you at your Club!

'We Double Dog Dare You' Magazines: Golfdigest.com

'We Double Dog Dare You' Magazines: Golfdigest.com
See page two for a mention of my dog, Steiny, whose story in itself is worthy of a blog post. The end of the story is, he was named "Stein" when we found him at the McKamey Animal Center.

Black Creek Mountain and the press.

July 8, 2012.

This morning’s Chattanooga Times Free Press article, “Mountains and Money,” has caused an outpouring of sympathy and concern from friends and family. “What does the paper have against you?” they ask.

I reply, “They don’t have anything against me. They just want to sell papers.”

But I was surprised to see that journalists no longer hold the truth very dear. I once aspired to be a journalist myself, inspired by the motto of New York Times’ modern Father, Chattanoogan Adolph S. Ochs. “To tell the truth impartially, without fear or favor”, was his credo. Ochs Highway up Lookout Mountain is named for him.

The reporter that wrote the article was courteous enough to send me a draft before publication, although he sent it at 4:59 p.m. on Friday afternoon. When I asked, about an hour later, how much time I had to offer my comments, he replied, “an hour or so.”

I was able to get the corrections to him by 7:20, but none of them were included in the article.

He did not share with me the picture they decided to run, or the caption that would accompany it.

Few people read past the pictures; fewer still past page 1.

The selection of the picture for the front page sure doesn’t seem to be impartial, and it certainly does not tell the truth.

The fact is, the access to Aetna Mountain is not blocked today, and has not been blocked at any time since the Hamilton County Chancery Court issued an order defining the rights concerning the road in 2010. That order ruled that the developers had the right to improve Aetna Mountain Road, as well as the right to move it, to meet engineering, design, safety and construction needs.

The picture in today’s Times Free Press implies that the developers have blocked the road. But we have not. See this video, posted today on YouTube:

http://youtu.be/OcmpwiZlYPk

Clearly, access is quite unobstructed. The picture on the front of the Times Free Press is in the abandoned portion of Aetna Mountain Road. It’s no longer part of the road. Actually, it is now essentially private property, although the final abandonment documents have not been recorded, since the work is not yet finished.

For some reason, Jeff and Steve Perlaky continue to claim that their easement is blocked. This assertion, that the easement is blocked, ignores the fact that the court order allows for the movement of the road, which has already happened and will continue to happen as the road up the mountain is built to the requirements of a municipal road.

I sent the reporter a copy of the Court Order, but I don’t see much evidence he read it.

The picture in the paper today showed “large rocks and debris block access to a road on the side of Aetna Mountain.” Among the other things blocking the old easement are the P.W. Holdridge Bridge in the Black Creek community (which is a City owned street), and some of the homes along Wild Rose Lane. The Perlakys even went so far at one time to have a surveyor place stakes showing where the old easement was, right in the yards of the homeowners, despite the fact that there was fully paved access to the same point along Rover Gorge Drive. My point is, none of these things actually block their access. They have had continuous access.

The current alignment of Aetna Mountain Road fails to meet the requirements of alignment and grade, being too steep and with too many sharp turns to accommodate the public. As River Gorge Drive (formerly known as Aetna Mountain Road) continues to be improved, the easement and access rights of the landowners and the general public will continue to move to the new, improved road.

The rest of the article revealed more in what was left unsaid than in what was said.

In the sub-headline, in all caps, it said, “DEVELOPERS STILL BENEFITING FROM TAXPAYER ROLE IN ‘DEAL OF A LIFETIME.’ Not a mention of the private investor millions spent so far, creating jobs, paying taxes, and creating value. So far this “deal of a lifetime” has managed to stay afloat in the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression, but it’s hardly been the best deal of my life.

I haven’t looked, but I would suspect that the City and County’s property tax revenues have increased quite a bit in the Tiftonia area because of the development of Cummings Cove, Black Creek Club, and Black Creek Mountain. No mention of that.

The article did fairly represent, on the third page (does anyone actually read through two page jumps?), what I had to say about things. The TIF is a good thing. There is no risk to taxpayers; the risk is borne by private bondholders (in this case, York). Essentially, the bondholders are loaning the money to the government to build a road, so the government can enjoy higher revenues. It is a great investment for the City and the County.

The article ignores or glosses over other issues as well. The original sale of the 1200 acres to the State through the Forest Legacy Program, the article implies, enabled developers to get their property for nothing. First, that’s not true- there were other costs associated with the purchase, including the surveys (which they claim weren’t done) real estate commissions, and legal fees. But that doesn’t really matter anymore, since the remaining 2400 acres have been through two more transactions since, and there certainly wasn’t zero value assigned to the land on Aetna Mountain in those negotiations.

The 1200 acres the State bought, it says, were “worthless.” Hardly. That land, half of which is up on the mountain, was an important acquisition for conservationists. It was the land overlooking (and draining into) the Tennessee River Gorge, which can be seen from within the Grand Canyon of the Tennessee. The land on the other side of the mountain cannot be seen from the Gorge, and it drains into Lookout Valley, not the Tennessee River. So the State bought the land most important to preserve from among the 3600 acres purchased from Gordon Street (who was not in bankruptcy). This fact is ignored in the article.

Finally, somehow I have become the public face of Black Creek Mountain. The truth is, I am a minority investor, and my family partnership (my Mom and my siblings) are likewise minority partners. Gary Chazen is in a very similar position, with his brother and their family partnership. Still, I am very proud of what we have been able to do there. I am especially proud of the golf course, which continues to be ranked nationally by raters. Black Creek Club has brought national attention to Chattanooga, and was a large part of the PGA Tour’s interest in having a Nationwide (now Buy.com) Tour event here.

