Bide-A-Wee Golf Course
Bide-A-Wee Golf Course is an 18-hole municipal public golf course founded by former PGA Champion Chandler Harper in 1956 located in and owned by the city of Portsmouth, Virginia.
Origins
When the course was being designed, Harper and Fred Findlay were thinking about names for the course. Findlay recalled "when I was a boy in Scotland, I started to run away from home. My mother advised 'you had better bide-a-wee'. To a Scot, that meant 'stay a little longer or linger awhile.'"
In the spring of 1956, Harper, Ace Parker, Dizzy Dean, and Tommy Bolt participated in the Opening Day Exhibition at the course.
The course, 1956-1993
From 1956 until 1993, Harper managed the course. It played host to the Virginia Open four times and the World Senior Championship six times between 1969 and 1977.
In 1993, Harper retired and the city of Portsmouth decided to fully renovate the facility.
The course undergoes a renovation
The original Bide-A-Wee layout featured extremely narrow and small greens that fell off severely on the sides. Tom Clark of Ault, Clark and Associates, along with design consultant and Hampton Roads native Curtis Strange were brought in to renovate the course. The course re-opened on April 6, 1999.
The course, 1999-present
The City of Portsmouth still owns Bide-A-Wee today.
The City of Portsmouth each year has to transfer money from the "General City Fund" to Bide-A-Wee to keep it operating. The City of Portsmouth is transferring $843,509.00 in 2018, from the "General City Fund" to the course.