Hendersonville – The Laura E. Corn Mini Golf and Edwards Park that it is in had a combined grand opening on Thursday, Oct. 19, unveiling the City of Hendersonville’s new recreational jewel.
Hendersonville Mayor Barbara Volk, city staff, and artists who crafted hole elements did a ceremonial, simultaneous “shotgun start.” They launched the 18-hole course before dozens of people played it.
Each holes has elements representing a facet of local culture and area attractions, with a few moved from the prior course at Boyd Park 1,000 feet away. The familiar, towering, 700-pound black bear statue guards the new seventh hole. Golfers putt through the hole’s small rock “cave.”
Assistant City Manager Brian Pahle said at the opening that with the new course’s elements, “Let’s honor history and tradition.”
The new course will operate for a month, through Nov. 19, then reopen next spring. Longtime City Council member Jerry Smith oversaw parks. Smith told the Tribune that he is proud of helping get the course done this year. This avoids going a full year without any city-run mini-golf, due to demolition of the old course months ago.
Invigorating Five Points
City Manager John Connet said that the city “infused new life” into the Five Points area near Hendersonville High School (HHS). The main city fire house is getting built a new structure twice as big as before, after razing Boyd Park adjacent to it on an island of North Main/U.S. 25 North.
The city’s Boyd Park also had two tennis courts. Many citizens objected to its demolition. Mayor Volk said, “Change can be painful, but good.”
Pahle oversaw the $2.6 million project to put in mini-golf at a new site, and to expand Edwards Park. It has a large concession stand, new playground and a shaded umbrella. It has pavilion space for cornhole.
The Blue Ridge Bicycle Club helped get the park to include a bicycle “corral” with racks. The park has nearly 200 pollinator-friendly plants, in ten species.
Edwards Park is at 904 N. Main St., between Five Points and Locust Street. It is beside the VFW Hall and Pop’s Diner, near Bruce Drysdale Elementary. Once the VFW Hall is renovated, its parking will be available for mini-golfers, Pahle noted.
The park/golf project finished two months early, Pahle said. Harris Miniature Golf of Scranton, Pa. designed the mini-golf.
Affordable Family Fun
The course is ADA-accessible on its front nine holes and final hole. It has discounted rates of $3 per round for an adult, or $2 per youth younger than 18. Revenue goes to the city.
Jonah Bellmund, age nine, golfed at the opening with his friends, who are Josh and Toni Warren’s two sons. They liked the loop-the-loop challenge of hitting the ball hard enough to go up and around a looped track. Jared Bellmund, Jonah’s father, has a photo of a baby Jonah at the original Corn Mini Golf, which Cliff Shipman owned for years. Jared said, “We played mini-golf there all the time.”
The new course, like its predecessor, is named for long-time mini-golf employee Laura E. Corn. The “Putt Putt Lady” worked for 35 summers in Boyd Park, in the mini-golf hut and in the Teen Canteen. A quote of hers is on the back of the Mama Bearcat (her other nickname) Bear figure near the concession stand, which Bethany Joy painted. It reads: “It is the happy voices of families large and small celebrating hole-in-ones that make this beautiful park come alive.”
Dena Rhodes London said that Corn, her grandmother, instilled “love” into local mini-golf. Young golfers’ “smiles and laughter warmed her heart.”
Among innovations, the fourth hole honoring Boyd Park has interactive musical instruments. They symbolize the Teen Canteen jukebox.
Ingenous Water Holes
Looking Glass Falls on hole 8 is a majestic centerpiece on the course. But the most fascinating water hole is number 10, leading off the back nine. It is entitled Let’s Go Tubing on the Green River. Golfers try to hit the tee shot along a narrow, carpeted plank bridge. If it misses the bridge, the ball falls into a fast-flowing mini-creek that represents the Green River. It flows toward decorative fountains.
Golfers need not panic. The special effect is that a water-swept ball bounces out of the creek, rightward through a small log tunnel, and onto the green. “I didn’t know it’d come out of the log,” a relieved Public Works Director Tom Wooten said.
Cultural Artifacts
The City of Hendersonville garnered public preferences on mini-golf, such as which items they wanted in the new course and what they wanted represented.
A giant Apple image on the very first hole honors Henderson County’s historic industry. A goat fiberglass figurine is the new representation of the historic Carl Sandburg Home and its goat farm. Noted artist Dee Ballenger painted those images in detail on the goat.
A flashy tiger figurine is the mascot of the Ninth Avenue School Tigers, the city’s all-black high school in 1950-65. Diamond Cash designed and painted it in the school colors of blue and orange.
Model Depot
A weather-proofed model of the historic Hendersonville Train Depot is on hole 11. Apple Country Woodworkers worked two months on it, participant Gordon Barner noted. He is proud of the model’s lasting legacy to the depot and woodworkers’ craft. The Apple Valley Railroad Model Railroad Club provided train and track miniatures.
A Fifties toy car replica is on the final hole, entitled Let’s Drive the Blue Ridge Parkway. Hole tributes include to Main Street, huge Biltmore House, Jump Off Rock, Looking Glass Falls with a large rock waterfall, and bicycling on the Oklawaha Greenway.
The old-time church on hole 12, grinning white squirrel, apple worm on the first hole, and the Chimney Rock rock are among seven items renovated and moved from course to course. They were repaired by Public Works, renovated by artist Judy Dempsey, and clear-coated at North Main Automotive.
Corn Mini Golf operates 3:30-9 p.m. on Fridays-Sundays. Check www.hvlnc.gov/edwardspark for course feature descriptions.