Callaway Resort & Gardens’ golf pedigree stretches back more than six decades to 1949, when architect J.B. McGovern, with considerable input from Cason Callaway, designed the first nine holes of the Lake View Course. Completed and opened in 1951, Lake View perfectly captured Mr. Callaway’s vision that “playing golf should be a pleasant experience in beautiful surroundings.”
The Callaways understood the beauty and importance of golf. Mr. Callaway was on the founding Board of Trustees of the Georgia State Golf Association. Almost from the beginning, the Gardens served as a competition venue, with Jack Key of Columbus, Ga. winning Callaway’s first-ever tournament, the 1951 Men’s One-day Golf Tourney.
Cason Callaway’s son Howard H. “Bo” Callaway even had a prestigious golf tournament in mind when he conceived a water ski competition at Callaway Gardens in 1960. Wanting the new event to be as revered by water skiers as the Masters was by golfers, he requested and received permission from the Augusta National Golf Club to use their tournament’s name. Today, the Masters Water Ski & Wakeboard Tournament endures as one of the world’s most prestigious water sports events.
And year after year, groups of golfers return to the beautiful courses that the Callaway family created.
View Golf Packages1965: Renowned architect, Dick Wilson, designs Mountain ViewCourse
1970-73: SEC Men’s Golf Championship
1973: Tommy Aaron wins the Masters while representing CallawayGardens as Touring Pro
1975-79: PGA Club Professional Championship
1982-87: SEC Women’s Golf Championship
1991-2002: PGA Tour Buick Challenge (formerly Buick Southern Open).Winners include major champions: Steve Elkington, Davis
Love III, and David Duval.
2005: U.S. Kids Golf Atlanta Tour Championship
2006: Callaway Gardens Collegiate Invitational
2011-12: PGA Tour Qualifying School
2013 – Present: Web.com Qualifying School
