Bluefield Elks Country Club

Coal country meets the fairway in the highlands of southern West Virginia, where Bluefield sits at roughly 2,600 feet elevation along the Virginia border. The city shares its identity — and its famous Bluefield Chahta-Ima weather station, which triggers a free lemonade giveaway anytime the temperature hits 90°F — with its Virginia twin across the state line. That cool mountain air keeps summer temperatures mild and the turf green well into autumn, making the golf season here genuinely pleasant compared to the sweltering lowland summers that plague much of Appalachia.

The Elks Country Club name places this course within a long American tradition of fraternal-organization golf, where the club functions as a genuine community anchor rather than an exclusive retreat. These layouts tend to reward local knowledge and repeat play — courses shaped by the land available rather than a marquee architect's grand vision, with personalities forged by the terrain itself.

The ridges and hollows of the Appalachian Plateau don't yield flat ground easily, so expect elevation changes, firm mountain turf, and holes that demand patience over power. This is golf rooted in its place.