(Part 2) Cheraw Country Club Pool, 2431 Old Cash Road: September 2023 (2024/07/12)

Continuing from where we left off in Part 1, the pool at Cheraw County Club was usually open during the summer between Memorial Day weekend and Labor Day weekend. When I was small, before I had started playing golf, I remember going to the pool with my mom. Every now and then, we'd all have to get out of the pool, whether that was when the lifeguard was going off shift or having to do some cleaning. That is when I would take my putter and a couple of golf balls and go to the putting green. Getting a Pepsi from the fountain in the pro shop was always a treat.

I also remember taking swimming lessons in this pool. The lessons were over a span of a few days and usually started soon after school was out for the summer. Surely I wouldn't have mastered the dead man's float if it weren't for Coach Porter. Thank you.

When I started playing golf, after walking nine holes on summer days (definitely in the morning!), I would usually jump in the pool to cool off. And that was usually a jump off the diving board, as I don't think I ever was successful at executing an actual dive from the diving board. I'm pretty sure that most attempts resulted in a belly flop (ouch!).

Seeing the pool in recent years has been sad. I remember how the pool would be packed on the weekends when I was a kid, but in the last few years, when I was either driving by or playing golf, there were maybe only a handful of people at the pool.

The most recent owner converted the old bathhouse into a room to rent. The little apartment at the bottom of the clubhouse, with the door facing the pool, may have been rented out as well. If I recall correctly, that is where the greenskeeper at the time used to live. The bricked-in patio with the grill and fireplace is also new, although I think there was a covered patio of some sort in that spot at one time.

There are still quite a number of pictures I have left to post, though I think that Part 3 will cover the rest of those. That's it for the pool. You can always go swim at God's pool across the street at the state park.

Cheraw Country Club, 2431 Old Cash Road: February 2024 (2024/06/14)

Back in February of this year, Cheraw Country Club, after being open for 100 years, was closed down. The golf course was designed by Donald Ross, who is indeed the same Donald Ross who was the architect of Pinehurst No. 2, which is where many US Opens, including this year's, have been played. For the last 15 years, it was open as Moree's Cheraw Country Club.

Cheraw Country Club has been in a steady decline for a number of years due to a variety of factors. The extent of that decline may easily be observed in the pictures I have taken and will post to this website in a series of posts. This post is "Part 1".

I am sure there will be places on the golf course that someone will want to see, perhaps a favorite hole, and I did consider walking every hole starting at number 1 and ending at 18 (of course) and taking pictures along the way; however, I already have a large amount of pictures to share and quite frankly really didn't feel like doing that. I apologize if I missed someone's favorite spot on the course, and I am even thinking of some now that I wish I would have taken.

Like many folks I have a lot of memories of this place. One, well two, of those memories are the two hole-in-ones I had on the number 4 hole about 20 years ago, and that is why I will start with pictures of that hole rather than, say, the clubhouse. My dad was the witness for both occasions, and if memory serves me well, both hole-in-ones were made during the same year within a few months of each other and involved two different clubs, a 3-iron and a 4-iron. I even was awarded a gold-covered putter, which I still have; I really should hang it back up.

Another good reason to start with number 4 is that it was the signature hole for the course.






I would say that the green has seen better days, but for as long as I can remember, the greenskeepers have always had trouble keeping this green in good condition. That said, for most of those years, the green was at least puttable, but for the last few years, it has been what my brother would call a Plinko green. Like The Price Is Right game, once the ball left your putter, you could only hope the ball would end up at the hole as it may roll this way and that.



For a brief period of time, there was a small bunker beneath this tree. No, that tree didn't always look so spooky.

Below is the green for number 9. I have ended many a round of golf here on the days that I would walk. It was a bit of a trip, a full-circle kind of experience, walking 9-hole rounds here again when we moved back to Cheraw, just like I did when I was a kid on summer days. Nope, I never did get a hole-in-one on number 9.



And here is where a round would usually start, the back tees for number 1. It was always fun to start on this hole and drive the ball down the hill, wondering how many extra yards I would get from the downhill roll. Thanks, gravity!





I couldn't tell you the last time these tennis courts were used for...you know...tennis. I want to say these two courts were still being used when I graduated high school. The courts on the other side of the parking lot started being used for storing the golf carts long before then.






And so we end Part 1 with a view of the pool, which is where we will resume with Part 2...hopefully soon.

Hwy 55, 1624 State Road: Fall 2023 (Temporary) (2024/02/18)

Hwy 55 is a restaurant chain that serves burgers, fries, shakes, and other short order menu items. This location in Cheraw is temporarily closed. As seen in the above pictures, there are for-hire fliers taped to the door and windows. I have heard that the temporary closing is due to a change in either management or ownership.

I know some folks who love Hwy 55. As for me, although I do like the '50s/'60s look and music, I've had better burgers elsewhere. I mean, the burgers here are fine, but a Sonic burger would be just as good; in fact, I had one recently. I do like the onion rings at Hwy 55.

Hopefully, this Hwy 55 location will reopen and with a longer set of hours. It seems that for the last couple of years, this location has frequently been closed several hours before the posted time of 9 PM, and that has supposedly been due to a shortage of workers. Perhaps that shortage of workers is why this temporary closing is lasting so long.