When the last few components of the Bobby Jones Golf Course opened in December and January, it marked the end of a three-year, $33 million redevelopment project for the Buckhead links.

Though its transformation from an 18-hole course to a nine-hole reversible one was completed in a year and the new course opened in November 2018, its facilities in the Murray Golf House weren’t finished until the end of 2020 because the funds had to be raised for it first.

“It’s been a full three years of construction, and we’ve been working on the project for almost a decade, really. It feels great,” Marty Elgison, president of the Bobby Jones Golf Course Foundation, which oversaw the project, said of having everything open.

The 144-acre course, located within Atlanta Memorial Park, was built in 1932 as a tribute to golf legend Robert Tyre “Bobby” Jones Jr. It was sold by the city of Atlanta to the state in 2016 as part of a plan to reconfigure the course. The foundation spent $24 million just to refurbish it, and no public funds were used for the redesign.

The Murray Golf House, designed by architect Jim Chapman and also built with private funding, includes the Ed Hoard Golf Shop, a high-tech store that opened in August; Boone’s restaurant, which opened in September; the offices for the Georgia State Golf Association and the PGA of America’s Georgia section, which opened in November and December, respectively; and the Dan Yates Putting Course and the Georgia Golf Hall of Fame, which both opened in December. Just outside the front of the golf house is the Hall Hut, which also opened in December.

“It’s a starter hut where you check in for golf and for the Yates Putting Course,” Elgison said. “It has drinks, and sandwiches and beer. It’s very popular. The Yates course has been very popular. Kids under 17 play for free. It’s gotten so much play that we’ve had to close it Monday through Thursday in order to preserve the greens for the summer months.”

In a news release, Whitney Crouse, co-founder of Bobby Jones Links, the company managing the course, added, “At Bobby Jones Golf Course, we are much more than a reversible public golf course. We are the premier golf entertainment center in the Southeast. We are committed to growing the game of golf through our instruction and one-of-a-kind offerings that can be enjoyed by anyone regardless of their skill set.”

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