Mention living in the mountains and the last thing some people expect to find is golf. Sorry but pursuit of the little round ball is as great here as in the city, maybe even more so. Floyd’s Great Oaks Country Club is nearing its 40th anniversary and has a waiting list for memberships. Even on hot, muggy, July days you find the 18 holes crowded.

Developers say golf courses are high on any list for development of rural and mountain communities but others, naturally, complain of the amount of farm and scenic land that such a development consumes.

But Floyd’s golf club arrived long before the county was “discovered” as a country getaway for the urbanites. In true Floyd County fashion, it sparked controversy not over its building but over plans to serve alcohol in the clubhouse. That led a group of county citizens to start a booze-free swim club on the other side of town. Every decent citizen knows you can be serving beer and wine in a county with a tradition of moonshining. Everybody knows you should be sneaking off somewhere and sippin’ shine out of a Mason jar, not sitting in a public place and guzzling it in front of God and everybody. Just ain’t right.

The swim club faded into oblivion long ago, another sign of change in this Bible Belt community, but the golf and drinks continue at Great Oaks.