Spike Lemon is the Director of Golf at Angel Oak Golf Club, so named for a Live Oak tree that for 400 years has grown on the site…the last 100 gracing the club’s circular drive.
Director of Golf is a new term. Spike’s Daddy and Grandaddy were just plain Golf Professionals…or their passed down nickname of endearment, “Proey”
It’s said that on New Year’s Eve 1932, and as a result of a spirited limbo competition complete with flaming tequila cocktails, a great fire threatened to destroy the clubhouse and the oak.
When the fire battalion arrived their hoses were immediately and accurately trained on the three story columned edifice that had faithfully served as the life center of the great club since before the turn of the century.
The fire chief was surprised to say the least when instructed to divert the stream of water to the Angel Oak itself, thus sealing the fate of the grand old structure.
After all, even in a great depression, man can easily replace a building in a year or two…whereas God had taken his time with the magnificent old tree…It seemed to Dr. M.F.M. Ferris, president and only practicing Catholic at the club , a natural choice.
These are the tales of Spike Lemon and The Angel Oak GC.
