“The Golf Bug doesn’t bite everyone, but when it does, it bites hard,” says Stan Smoot.
As the owner of Harpeth Valley Golf Center, Smoot should know. He was stricken at a very young age.
“My dad introduced me to the game when I was five,” he says. “He was a successful dentist, and I was a very lucky kid who got to grow up on a nice, private course at Brentwood Country Club.”
He was an exceptional junior golfer and a top player at Hillsboro High School. But he was anything but an entitled youngster.
Rather than attend college, he tended to family obligations. “I didn’t know what I wanted to do, other than I didn’t want to waste their money,” he says. So, after a stint in the early 1980s working on the family farm in McMinnville, he leveraged his athletic skills to pursue a career as a golf professional.
After serving a four-year apprenticeship at a local club, Smoot earned his PGA membership. Nearly four decades later, he’s still in the game.
“I worked as a club pro but realized that wasn’t my cup of tea,” he says. “I wanted to teach.”
In early 2001, Smoot got an opportunity that would prove to be a life-changing event not only for him, but for Bellevue as well.
He and a partner acquired the old Bellevue Valley Driving Range that had fallen into disrepair. Where others saw a rundown patch in a floodplain, Smoot saw a place where he could teach and grow the game he loves.
Eventually, he bought out his partner, signed a 50-year lease for the private tract, and built a 9-hole par-3 course.
“Getting to where we are has not been easy; we’ve been through the grinder,” he says. “After the 2010 flood, I questioned whether I was doing the right thing. We were down for two months. It crushed us.”
For the next decade, there was a challenging hill to climb. Progress was steady, but slow.
Then came Covid.
“We were freaking out,” he admits. “We were scared, like any other small business, that we would have to shut down.”
The course remained open and Smoot and his staff – which includes eight PGA-certified teachers - took every precaution imaginable and followed the instructions of local authorities. For 30 days, there was a lot of uncertainty. Then things began to change.
“Little by little, our business started picking up again,” says Smoot. “The uncertainty and the fear, of the disease and saving the business, was slowly subsiding.”
What happened was a golf boom, born of a public that was anxious to get out to do anything. Something. And what better to do than to enjoy some fresh air while hitting a bucket of balls and playing a few holes with your friends?
“Before we know it, our business is going crazy,” says Smoot. “By late April or May, we realized we were in a good spot. In 2020, golf reported a 40 percent increase, nationally. Ours was 100 percent. We doubled our business over 2019.”
Smoot credits Harpeth Valley Golf Center’s ongoing success to the same attributes that lured people to 7620 Old Harding Pike four years ago.
“We provide an escape by creating an environment that’s enjoyable and family-friendly,” he says. “We work hard and we’ve hired good people and trained them well. We listen to our customers and we’re open to change.”
In recent years, Smoot has added food trucks and built a deck where patrons can enjoy a meal, cold beer and live music during the milder months.
“We have to grow to keep up with the demand, but not at the expense of the good vibe and relaxing atmosphere,” he says. “Our customers tell us that every day.”