Our guest speaker for this meeting will be Kelly Miller, President of three Southern Pines-area golf courses. Miller grew up in Indiana and attended the University of Alabama to play golf, and there he met Peggy Ann Bell, the middle child of Peggy and Warren “Bullet” Bell, the owners since 1953 of the Pine Needles Lodge & Golf Club that featured a 1928 Donald Ross course. Since the Bells’ oldest daughter, Bonnie, was traveling the country with her husband, Pat McGowan, on the PGA Tour, and son Kirk was just entering college, it fell to Kelly and Peggy Ann to follow in the footsteps of Peggy and Bullet in running the golf course and lodge. In 1994, they partnered with three individuals in buying the Mid Pines Inn & Golf Club across Midland Road – yet another Donald Ross course. Over the ensuing years, Miller would occasionally play Southern Pines Elks Club, another Ross course from the early 1900s owned since 1951 by the Benevolent Order of Elks. He tried at various junctures to either buy, lease or have a management contract for the course, but none of those initiatives worked until he was able to acquire the course in July 2020. You can learn more about Miller at https://www.homeofgolf.com/pine-needles-kelly-miller-golf-profile/
Mark Your Calendar
9/7/22 – “Boo” Corrigan, Director of Athletics, NC State University
9/21/22 – Steve Vacendak, Former Duke and ABA Basketball player
10/5/22 – Mike Maniscalco, Carolina Hurricanes Play-By-Play Announcer