Market Insights
The County's Oldest Amateur Golf Tournament Is Back at Gates Four. What Should Neighbors Know?
Market Insights
"It is a Cumberland County tradition, and it's the oldest amateur golf tournament continuously running in North Carolina," says Bill Bowman. He is the tournament director of the Cumberland County Golf Championship and publisher of Up & Coming Weekly.
The 58th edition starts Friday, October 9, at Gates Four Golf & Country Club, 6775 Irongate Drive. Spectators are welcome all three days. For people who live behind the gates or just up Raeford Road, this weekend matters more than one tournament usually would. It opens a fall in which the course starts getting ready for something bigger. In May 2027, Gates Four will host the NAIA Men's National Golf Championship.
The championship has had more than one home and more than one organizer over its 58 years. Up & Coming Weekly took it over after The Fayetteville Observer stepped away, and Gates Four has hosted every year since that 2017 handoff. That makes this the club's tenth year as the venue. Over that time, a big share of the county's serious amateur golf has come to be measured on one course in southwest Fayetteville.
The course has a longer story behind it. Willard Byrd designed it in a traditional style in 1967. Kris Spence, an architect known for design and restoration work, finished a redesign in 2011. The club describes the layout as having bent-grass greens, renovated bunkers, and fairways lined with tall pines. Up & Coming Weekly credits General Manager Kevin Lavertu with working each year to give the tournament an ideal sporting environment.
When Up & Coming Weekly took over, Bowman also added a charitable side. "The tournament really was just a golf tournament," he said, "and I wanted it to tie in with our mission and our mandate." The event now supports the Kidsville News! Literacy & Education Foundation, a 501(c)(3) that gives free reading and educational materials to elementary students in Cumberland County schools. SERVPRO, Healy Wholesale and Valley Auto World are among the regular sponsors.
The biggest change for 2026 concerns who can enter. The minimum age dropped from 15 to 13, which lets younger players compete in the Champion and Open Divisions.
Some things stay the same:
Registration closed Monday, October 5, so this year's field is set. Anyone still interested can watch.
| Day | What's happening at Gates Four |
|---|---|
| Thursday, Oct. 8 | Gates Four Champions' Reception and Pairings Party. Players meet their competition, and guests include Kirk deViere, chairman of the Cumberland County Board of Commissioners, and Rep. Diane Wheatley of N.C. House District 43 |
| Friday, Oct. 9 | Championship play begins. The club's Oktoberfest runs 5 to 9 p.m. the same evening |
| Saturday, Oct. 10 | Play continues. The Women's Divisions begin their 36 holes |
| Sunday, Oct. 11 | Final round, with the Championship flight on the black tees. The SERVPRO Winners Reception follows at the club's pavilion around 4 p.m. |
For questions about the tournament, the published contact is Bill Bowman at 910-391-3859.
Chip Collins won in 2024 and 2025 and is going for three in a row. He played in the CCGC for many years, then turned pro, and has since come back to the local event. "I didn't really know how much I would miss playing in the tournament until I got back to playing in the tournament," he told Up & Coming Weekly. Between tournaments he stays sharp on two amateur circuits, the Golf Weekend tour and the APT tour.
Billy West, the 2025 runner-up, is back, and so is Chase Suitt. Last year's division winners give you a baseline for this weekend's scoreboard:
Collins himself expects the younger players to catch up eventually. He described the turnover as the "coming of the new kids." With the minimum age now 13, that could happen sooner than it would have under the old rule.
On the club's own calendar, the county championship is one busy weekend in a fall that runs into November. The September issue of the club's Gate Post newsletter lists these dates:
The newsletter doesn't say whether these social events are open only to members. If you aren't a member, call the club before you plan an evening around one of them. The county championship is the one event this month with a published open invitation to spectators.
The same newsletter lists two other changes at the club. JP's Bar & Grill now takes orders through a new partnership with Swoop. Pilates and chair-fitness classes with instructor Traci Payne started September 21 in the Riddle Room, at $10 a class.
In April, the Fayetteville Area Convention & Visitors Bureau announced that Gates Four will host the NAIA Men's National Golf Championship two years in a row. The dates are May 18-21, 2027, and May 23-26, 2028. Each year should bring 156 golfers from 30 teams, plus coaches and supporters.
The size of that field gives this weekend some context. The county championship caps out at 96 players. The national event will bring more than one and a half times as many golfers to the same 18 holes, and every one of them is a college competitor playing for a national title. Robert Cox, director of sales and sports commission for the CVB, described the expected overnight stays and visitor spending at local hotels, restaurants and businesses as a strong win for Cumberland County's sports tourism, according to BizFayetteville.
Lavertu has put the start of that work in the current season. "Our preparations will begin in the fall of 2026 to ensure Gates Four will provide the best course conditions for an event of this magnitude," he said in the announcement. The club hasn't published a detailed work schedule. The most recent maintenance notice in the Gate Post was the greens aerification closure on August 24. As of early October, the archive's newest issue is September, so the October issue is the one to watch for course updates.
The first national championship is about seven months after this Sunday's final round, so this weekend's county field plays the course during the same season its preparation is set to begin. Lavertu ended his statement with a line that suits a gated club about to host visitors from across the country: "Our Gates will be wide open to welcome all the players, teams, families, spectators, and all involved in making this event a success."
If you're heading down Irongate Drive to watch the final round this weekend, I hope you enjoy the golf. Gates Four is a community I've worked in for many years. If you'd like to talk about what the club's growing tournament schedule could mean for your home there, Jay Dowdy is glad to sit down and go over it with you. Let's Connect.
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