RGA full of history

As the club approaches its 80th year of operations, things change slowly at Raleigh Golf Association.

For instance, no one around the club on Tryon Road (between Raleigh and Garner) can recall when the pro shop telephone number was anything except 772-9987. There's still no answering machine, by the way.

You call, you get a real person -- but maybe after a few rings when the pace is hectic.

Very few old-timers remember when the club pro wasn't Ronnie "Cowboy" Casper, once a star on a legendary Cary High School team that included Vance Heafner (Prestonwood director of golf) and Drew Brackett.

Casper, 55, played his first RGA hole roughly a half-century ago. Soon thereafter came his nickname.

"I'd be here to play a hole or two, and I'd always wear my little toy pistols," Casper recalled. "It must have been a funny sight -- this kid on a golf course carrying around his couple of clubs and in his cowboy outfits. Some of the men started calling me 'Casper the Cowboy.' It stuck."

Approaching his 38th year as head pro at the club he loves, Casper is "thankful" that in almost eight decades, there have been only two other people in his job -- the late Maurice Brackett (1961-78) and the late Harold Long, who helped open the course in 1929 and stayed through 1960.

Casper is equally proud that RGA has remained loyal to its mission of being an affordable public course for "plain, average people and thousands of college students just learning to enjoy the game."

At a time courses routinely charge $100, RGA's rates are under $45, with many specials less than $30. You can buy a hot dog -- complete with chili, cole slaw, onion, mustard and ketchup -- for $1.75. A can of beer starts at $2.50. A medium soft drink goes for a couple of bucks.

"We'll wind up somewhere around the 55,000-rounds mark for 2008, and I don't think many of our players would say they're getting ripped off," Casper said. "That's an important part of what we are."

At just over 6,100 yards, but still a par-72 course, RGA was built decades before courses saw a need for driving ranges and exotic clubhouses.

Although the quaint greens have been remodeled several times and other hole alterations have been made, the basic 18 holes, plus the cozy Stockholders Nine (opened Sept. 11, 1959 with then Gov. Luther Hodges striking the first blow), have changed little.

Casper holds what he calls the "unofficial" course record at 62 but quickly points out that a 64 by longtime Raleigh amateur standout John Bunn was a more impressive performance.

RGA lore is long, deep and rich. Arnold Palmer, as a student at Wake Forest College in the 1950s, often played the course.

In 1937, there was an exhibition match that included Sam Snead, Gene Sarazen, Gene Mills (of Wilson) and Long.

A shot or two attempted by those immortals still will confront RGA players more than 70 years later.

"Older courses like this usually have little quirks," Casper said. "For the average player, it's a good challenge. I guess some people might say it's like stepping back in time when they come out here, but RGA has a lot of personality that sometimes just comes only with age."

No doubt. In many ways and to lots of people, RGA is as much a regional landmark as a place to go play golf.