The public wants to imagine that the “developer” at Black Creek is one person. But the truth is, the developer has changed at Black Creek, from its initial management by Jimmy Chapin (Black Creek Club was a separate venture), to the Chazens and the Steins, to the York Capital majority ownership. In the economic environment of the past 5 years, it is no mean feat that the development has done as well as it has. Now the ownership is committed to building something special for Chattanooga. It’s hard to understand why anyone would be against it. It’s even harder to understand why the local newspaper would foster controversy and discord with misleading stories and partial truths.

I’m beginning to give up on the idea that I’ll get a fair hearing through the Chattanooga Times Free Press. I’m not sure what to do. So many of my friends are asking why I would do all of these awful things. When I tell them I’m not, they’re amazed. They still have faith that the Times Free Press will “tell the truth impartially, without fear or favor.” But the paper is not, and I don’t think I’ll get involved in a public debate in a forum they control.

The last time I checked, the world was round. It doesn’t have sides, just different places from which to view things. I am confident that once everyone has enough perspective to see the Aetna Mountain development for what it is, then the notion that the developers engaged in conspiracy and skulduggery will melt in the light of the impartial truth.

And then maybe people will again believe that I’m not an evil conspirator, and see the Black Creek development as something that will be truly great for Chattanooga- as it already has been.

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The Middle Way.

I spent over ten years of my life rigorously meditating and studying the way things are. I came to the conclusion that moderation in all things, the Middle Way, was a wise course.
Now I know that the Middle Way consists primarily of letting my middle go its own way.

Jack Lupton

May 17, 2010

Many have written about what Jack Lupton has meant to Chattanooga, but many of his most meaningful gifts remain little known. It will be impossible to replace his generosity, vision, and humility in helping make Chattanooga into a place I am proud to call home.

But beyond that, he gave immense gifts to hundreds, maybe thousands, of individuals. Often he did so anonymously. I was one of those lucky ones to have been touched by Mr. Lupton directly, several times.

Few consider how many lives he saved with one decision, to allow Pete Parker to implement the first local Employee Assistance Program, when Pete was but one month sober. Pete became the savior for literally thousands of Chattanoogans who struggled with alcoholism and addiction. Without Jack Lupton, it wouldn’t have happened.

When I was a senior at Baylor School, it was announced that Baylor would participate with The Masters School of Dobbs Ferry, NY, in a co-educational exchange of 12 students from each school. I was one of the twelve from Baylor. Meg Lupton, Jack’s daughter, was one of the twelve from Dobbs, as the other school was known. It was the first experiment in co-education for Baylor. It was roundly considered to have been a dreadful flop- probably because some of the young participants weren’t ready to take the experiment as anything other than a chance to have a new adventure.
Still, the seed was planted. My oldest daughter graduated from Baylor in 2004, and I have two more daughters yet to go. Without Mr. Lupton, it might not have happened.

About a year after I joined Stein Construction Co., the economy was struggling. Our company was in the midst of layoffs when Jack called my grandfather and asked him to have my father meet “a Mr. Pete Dye” at the old Atlas Powder site in Ooltewah, to look at the grading for a new golf course, which became The Honors. Stein did all the work, starting the clearing on July 23, 1981, Mr. Lupton’s 55th birthday. (I think this was pure coincidence.) When my father later asked Jack why he just gave our company that work, he responded over dinner at the Mt. Vernon Restaurant, “I always liked you, Gil.” My father, who struggled with depression, was on Cloud Nine.
Without that job, Stein might have failed.

At the urging of my friend George Bright, I took up golf while we were building The Honors. I fell in love with the game, playing at The Honors and Lookout Mountain, another course that has benefited from Mr. Lupton’s generosity. I later had the opportunity to build another golf course, Black Creek Club. Jack Lupton was the only honorary member. Without Jack Lupton, Black Creek might well not exist.

After The Honors had been open a couple of years, I was riding in a red Lincoln down the 7th fairway with Gene Ragsdale, Jack Lupton, and Pete Dye, considering the failed wall along the green. Mr. Lupton had just sold JTL Corporation. Pete Dye, ever irreverent, asked Mr. Lupton what he was going to do, “now that he was unemployed.” Mr. Lupton, in a rare moment of seriousness, said that he had “always wanted to do something for [his] hometown.” That was in 1986. Mr. Lupton always did what he said he was going to do. He was a man of action, not words. In fact, I always thought Jack used his sometimes profane and always direct words as a smokescreen. If you wanted to know how he felt, you had to look beyond the words to the deeds. The deeds always revealed his generosity, his humility, and his love.

After Chattanooga’s visioning process, involving the entire community and seeded by Mr. Lupton, the Tennessee Aquarium was proposed. In 1988, scarcely two years after the ride down the 7th fairway, I got to drop the flag for the groundbreaking ceremony, as Stein pulled down the abandoned buildings that were on the site. Who can measure the impact of Mr. Lupton’s decision to “do something for his hometown?”

Last week I was asked to speak at the dedication ceremony for the green roof Stein Construction installed at the Creative Discovery Museum. The first person I thanked was Jack Lupton. “I am a gnat on the shoulders of giants,” I said. Without Jack Lupton’s vision, generosity, and willingness to let others implement their own visions, it wouldn’t have happened.

Every year on July 23, I would send Mr. Lupton a birthday note telling him how much I appreciated what he had done for me, my family, and our community. Sometimes I would get a brief thank you note (all of his communications were brief), sometimes I wouldn’t. It didn’t matter. There’s simply no way I can thank him enough.

Doug Stein