Our Heritage ... Lace Up Your Footjoys

By Amy Pierce

1947 proved to be a pivotal year for sports at Wake Forest College, as it was the year that Jim Weaver, PE and Athletic Director, made two important decisions. One determination was to hire Marjorie Crisp. As the school’s first full-time women’s faculty member, she began the women’s intramural and intercollegiate sports program. During the reign of Crisp and her assistant, former Wake Forest athletic administrator Dot Casey, women’s athletics grew into an organized competitive program distinguished by numerous league titles and national championships.
Crisp, notably the most influential person in the history of Wake Forest women’s athletics, coached both basketball and golf and was the first woman inducted into the Wake Forest Sports Hall of Fame. Golf was her first love and she continued to coach the golf teams until 1983, six years past her retirement. During her tenure as golf coach, the Deacons were ranked as high as 17th nationally, winning several NAIAW championships, and many of her students went on to play in the LPGA. A single-digit handicapper herself, Crisp shot many a round in both tournament and leisure play during her years in Wake Forest. Casey and Crisp are pictured below, seated to the far right, with other town and college-associated players in the early 1950s.

Weaver’s other pivotal decision that year was also to have far-reaching consequences. The golf program from its inception in 1933 until 1947 was simply composed of students interested in the game. That changed when Weaver chose to advance the activity beyond just an interesting pastime and promote it as a sport at which he thought Wake Forest could excel regionally and nationally. Join me for a short walk down the history fairway.

From days of humble beginnings on a 9-hole course, golf at Wake Forest has been a source of great enjoyment for local players, and a source of pride for both the town and the college. The links were laid out before 1920 on land bought by the school in 1915. Construction of the Durham Road (Hwy. 98) in 1930 cut into the course and led to the relocation of several greens, along with the need to find land for another. Lent to the college by G.W. Paschal, the new land allowed the course to function as it had before. A full 18-hole course was built in the early 1940s, planting the seeds for history-in-the-making. 

Jim Weaver’s first recruit for the re-invented program was a young man named Marvin “Buddy” Worsham, who told the recruiter he’d agree to come down from Pennsylvania if the school would also give a scholarship to his best friend. “Can he play?” he was asked. “Better than me,” Buddy replied. The rest is history; Buddy’s friend was Arnold Palmer, whose ready talent and skill was honed at Wake Forest’s Paschal Golf Course under the tutelage of talented coaches, including Johnny Johnston.

Palmer, Johnston, and Worsham are pictured to the left. Palmer significantly changed the Wake Forest program, helping assure Jim Weaver’s vision. He also endowed the first golf scholarship for the college. Since his days at Wake Forest, over 20 golfers have passed through the program and on to the PGA Tour.

Wake Forest’s rich academic and athletic history is fertile ground for today’s dedicated, passionate players. Sophomore Webb Simpson, is the current recipient of the Arnold Palmer Scholarship and has been playing the game since he was eight years old. He even holds the all-time record for the lowest score at his home course in Raleigh. “I’ve wanted the Arnold Palmer Scholarship since I started playing. This is a dream come true for me because of all that Palmer has meant to the game. And Coach [Jerry] Haas is the greatest coach in college golf.” Simpson committed to WFU at the start of his junior year in high school and was last year’s ACC Rookie of the Year in golf. “I’d love to be here ’til I graduate and then play golf on the PGA tour. It takes a lot of luck and a lot of right timing.”

Junior Maggie Simons began playing golf at the age of eight. This year’s winner of the prestigious North Carolina Women’s Tournament, Simons is the recipient of the Helen Straughan Golf Scholarship. “It’s an honor to be at Wake and play in a program with such a great golf history for men and women,” she says. “It’s a great school academically and athletically. It was a childhood dream for me to be here, since many of my family have graduated from Wake Forest.” Like Webb Simpson, Maggie’s enthusiastically working toward her goal of playing on the LPGA Tour.
And what about that little course that started it all? On a recent trip to old Wake Forest, Arnold Palmer’s first stop – even before Shorty’s! – was at the fairways, greens, and roughs that helped make dreams come true for a Pennsylvania boy. Yes, Paschal Golf Course is still open to the public, a favorite spot for locals and visitors alike. Next time you’re in town, grab your sticks, lace up your Footjoys, and walk the paths carved by legends, past and present.

A special thank you to Martha Mason, Webb Simpson, Maggie Simons, Ernie Simons, and the Wake Forest College Birthplace Society Archives.

Amy Pierce lives in Wake Forest’s Mill Village where she is a writer, minister, and counselor in private practice.