page_title: Dick Horton
section_title: Golf House Tennessee
hierarchical_section_title: Dick Horton / Golf House Tennessee
caption_attribution_description: English: Tennessee Golf Hall of Fame at Golf House Tennessee, Franklin, 2018
context_page_description: Richard J. Horton is an American golf administrator who was inducted into the 2019 Tennessee Golf Hall of Fame. Horton served for 35 years as the executive director of both the Tennessee Golf Association and the Tennessee Section PGA. He was one of the first fifteen full-time PGA Section executive directors in the U.S. and he gained national attention by bringing together golf's formerly competitive and often-contentious factions: professional golfers and amateur golfers. He became executive director of both organizations and eventually was able to put all of the state's collective golf operations under one roof.
  Starting as a one-man operation in a bedroom office, he took the sport of golf in Tennessee from a largely structureless environment into the era of modern commercial golf. A skilled fundraiser, he secured enormous donations that allowed him to act on his ideas of the future for golf administration— he created a single golf complex called "Golf House Tennessee" which served to administer all golf activities in the state, including pro golf, amateur golf, women's golf, junior golf, and turfgrass research. It was the only facility of its kind at the time.
context_section_description: In 1992, Horton visited Chattanooga philanthropist and Coca-Cola heir Jack Lupton with four bold requests:
  land and a building to be a home for all golf operations in the state (Golf House Tennessee)
  a new place for the Junior Golf Camp with a dormitory
  a dedicated golf course, for the camp and for turfgrass research
  a state golf hall of fame
  Lupton agreed and pledged $5 million, provided that the foundation would raise money from other sources that would start an endowment fund. Thus the Tennessee Golf Foundation, a non-profit, was incorporated in 1990 with Horton as president.  
  A 15-acre tract with an ante-bellum home was purchased adjacent to the Vanderbilt Legends Golf Course in Franklin, Tennessee, near Nashville. The Vanderbilt Legends course, designed by Bob Cupp and Tom Kite, served as the Tennessee Golf Foundation's temporary headquarters while the land next door was being developed.  The house and adjacent land was known as "Aspen Grove"— built in 1830s by Thomas McEwen who fought alongside Andrew Jackson in the Indian wars. Expanded and restored, it was named "Golf House Tennessee" and became the 21,000 square foot centerpiece of all golf operations in the state and opened in April, 1995. As of 1995, Golf House Tennessee was the only facility of its kind. The original structure now houses the Tennessee Golf Hall of Fame. The added administrative center, named for Horton, also contains the Golf Course Superintendents Association of America, the Volunteer Chapter Club Managers Association of America, and the Women's TGA (WTGA) among others.  Golf architect Bob Cupp was told to design a par-three course adjoining the Golf House. The first design did not suit benefactor Jack Lupton, who wanted the course to  "require use of every club in the bag". Cupp went back to lengthen one hole to 226 yards (thus requiring a Driver), and to make double greens (one green serving two golf holes) to accommodate Lupton's request. The course was named  "the Little Course at Aspen Grove". A 64-bed dormitory was built nearby to house the Junior Golf Camp attendees.
  Musician Vince Gill is another key player in the success of this endeavor. Gill, a scratch golfer, began hosting an annual golf tournament in 1993 known as "The Vinny Pro-Celebrity Golf Invitational" whose primary beneficiary is the Tennessee Golf Foundation. This tournament has raised over $8 million for Junior Golf to pay for staffing of the golf academy and for "The First Tee" projects and the Vince Gill Junior Tour. Gill received the PGA Distinguished Service Award in 2003, the PGA's highest honor.
caption: Tennessee Golf Hall of Fame at Golf House Tennessee, Franklin, 2018
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