By Gerri Miller
Staff Writer
Pines Golf Club General Manager John Price is no longer with us, but friends and coworkers of the well-loved man say he was the heart and soul of the operation.
Price, 63, died of a massive heart attack last week, and his death has come as a shock to all who knew and loved the man who was always working to make the course better. His friends affectionately called him J.P.
Millbrook Mayor Al Kelley said a celebration of Price’s life will be held later on Hole 1, the part of a fairway upgrade project that Price was able to see completed and the part that meant a great deal to him. A black ribbon in his honor is tied on the hole’s flag.
“This was a tremendous undertaking that we are glad that J.P. was able to see completed,” Mayor Kelley said. Brush once covering the site has been cleared and a new green has been built.
“This place was his baby, his heart and his soul,” Mayor Kelley said. “When all of this virus stuff settles down, we are going to have a big party for him.”
Mayor Kelley said Price and his wife Judy bought the golf course in 1994 along with Sharon and Earl Mills. He said the City bought the course in 2004 after finding out that a developer planned to purchase the property for the construction of around 300 houses. “The road is congested already, and we didn’t think it was a good idea to put that many new houses around this section of Deatsville Highway,” he said. The City also purchased the golf course in the hopes of keeping the green space and a source of recreation and quality of life for the city.
In 2015, Price came back to the Pines as general manager through a contract with the City. “He was up here everyday rain or shine,” Kelley said. “This was his family.”
Marty Adams, now superintendent of the Pines, was one of Price’s closest friends. He worked with Price for more than 20 years. “He was one of the easiest people I ever worked with,” Adams said. “J.P. saw everything in black and white. There was no gray area. You knew exactly where he was coming from.”
Adams said Price was a family man, but the Pines was his second home. “He had a great imagination for golf courses,” Adams said. “He was innovative and had a photographic memory.”
Adams said he once asked Price a question and he told him to go get the course’s huge operations manual, or the “golf bible” as Price called it. He told Adams to turn to page 240 to find his answer. “He remembered everything,” Adams said.
“He was a good man,” Adams said. “I was just as close to him as I was to my brothers. I loved him and I am going to miss him.”
Lee Graham was another close friend of Price’s whose relationship spanned over many decades. He cried softly as he tried to describe the man who he said knew every inch of the 133-acre golf course. “Our dream was to finish this renovation project,” Graham said. “He was good for this golf course.”
Ryan Harris is a maintenance employee at the Pines who said he will miss going to meet with Price everyday to let him know what was going on. “He once told me that we are all one big family and this course is our backyard,” Harris said. “Every day I told him that I had to come get my daily dose of J.P.”
“I loved the man to death, and I am going to miss him,” Harris said. Harris said Price had a habit of sneaking up on him when he was working, but it was always done in fun.
Mayor Kelley said Price was especially proud of the course’s new half-million-dollar irrigation system. The new system is automated and can be controlled from within the clubhouse or by phone. Previously, the groundskeeping staff had to manually turn on the watering heads for each hole and green.
“The old system was antiquated,” Mayor Kelley said. “It was labor intensive and took about eighteen hours to water the grass.”
Price also played a major role in hiring the team currently in place at the Pines. “We have really good people and J.P. hired them for the most part,” Adams said. “They are all doing an absolutely wonderful job. J.P. would be proud.”
