Major Gift Speeds Work on New Golf Facility
6/13/2001 12:00:00 AM | Women's Golf
June 13, 2001
Editor's Note: Articles such as this one by Dave Campbell appear in each edition of the Baylor Bear Insider Report, available upon membership in the Baylor Bear Foundation. For information on joining the Bear Foundation, click here.
- Click here for more information on the new course and facility.
Several years ago, Waco businessman and insurance executive Bill Bailey was playing golf on the Old Course at St. Andrews in Scotland. He came to the eighteenth hole, a par 4. His drive was just so-so but his second shot -- oh, my! The ball soared and hit and rolled and stopped on the green, just three feet away from the pin. A short putt later and Bailey had his birdie, scored on the final hole of the famed cradle of golf.
After that superb second shot, as he trudged up to the green, people were asking, "What club did he hit, what club did he hit?"
That moment provided an enduring thrill for Bailey, whose active involvement in golf goes back more than three decades. But the love of Baylor University by both Bailey and his wife Roberta goes back a lifetime.
That love has been displayed in the numerous contributions they have made to their alma mater over the years. And now they have stepped forward to make another significant contribution, and this latest one in golf.
Last week Bill and Roberta confirmed they are making a "major" gift for the construction of the facility that will become the new golf home for both Bears and Lady Bears at the Bear Ridge golf course now taking shape just west of Waco and just off Highway 84.
THE FACILITY, which tentatively has been named the "Bill and Roberta Bailey Golf Center," will feature locker rooms for both the Bears and Lady Bears, offices for Bears coach Tim Hobby and Lady Bears coach Sylvia Ferdon, a large lounge area for the players that will include a big-screen TV, etc., a reception area, a large patio, and -- drumroll please, for the piece de resistance -- a giant-sized teaching area.
That teaching area not only will boast the latest in high tech teaching tools (such as video equipment for on-the-spot filming and analyzing of golf swings) but also large doors that lift overhead, enabling the golfers to fire away even in bad weather, practicing their drives and other strokes while remaining inside.
Nearby will be the Baylor golfers' own driving range which will permit practice from either end (with or against the wind, whichever the golfer needs to work on), the golfers' own practice putting green, and a special area where BU golfers can work on their short game.
The entire golf course, designed by well-known golf pro and golf course architect Peter Jacobsen, is the signature facility for the Villages at Twin Rivers, a $100 million housing development that will take shape adjacent to the course.
"WE ARE EXTREMELY THANKFUL to Bill and Roberta Bailey for their involvement in pursuing our vision of upgrading Baylor's athletic facilities," said Baylor's director of athletics Tom Stanton.
"This facility will bear their names and will be consistent with the excellence that Bill and Roberta have exhibited in this community, their support for Baylor University, and the leadership the Bailey family has always provided."
Stanton said he hopes "we'll be able to put a shovel in the ground" and have groundbreaking ceremonies for this facility in early July.
"And we will have a formal dedication of the Golf Center just before we play our first tournament on the new Bear Ridge course on the Friday before our homecoming game (Oct. 27 against Texas Tech)."
One would presume Bill Bailey might be in the first foursome that plays in that tournament. He didn't go so far as to put in a claim on that spotlighted position, "but I want to play some. I certainly plan to play some," he said. And, said Roberta, "I haven't played golf since I developed some shoulder problems years ago. But I do plan to walk the (new) course."
IT WILL BE a course boasting facilities that will make it first class, "nationally recognized to be one of the finest in America," declared Stanton.
The cart paths for most of the 18 holes had already been completed last week, and workers will start sprigging grass for the fairways this week. And the lakes are already starting to fill with water.
As Bailey explained, "This (funding of the golf center) was presented to us as an opportunity to make a contribution and it was very appealing to us. And we decided to do it."
He declined to supply a specific dollar amount on the contribution, only labeling it "a major gift which will enable construction to go forward. To me, this facility will give Baylor all the facilities a university could hope to have. I think they've done an incredible job in design, construction and location of the new facilities at Baylor. I have to compliment those who have provided the lead in all this.
