Turkey Mountain provides second home for retiree golfers, setting for professional events

LITTLE ROCK — Editor's Note: This is the third article in a series on golf courses and country clubs and their importance in the Three Rivers area.

There's no telling who you'll run into at the Golf Course on Turkey Mountain in Horseshoe Bend - from Midwestern retirees to city-hopping golf fans who've flown into the nearby airport for an afternoon on the course.

And for a couple of days a year, such chance encounters could include the biggest stars in women's golf, when the course plays host to the Ladies Professional Golf Association's Legends Tour. Turkey Mountain first hosted the event in 2008 and will again on Saturday, Sept. 26, and Sunday, Sept. 27, and they've signed a five-year contract to continue hosting the event in the years to come.

Confirmed participants for this year include Jan Stephenson, Rosie Jones, Pat Bradley, Jane Blaylock and Cindy Rarick, who will be joined by 20 to 30 other legendary golfers. Last year's event raised $18,000 for Arkansas Children's Hospital in Little Rock.

Events like the Legends Tour help make Turkey Mountain unique in the state, but the course has other means for maintaining an atmosphere all its own for the other 363 days of the year.

In a community surrounded by the rambling Arkansas beauty of rural Izard County's forests, mountains, lakes and streams, Turkey Mountain is a major social hub for the small groups of retirees, most of whom are originally from the Midwest, who get together each morning for a round of golf in the adopted community they now call home.

Lloyd Ryan is one of them. He moved to Horseshoe Bend 14 years ago from Iowa, and ever since he arrived, he's been part of a golfing group. The group he plays with now prides itself for being the first ones out each morning. Eight to 10 of them - from places like Minnesota, Illinois and Wisconsin - meet at 8 a.m., get their coffee, say good morning to the staff and hit the greens.

"It's like a little community to play golf with," Ryan said.

Ryan, who retired from the automotive parts industry, was a golfer before he came to Horseshoe Bend.

"The price structure was attractive for someone who's retired," Ryan said. "Someone like me can retire here with minimum income, and I do like the golf course, the community as well. I chose the area because of the golf course."

The course's PGA head professional, Chuck McNeight, said Ryan's story is pretty typical. Mc-Neight said most of the retirees are from Iowa, Wisconsin and Michigan.

McNeight said he tries to take that collection of transplants and help them fulfill their recreational and social needs with the hope that Horseshoe Bend will truly feel like their second homes.

"I tell people all the time: 'We don't sell golf. We sell lifestyle,'" McNeight said. "This is not only a place for people to get their recreation, it's where they come to do their socializing. A lot of people come to the club, they get their cup of coffee, they meet up with other people and talk, even if they're not really golfers per se. They come here to catch up on what's going on, do a little gossiping, and we give it to them. That's the kind of atmosphere we try to create here."

McNeight said part of that effort includes a busy and varied tournament schedule; there are 23 tournaments on the schedule this year.

"All of it is important," Mc-Neight said. "We do a mix of the competitive stuff, social stuff and what I like to call 'giggles golf,'which would be, for example, night ball, when we get everyone out there with glow-in-the dark balls, completely noncompetitive and just for fun. Or I might have them out there teeing off with tennis rackets - fun events that are very low-key and welcoming to everyone."

Turkey Mountain is an 18 -hole, championship golf course. There are 180 acres of maintained greens on the total 230 acres that make up the course. It's open to the public seven days a week and is owned by the Horseshoe Bend Municipal Recreation Improvement District - an arm of the city. It was built in the '60s as the centerpiece, along with Crown Lake, for a destination retirement community.

The golf course is part of a cluster of city amenities, like the city pool and a facility that contains the senior center, community center and Municipal Recreation Improvement District offices. The course has afull-service pro shop, which was remodeled a year and a half ago, and three maintenance facilities.

Horseshoe Bend's airport sits right alongside the course's ninth hole, and McNeight said hobby airplane pilots often combine two loves by flying in from Springdale, Memphis or Little Rock, landing at Horseshoe Bend where McNeight has a golf cart waiting for them right at the runway.

The airport's proximity adds that little extra likelihood of running into an out-of-towner on the green, but McNeight said that no matter where they're from, Horseshoe Bend's visitors usually have something in common.

"The community has basically surrounded itself around the golf course and the lake," McNeight said. "If you're here, you're either going golfing or you're going fishing." - awidner@arkansasonline.com

Three Rivers, Pages 121, 129 on 05/10/2009