The Roquemore
Tour: By Furman Bisher When Bill Roquemore reached the age of discretion,
he had every intention of being a newspaperman. And was one for awhile, until
he realized that newspaper people didn't make a lot of money.
At the time, he was editor of the Lanier County News in Lakeland, Ga., with
a salary of $30 a week, just above starving level.
On the side, you might say, he also had a hand in running a seed and fertilizer
business, by marriage, and this would direct him on the course that we shall
deal with here.
The Roquemores, Bill, his wife Nell and family became the heart and soul of
golf in this part of the world.
To have a membership in the Flat Creek community of courses is beyond a doubt
the best bargain in golf in the state of Georgia, if not the whole United
States.
That covers 171 holes of golf in Fayette, Coweta and Douglas counties, 27
holes at Flat Creek, 18 holes at Braelinn, 36 holes at Canongate at White
Oak, 36 at Canongate at Palmetto, 18 at Planterra Ridge, 18 at Chapel Hills,
18 just opened at Mirror Lake and 18 more a-building.
Initiation fee is $500, and a membership in one is a membership in all, golf
affordable to the average man and family.
All told, there are about 7,500 members, of all varieties, Asian, European
and black Americans, and with all families and offspring factored in, that
comes to an estimated 21,000 people who have access to the Roquemore chain
of clubs.
This all dates back to the man who gave up journalism, turned to seed and
fertilizer, then the growth and development of grasses, followed by golf courses
on which to put the grasses to worthwhile use, eventually leading to his induction
into the Georgia Golf Hall of Fame in January, 1998.
For an indication of the celebrity of the occasion, consider that his companion
inductees were Nancy Lopez Knight, the great LPGA player, and DeWitt Weaver,
Jr., of the Senior PGA Tour.
Unfortunately, Bill Roquemore wasn't around to enjoy the moment. Just about
six months earlier he had died of emphysema as he neared the age of 74. He
had never left Lakeland, and next door to the hospital in which he died, the
new W.A. Roquemore Professional Building had just been dedicated two days
before his death.
In 1995, the National Golf Foundation chose the Roquemores as the Jack Nicklaus
Golf Family of the Year, and therein lies the thrust of this story.
The Roquemores are family. The Roquemores were no one-man operation, nor was
either of Bill and Nell's children left to straggle out of the loop.
