SEWANEE, Tenn. — The sizzling sun already burning off the glistening dew atop The Course at Sewanee’s perfect greens early Wednesday morning, Doug Stein stood before some of the late King Oehmig’s closest friends and family members and said, “The two courses we will play today occupied much of the dreaming space in King’s heart and mind.”
Oehmig’s heart and mind were occupied by many things outside the two nine-hole courses that Stein referenced: Sewanee and South Pittsburg’s Sweetens Cove. An Episcopal priest, a businessman, a philanthropist, for 12 years the unfathomably successful Baylor School golf coach, Oehmig made a huge impact on so many people and things – all of it for the good, too much good to have been tragically ended by a heart attack at the too-young age of 63 just 68 days ago today.
“King had such a positive influence on so many,” noted Rob Collins, who designed Sweetens Cove. “He paved the way for me to become a golf course architect. It seemed like having an impact on people’s lives was all in a day’s work for him.”
It had been at least nine years worth of work by Oehmig and Stein to dramatically upgrade Sewanee, the details finally shaped by Gil Hanse, the golf course architect who also designed the new Olympic course for the 2016 Summer Games in Brazil.
And the grand work of all these men – Collins, Hanse, Oehmig, Stein and others – already has both courses ranked among the top 10 or 12 nine-hole layouts in the country, despite being less than three years old.