Eddie and Mark Vannoy of Vannoy and Sons Construction Company in Jefferson, NC are the visionaries behind the development. The two brothers were building condominiums and townhouses for the Elk River Club in Banner Elk, NC in the mid 1980’s and basically said to themselves “Let’s build our own course.” Mark recalled, “We got the itch, especially Eddie. He had the dream.”
“We started assembling property,” Mark continued.. Most of it was farm land. We bought land from 8 or 9 land owners. It took us a couple of years. Then we began construction in the fall of 1988.”
They hired noted Banner Elk architect and land planner Dennis Lehmann to route and construct the course. Lehmann said, “The Vannoy’s wanted a par 72 course with four tee positions to accommodate different golf games. They wanted the course to be fun for everyone, especially women. They wanted it fair and straight forward – no gimmicks. They also preferred large greens.”
During construction, the Vannoy’s brought in the PGA Hall of Fame golfer Larry Nelson to fine tune the course based on his experience playing great courses around the world . Nelson liked Lehmann’s layout and approved it. Most of his work was in contouring and bunkering. The course opened for play in the spring of 1990.
Jefferson Landing is built on rolling pastoral terrain, and the design takes full advantage of the site’s natural beauty.
