Happy Dance! Happy Dance! From a paper in Franklin and here's the link if you want to verify the source. It's clipped and pasted it below.
http://www.tennessean.com/apps/pbcs....40/1352/COUNTY
Country Club of Franklin closes today
Another chapter ends in battlefield's history book
By KEVIN WALTERS
Staff Writer
FRANKLIN — Out in the chilly wind and dying light of a recent afternoon, Mike O'Rourke wanted to squeeze in a few more rounds on the greens of the Country Club of Franklin before closing time.
Yet when closing time for the club comes today, it means the club is closing for good.
After months of discussion, the club's management contract expires tomorrow and was not renewed by its owner, Washington, D.C., businessman Rod Heller.
It's a day embraced by Civil War preservationists, who've helped raise a portion of the $5 million to allow the city to buy the 110-acre club. They plan to convert it into a battlefield park to commemorate the Battle of Franklin. But it's also a day filled with genuine loss mixed with anger and regret for some golfers about more than just losing their course.
Between sips of a soda, O'Rourke cut to the heart of what members say they'll miss.
"You could never tell the difference between a doctor, a CEO of a company or a union member at this golf course," said O'Rourke, 48, the president of Local 1853 of the United Auto Workers union at the Saturn automotive plant in Spring Hill. "And, to me, that was the greatest thing and that's what I'm going to miss."
On Nov. 30, the 141st anniversary of the Battle of Franklin, a ceremony will be held where the deed to the land will be turned over to the city.
On Thursday, little was evident that anything was changing at the club. Its swimming pool was covered in a tarp, and the parking lot was mostly empty except for leaves from the bare trees. Walkers hurried by, bundled up in the cold, laughing and talking as they walked nearby.
On one side of that blacktop is the McGavock cemetery, full of the bodies of Confederate soldiers killed in the Battle of Franklin. Directly across from the headstones and the wrought-iron fence is the parking lot where golfers unloaded their bags of clubs.
The parking lot and cemetery have sat side-by-side for years, though tensions existed about the club being on what preservationists have said was ground where soldiers marched during the battle.
It's those two sides that have squared off for the better part of this year about the fate of the golf course that's created the most public acrimony. There are hard feelings among some about the loss of the club and the city's deal to buy the land. Preservationists, however, have always contended that if the support were there they could have raised enough money to buy the club from Heller.
"I'm furious over it, but I don't understand it," said Franklin resident Paul Gardner, 49.
He and his wife, Sherri, have been members for eight years and have often brought their children, 4-year-old twins Connar and Skylar, to the club.
One night they came out and the golf pro let them shoot nine holes, Gardner recalled. And after that, they were part of the family.
"The people almost just adopted us and we weren't members," Gardner explained. "Ever since then, it's been our place to come. We're here all the time. It's going to be difficult to explain to two 4-year-olds that their swimming pool — and the place where they started to learn to hit golf balls — is going to be gone."
Advocates have touted how creating the park will draw more tourists to the area, which will in turn bring more money into the economy.
But would Gardner and his family ever visit the battlefield park?
"Not a chance," Gardner said.
Yet among some of the hard feelings, there is also understanding about the loss.
"My heart goes out to those people," said Joe Smyth, president of Save The Franklin Battlefield Inc., which has raised funds to help purchase the club.
"It's a difficult thing. Everybody wants different things and they don't want it in their backyard. Unfortunately, you can't choose where the battlefields were" he said.
Golfer and Spring Hill resident Mike Fussell, 41, used a $5 coupon to try out the club. He liked it so much, he joined even though he knew his time was going to be short.
"It's like I've been here forever," Fussell said. "They just treated me great."
Sitting on a golf cart wearing golf shoes as white as his Top-Flite golf balls, Fussell said he'd miss the course's scenic views and the wildlife, such as the geese, cranes and the beavers that were recently discovered living there.
Fussell didn't mean any disrespect to those who fought and died, but the past is the past, he said.
But if Fussell had his druthers — and $5 million — there would likely be a different outcome today instead of golfers taking their final swings.
"If I had $5 million and could of bought it," he said between a laugh, "I probably would have turned it into a golf course." •
Kudos to you too Steve Cone. I see your march raised $305. Good work!
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