Grady B. McCanless, left, and Jim Monroe

Shane and Brody Benfield made a run in latest “Grady B.” tourney.

 

By Mike London

Salisbury Post

SALISBURY — Another Grady B. McCanless Four-Ball Tournament went in the record books over the weekend. It was the 61st one.

That’s a name every local golfer is familiar with, but McCanless goes way, way back. He died 58 years ago in 1967, long before the top local golfers were born, so not many people know who he was or what he did.

Grady Brenn McCanless was born in Rowan County in 1900. As a youth, he was educated in Rowan and Charlotte schools.

He was a teenage soldier, one of the doughboys who sailed across the Atlantic to charge the German machine guns in the Great War that would later become known as World War I.

McCanless joined the Samuel Hart American Legion Post when he returned home.

He turned 30 without ever having struck a golf ball in his life, but that would soon change.

In 1931, McCanless bought the lease on Salisbury’s Brookdale Golf Course, also known as the American Legion Course. That course was located on what is now VA Hospital property.

McCanless managed the course. His pro at Brookdale was young James Madison “Jim” Monroe. Shortly after his high school graduation in 1932, Monroe had won the city championship in Salisbury, and there would be many more titles for Monroe. In the late 1930s and early 1940s, he won five straight Salisbury city championships before he left for World War II.

During the first half of the 1930s, McCanless became as tight as brothers with Monroe.

Monroe was 14 years younger than McCanless, but he took McCanless under his wing and taught him the game of golf. McCanless developed a passion for the game and began to play regularly. He made his first hole-in-one on No. 4 on the Legion Course, and he was hooked for life.

McCanless wasn’t as good as Monroe — not many people were — but McCanless was a solid golfer. A year after he started playing, he routinely would break 40 for nine holes.

Life changed suddenly in 1936. Monroe and McCanless both got married that year. That’s also the year the Brookdale Golf Course was chosen as the site where the new Veterans Hospital would be constructed. Because of that project, McCanless lost his lease on the most heartbreaking day of his life.

Monroe lost his job.

Monroe went to work for Cannon Mills in Kannapolis.

McCanless entered the contracting business, but a dream was born shortly after that —  the dream of building his own golf course.

McCanless had a large tract of family-owned land picked out for this enterprise, a fine spot off Stokes Ferry Road, near Dunn’s Mountain, mostly level ground and with a creek running through it. Gold mines had once been active in that area.

McCanless started shaping his course hole by hole in 1939, using a tractor as the tool to carve out his dream. By 1943, he had nine holes completed, and his project was finished, but he would allow the greens and fairways to firm up for several years before play was allowed.

The eventful year of 1943 was also when Monroe departed Kannapolis for World War II. As a 29-year-old Cannon Mills superintendent with a family, his draft board had granted him a deferment, but Monroe wanted to do his part on the front lines. He enlisted in the U.S. Army.

Before his friend headed for Camp Wheeler, and then Europe, McCanless promised Monroe that if he made it back, they would play the new golf course together.

Monroe was honorably discharged from the service on Dec. 14, 1945.

On Aug. 24, 1946, McCanless Golf Club officially opened for its first 12 curious patrons.

Par for the nine holes was 35.

A 1950 story in the Post credited Monroe with shooting a course record 31-32 — 63. It also credited legend Harry Welch with shooting a 64.

Legend has it that Monroe shot 28-32 — 60 in the early 1950s on the McCanless course, as he made two sizzling tours of the nine-hole layout. He was good, and it’s certainly possible he accomplished that feat.

Critics of the new public golf course said it was much too short, but McCanless had built the course with the premise of making it challenging and fun for the average golfer, not a stern test for pros. Besides, not many of those “it’s-too-short” complainers were breaking par. McCanless could smile quietly about that.

Still not satisfied, McCanless’ active mind was already dreaming up nine more holes — a back nine with doglegs and greater length. A back nine of woods and hills that would be tougher and tighter than the wide open front side.

In the spring of 1959, McCanless officially became an 18-hole course, as that back nine became a reality.

On a Sunday in March 1967, McCanless died at the course. He was 66. He had been sick for about a year.

He is still remembered by the tournament held every summer at the course that was his dream.

Monroe impacted Rowan golf for a very long time. When he was in his 60s, he was the driving force that got the Rowan Amateur Tournament started at Corbin Hills in 1979.

Before his death in 2005 when he was 91, Monroe returned to McCanless often to talk about old times and to play the course his best friend had built.