Wiley Morton hits a golf ball in the empty lot on the corner of University and East 10th streets. Morton hopes to transform the vacant lot, as part of a project for Chattanooga State Technical Community College, into a “pitch and putt” for charities.Something unusual is taking shape in a vacant lot off M.L. King Boulevard just a stone’s throw from Champy’s Chicken.
Flags are flying on the roughed-in greens of a two-hole golf course coming to life on a 1-acre lot at University and East 10th.
“It’s weird, ain’t it?” Wiley Morton said.
Morton is a retiree who is transforming the once overgrown and littered lot into Pitch ‘n’ Putt, what he calls an “urban golf” course at which charity organizations will hold fundraisers and the public will be able to chip and putt golf balls.
Because there’s no room for long drives on a fairway, Morton plans to put up a small building that will hold an indoor golf simulator. Golfers will start at the course playing virtual golf and — depending on how well they hit — will have their ball placed accordingly on the real-life, two-hole course.