When Taylorsville Country Club opened in 1984, it was the debut of yet another golfing gem from architect Clarence Riley “Buck” Blankenship.

A native of Somerset, Blankenship was a longtime PGA Member and built a legacy as a golf course designer (over 35 golf courses to his credit, primarily in Kentucky), golf course owner/operator, and promoter of the game. As a teen, his father, a sharecropper, moved his family from Kentucky to California in search of work. “Farm boy” Buck landed a job on the grounds crew at the exclusive Hillcrest Country Club in Beverly Hills and spent the next 21 years working there, eventually becoming the course superintendent. Even though he had a good job in California, Buck moved back to Kentucky in 1944. He bought a small farm outside of Hustonville.