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About
Callaway Gardens’ golf pedigree stretches more than six decades, all the way back to 1949, when architect J.B. McGovern, with considerable input from Cason Callaway, designed the first nine holes of the Lake View Course. Completed and opened in 1951, Lake View perfectly captured Mr. Callaway’s vision that “playing golf should be a pleasant experience in beautiful surroundings.”
The Callaways understood the beauty and importance of golf. Mr. Callaway was on the founding Board of Trustees of the Georgia State Golf Association. Almost from the beginning, the Gardens was a competition venue, with Jack Key of Columbus, Ga., winning Callaway Gardens' first-ever tournament, the 1951 Men’s One-day Golf Tourney. Cason Callaway's son Howard H. “Bo” Callaway even had a prestigious golf tournament in mind when he conceived a water ski competition at Callaway Gardens in 1960. Wanting the new event to be as revered by water skiers as the Masters was by golfers, he requested and received permission from Augusta National Golf Club to use their tournament’s name. Today the Masters Water Ski & Wakeboard Tournament endures as one of the world’s most prestigious water sports events.
Callaway Gardens would go on to host many more golf tournaments, both amateur and professional, over the years. Following are a few of the highlights, along with a few insights from PGA Tour pros who played here during the Buick Challenge.
