Jones Lake Par 3 Golf Course big on family
Many people dream of one day building a house on a golf course. Rock Spring resident James Jones did it the other way around. A project some 20 years in the making finally came to fruition last July when Jones and his family opened Jones Lake Par 3 Golf Course to the public. The course, a ninehole layout with champion Bermuda grass greens, is built on his father’s farm at the intersection of Barfield and Cooper Roads. Jones said he and his father had discussed building a golf course on the property before, but the plan really began to take shape with the construction of the Highway 27 by-pass around the Chickamauga Battlefield. “When the by-pass was built in the early 1990’s, the population of Rock Spring started to increase,” Jones explained. “I started designing and constructing the course in 1992. I worked on it as a hobby for 20 years, usually during the summer when I had time off from my job as a construction worker. It was one of those dreams you probably think will never happen, but you just work at it anyway.” James and Diane Jones are co-owners of the course with their daughter and son-in-law, Kelsey and Ryan Cannington. And despite the name, it is not built around water. The course was actually named for Jones’ father, Lake, a farmer and construction worker who, ironically, didn’t play golf. “It’s a family golf Jones Par Course owner James Jones helps grandson Bentley Cannington with his putting. The Rock Spring course has seen more than 500 kids play their first round of golf since the course opened in July 2011. (Messenger photo/Scott Herpst)
course,” Jones said. “We don’t have PGA professionals here, but we like to say this is the home of future PGA professionals. I’d say we’ve had probably 500 kids who have played their first round of golf out here in just the first year we’ve been open.” The nine-hole layout usually requires no more than a wedge and/or a short iron and putter to play. The holes range from just under 50 yards in length to about 100 yards, and Jones says a nine-hole round can usually be completed in just about an hour. One of the golfers playing on a warm August morning was nineyear-old Cole Rominger and his six-year-old