After the Ashes: Remembering the 2007 fire at Inverness Country Club

This month marks the 10-year anniversary of reopening the clubhouse at Inverness Country Club, after a fire destroyed it on June 11, 2007. 

Co-owner of the course Bill Ochsenhirt bought the course in 2005 and was working as the general manager at the time of the fire. He had closed the golf course for a year to rebuild it. Just a year later, the fire happened.

He was there on that Monday. Although they were typically closed that day, a golf tournament was being held for Birmingham-Southern College. An employee came to him and said they smelled smoke. 

Ochsenhirt’s initial thought was an equipment fire, but when he made his way to the attic and saw it was ablaze, he found out it was far worse. He worked hurriedly to make sure everyone had been evacuated and was the last one out of the building.

“The previous clubhouse, built in 1973, was an old wood frame building with no sprinkler system,” Ochsenhirt said. “The fire began burning on the edge of the roof then raced across the attic before the roof collapsed. When the fire department arrived, they told me the building would burn to the ground. For the next several hours, they kept it contained, but the entire clubhouse was destroyed.” 

Current General Manager Steve Korson, who was managing Pine Tree Country Club at the time, was in Dallas for a wedding and remembers seeing the tragedy on the news minutes before his phone rang. 

“I saw a three-alarm fire in Birmingham, Alabama, on CNN and it was just devastating,” he said. 

Not missing a beat, Ochsenhirt said they opened the course the next morning for golf. The golf pros ran the golf shop out of their cars and spent the next few months handling operations out of a tent in the parking lot before getting a double wide trailer — their modular palace, as he called it — to serve as a temporary clubhouse during the rebuilding process.

“We went into scramble mode to figure out what was left of the old clubhouse, then deal with the insurance company to figure out how it happened, all while keeping the business of the club operating,” he said.

To start the rebuilding process, Ochsenhirt and his team engaged with an architecture firm out of Maryland and started with a blank slate to come up with their vision going forward.

“We knew we weren’t going to build back what we had,” Ochsenhirt said. “Expectations change, so we decided to keep what was working in the old clubhouse and add a more modern flair and more space for the new clubhouse. We also formed a focus group of members to assist in planning to help decide what we wanted out of the club for years going forward.”

Having been in the club business for 20 years, Ochsenhirt took all of his experience and combined it with what the members wanted, which included a fitness area, childcare and outdoor dining, amenities that were not available at the old clubhouse. 

“We spent the better part of the year designing it, and then it took a year to build it,” he said. “Two years after the fire and after 13 months of construction, we opened the new clubhouse on July 3, 2009. The members were ecstatic to be back in the clubhouse again, and there was nothing but positive response in terms of the look and quality of the new space, which far exceeded their expectations,” Ochsenhirt said. 

The 7,000-square-foot increase in space went to the dining areas and fitness room. In 2010, just a year after re-opening, Inverness Country Club won Golf Inc. Magazine’s award for the best new clubhouse design in the country. 

With the 10-year anniversary this month, Ochsenhirt said a new master plan for the club is in the works for the future, and they will begin the process of refreshing the clubhouse, expanding the rear patio and adding firepits this fall. Upgrades will come later for the pool and tennis areas. They want to continue to meet the needs of current members, and also potential new members.

The club is better now than it has ever been and Ochsenhirt said membership has never been higher. He credits Korson for all the growth since his arrival as general manager in 2013 and said he is always pushing him to the next step. 

 “We are constantly refreshing and making things better,” Korson said. “For what you get here, the clubhouse and amenities are as nice as any others around. From Friday night dinners, to group fitness classes, our tennis courts, pool and fitness center, we make it easy for people to get active and meet people when they’re here.”

For more information, visit iccalabama.com.