Golf in South Carolina lost a friend when Ben Gramling passed away

By Stan Olenik. Editor-Publisher. The Golf Club

Ben Gramling’s official obituary details a long and productive life filled with accomplishments in agriculture, business and service to his community and state. Earlier this year, he received the Order of the Palmetto, South Carolina’s highest civilian honor.

But the obituary also makes room for something that was an important part of Gramling’s life—the game of golf.

As young men, Gramling, his brothers Marion and John, and their close friend Jerry Gaines often had to travel across Spartanburg County or elsewhere in the Upstate to find a place to play.

“One day while waiting on the tee at Spartanburg, we asked ourselves, ‘Why don’t we have a golf course?’” Gramling recalled.

The answer from the other three wasn’t “Why?” It was “Why not?”

Farming was the family business. Golf was something they did for fun. With encouragement from their fathers, the group began putting together the land that would become Village Greens Golf Club.

They hired a young course designer named Russell Breeden, who would eventually have his name attached to dozens of respected courses throughout the Carolinas.

Breeden designed the course and worked the land. So did the future owners.

Gramling remembered that they didn’t move much dirt. They assembled several adjoining parcels and built the course around the land they had rather than trying to remake it.

Village Greens opened in 1969.

The men involved in creating the course shared the same understanding about what they were doing.

“We were farmers. That was our business,” Gramling said. “Golf was fun, but we never made it our business.”

That philosophy shaped Village Greens.

The course endured many of the same ups and downs the golf industry experienced during the next half-century. A fire destroyed the clubhouse, and difficult economic times sometimes affected the operation.

Through it all, Village Greens maintained a well-earned reputation as a friendly but challenging public golf course.

It became a home for generations of Upstate golfers. It helped launch the long-running Spartanburg County Amateur and hosted countless high school tournaments, fundraisers and community events.

For many years, the four friends continued to play the course together, swapping stories and knowing—as longtime friends always do—exactly how to get under one another’s skin.

Beating the others was always important, but Gramling had an additional goal.

His father was a good golfer who had recorded eight or nine holes-in-one. Ben wanted to top his father’s total.

In December 2022, Gramling made the seventh ace of his own at the age of 82. As with almost everything at Village Greens, there was a story behind it.

“I was playing as a single. I just wanted to get in a quick nine,” Gramling said. “There was a group on the sixth green when I got to the tee. They were nice enough to wave me through so I wouldn’t have to wait on them.”

Gramling took aim at the 111-yard, par-3 sixth hole with his pitching wedge.

“I thought I hit a pretty good shot, but all of a sudden the golfers were jumping up and down and screaming,” he said.

When Gramling reached the green, the group told him his ball had rolled into the cup.

“I was really glad they were there to see it,” he joked. “Some of the guys I usually play with might not have believed me if I told them I made a hole-in-one without anyone seeing it.”

Gramling only had time for nine holes and, except for the ace, didn’t think he had played particularly well.

“I didn’t have a very good day,” he said. “I ended up shooting 41 for the nine holes I played.”

Had he doubled that score, Gramling would have shot his age in addition to making the hole-in-one.

“The golf ball doesn’t know how old you are,” he said.

Perhaps Ben and his father can now settle their debate over who made the most aces.

While golf was never the family’s principal business, making the game available to Spartanburg and Upstate golfers eventually led to the development of the Gary Player-designed River Falls Plantation. It was operated with much the same philosophy as Village Greens.

As the years passed, the four friends didn’t play as often.

Marion Gramling passed away. John remained deeply involved in the family business, leaving much of the golf in recent years to Ben and Jerry.

A glance at Ben Gramling’s obituary—with all his business responsibilities, agricultural leadership, public service and devotion to his church and family—makes you wonder how he found time to play the course he helped build.

Regardless of the state and national honors he received, Gramling spent all 87 years of his life in the small Upstate community bearing his family’s name.

As Ben and his friends agreed many years ago, golf wasn’t business.

Golf was fun.

It just won’t be quite as much fun without the courtly, tall gentleman standing on the tee, trying for one more hole-in-one.

The family will receive friends Wednesday, September 2, from 12:30 until 1:45 p.m. at Gramling Methodist Church, 14941 Asheville Highway. A memorial service will begin at 2 p.m. A private interment will precede the service.

Read Ben Martin Gramling II’s complete obituary and service arrangements.

Editor’s note: The Golf Club has some very special memories of Village Greens and the Gramling family. When this publication began in 1991, Village Greens became its first committed advertiser. Village Greens and its companion course, River Falls Plantation, have supported The Golf Club with an advertisement in every issue throughout the publication’s 35-year history. For that loyalty and friendship, we offer our sincere thanks.

We would have rather reported on another hole-in-one, but we are committed to bringing all news about golf in the Carolinas to our readers. Get every post sent directly to your email when you subscribe.