"Our philosophy has been that whatever we give to Baylor University just releases that much money for Baylor to give to other things."
Over the years the Baileys have contributed to many Baylor projects -- the new Student Life Center, the "Bailey Plaza" which is the bricked area with trees located at the end of Old Main and the old Carroll Science Building, the foyer at the Glennis McCrary music building, the Baylor Alumni Building, Baylor's endowed scholarship program, the Truett Seminary currently under construction, the renovation of the Baylor basketball coaches' offices at the Ferrell Center. The Baileys also share one of the luxury suites at Floyd Casey Stadium.
SAID ROBERTA: "My philosophy has always been that anything that helps Baylor University also helps Waco."
So in that regard the Baileys, who have three sons (Roy, Wes and Hatch) and 10 grandchildren, have been helping both their home town and their alma mater for a number of years and in a number of ways.
And they have been helping Baylor not only in gifts but also in service. Bill, who has been honored as a Distinguished Baylor Alumnus, served on the Baylor Board of Regents for 18 years ("I served under three presidents -- Abner McCall, Herb Reynolds and Robert Sloan"), he served as chairman of the Regents' real estate committee for several years, he served as vice chairman of the Board of Regents, he served as co-chairman of the Regents' committee for the building of the Ferrell Center, and he chaired the search committee formed to recommend a successor for Herb Reynolds when Reynolds retired as Baylor President.
Roberta, just as ardent in her affection for the university, has served on the board of the Baylor Alumni Association.
Both are native Wacoans, Waco High School graduates and both earned their degrees at Baylor. Both describe themselves as lifelong Baylor fans. Bailey's mother, Luzera Mansell Bailey, was a Baylor grad, "and my grandparents lived right behind old Baylor Drug facing Fifth Street. My grandfather had what was called a meat market in those days -- it was called Baylor Meat Market," Bill smiles.
Roberta's mother attended Baylor and her father, Roy Hatch, who was a longtime Waco civic leader, "was probably the biggest non-Baylor fan there ever was," she says. "Some of his proudest moments came when my sister and I graduated from Baylor and married Baylor grads. That thrilled him to death."
Oddly enough, Bill Bailey first made an impact on Waco's sports scene as a tennis player, not a golfer. He played tennis all through high school, became the No. 3-ranked boys netter in the state and played in the national juniors tournament in Kalamazoo, Mich. Later he played No. 1 singles and doubles at Baylor. At one point, he and Roberta won the city mixed doubles tennis championship.
He turned to golf "30 or 35 years ago," and plays now once a week, "occasionally twice," usually in a foursome that includes Baylor backers Herman Coleman, Ted Getterman and M.M. Key. "But every summer Roberta and I go to a place we have in Wyoming, at Jackson Hole, and we stay a month and I play golf nearly every day," Bill said.
He has some special golf memories apart from scoring that birdie at St. Andrews in Scotland. As president of the Independent Insurance Agents of America in 1990 and '91, he played in the pro-am at the Kemper tournament and also at the PGA tournament the IIAA sponsored for several years at The Woodlands (Houston). He has seen the famed Masters Tournament in Augusta up close and personal, and likewise the Byron Nelson in Dallas.
It was during his tenure as president of IIAA, at an affair held in conjuction with The Woodlands tournament, that he first met Peter Jacobsen. "He certainly won't remember me," Bill laughs. But their paths are likely to cross more frequently now as construction goes forward on Jacobsen's course at Bear Ridge and work begins on the Bill and Roberta Bailey Golf Center which will become a prominent part of Bear Ridge.
He does know this: "Wes will have a house just behind the No. 4 fairway." And, smiles Roberta, "who would ever have thought that?"
Seeing all that take shape surely will provide the Baileys with a few more memorable moments, maybe even some approaching that birdie Bill scored at old St. Andrews.
Editor's Note: Articles such as this one by Dave Campbell appear in each edition of the Baylor Bear Insider Report, available upon membership in the Baylor Bear Foundation. For information on joining the Bear Foundation, click here.
