The 1977 Greater Greensboro Open decanter takes the form of the head of a golf club striking a golf ball that proudly proclaims the 40th anniversary of the GGO and also points out the tournament will be held at Forest Oaks Country Club. The club head striking the golf ball that makes up the base of the bottle contains an illustration of Forest Oaks Country Club. This bottle is the only decanter to feature the clubhouse of the course at which the event was hosted. The 1974 North Carolina shaped bottle displays an unidentified course map, but fails to name Sedgefield as the location of the GGO. The 1977 issue shows an illustration of the Forest Oaks’ clubhouse and its putting green. What is truly ironic about the drawing of Forest Oaks on this decanter is how rich and green the fairways are pictured. The truth is that the fairways at the 1977 Greater Greensboro Open where anything but green. Smith Barrier had the following to say about the course conditions of the 1977 tournament.
But the 1977 tournament followed a terrible winter when the grass didn’t grow, and Peoples (1977 GGO General Chairman) was faced with a brown golf course. He said they wanted to color the course with green spray paint, as the Heritage had done the week before, but the TPD asked them not to. The paint had made the Heritage grass brittle on the greens, it also stuck on the players’ shoes and slacks. So Forest Oaks and the GGO went on NBC-TV coast to coast with a brown golf course.
Peoples confirmed this story during a 2008 conversation. He said that painting the grass had been done at the Heritage but that it had caused problems. He was contacted by players and asked not to duplicate the effort at the Greater Greensboro Open. Peoples was told by players that they could not putt well with the paint on the greens and that it got all over their shoes.
(March 27, 2012 marks the 40th anniversary of the Greater Greensboro Open decanters. To celebrate this anniversary "A GGO Thing" is now on sale on Amazon.com for only $9.00.)
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