The Legend & Lore of Project Greek Island

This week, 95 golfers representing U.S. military veterans and their families grace the pristinely groomed golf greens of the Greenbrier Resort. Ranked among the top public golf courses in the country, the Greenbrier’s Old White TPC is a championship-caliber track tucked into the scenic backdrop of West Virginia’s Blue Ridge Mountains. Crisp and classic in its luxury, the Greenbrier itself is the perfect intersection of public extravagance and private practicality—service and sport, legend and lore. Thirty years it spent as a completely classified precautionary emergency hideaway for the U.S. federal government first commissioned as Project Greek Island. In all, the structure tells two distinct yet intertwined stories: one the pinnacle of golf and hospitality; the other a large-scale preparation for the unfathomable.

A Storied Past

The legendary Greenbrier was a marvel long before its prime. With nearly two and a half centuries of history, the 11,000-acre site’s natural mineral sulphur springs made it attractive to early 18th century colonists. In the time since, it has been dubbed America’s Resort with a premier spa experience, a corridor of retail boutiques, gourmet dining, and a destination golf experience quite unlike any other.

The course is steeped in history, having hosted its fair share of legends—from golf’s Ben Hogan, Arnold Palmer, Sam Snead, and Tiger Woods to dukes, duchesses, prime ministers, kings, and presidents, including Woodrow Wilson (one of the first golfers to ever play its greens). Opened in 1914, the 7,286-yard, par-70 track was constructed by Charles Blair Macdonald on the grounds of a historic hotel built in 1858. The strikingly white hotel’s pillared entry and grandiose archways stood beside the property’s original Grand Central Hotel until the latter was demolished in 1922. A point of distinction, its stark white complexion earned it the nickname The Old White, a name later adopted by the course itself (now officially called The Old White TPC). Its undulating greens are a complex blend of Old World design with New World influence, landing it among Golf Digest’s top 100 public facilities for the last decade. Its accolades include the honor of hosting the 1979 Ryder Cup as well as an annual PGA Tour event.

The Classified Version

Beyond its perfectly manicured grounds and striking exterior—or rather below—is a piece of history you almost have to see to believe. Seven hundred and twenty feet under the west wing (fittingly), behind a 25-ton reinforced steel door is a facility that once served as plan B: the emergency headquarters for the U.S. federal government in the event of a nuclear strike on our nation’s capital. Commissioned by President Eisenhower in 1955, the series of chambers includes a decontamination corridor, a makeshift Senate floor large enough to host joint sessions, and 18 dormitories, each consisting of 60 metal bunk beds. The site also held a full-service kitchen and a 400-person-capacity cafeteria that, at one point, included a series of fake windows decorated to mimic scenic outdoor views.

In its heyday, the site included a two-month supply of foodstuffs, a self-sustaining power plant, an air intake system capable of filtering out radiation, and a water purification system consisting of three, 25,000-gallon tanks. In all, the facility now affectionately referred to as the Bunker could accommodate every member of the U.S. Congress and then some (with sleeping quarters for a total of approximately 1,100 people).

Perhaps even more striking than its scale, or even the contrast of its circumstances juxtaposed against the Greenbrier’s sustaining luxury, is the fact that the compound remained completely top secret for so long. White Sulphur Springs, which folds into the Blue Ridge foothills about two hours southeast of Charleston, is only about two square miles in total with a couple thousand residents. It has a handful of stoplights and one elementary school. Every spring, the town celebrates the beginning of another season with an annual dandelion festival. Of course, there was a documented and well-known history between the U.S. government and the Greenbrier that spanned decades ahead of the construction of the Bunker. The resort served as an internment facility for Japanese, Italian, and German diplomats during World War II; it was then transitioned into a temporary military hospital, where Eisenhower himself was once a patient. But after the war, it returned to its original function as a luxury resort, until construction began on the west wing in 1957. While the two-level, 112,000-plus-square-foot bunker was not designed to survive a direct nuclear strike, it can withstand the force of a blast as close as 15 miles. While contractors, construction workers, and locals asked plenty of questions about the mysterious construction project and the circumstances surrounding it—why it required a seemingly endless amount of concrete; why its restrooms included so many partitions; and why a town of roughly 2,500 people required a 7,000-foot landing strip—its true function was (thankfully) never needed, and the Greenbrier’s secret remained safe for decades. Once constructed, the bunker was maintained by a small team of government employees who worked as undercover audio-visual staffers servicing the hotel’s TVs. The bunker remained top secret until the Washington Post revealed its true function in a 1992 story. The facility was swiftly decommissioned.

Today, it welcomes a fitting group of golfers: 95 members of the Veteran Golfers Association—a national 501(c)3 nonprofit organization whose mission is to impact the lives of U.S. military veterans and their families through the game of golf. The organization provides opportunities for veterans to remain physically active and connect with other servicemembers during their crucial transition back to civilian life and beyond. After regional league play concludes at the end of season, players move on to regional qualifers, where they earn the chance to play in the national championship. Today marks round one of this very special event. For these players, it’s more than just a game—and the Greenbrier is more than just a venue.

GolfStatus is honored to partner with the Veteran Golfers Association. Follow live leaderboards for the 2019 VGA Championship online: