The Greene County Partnership announced Thursday that Link Hills Country Club will host the 2011 and 2012 National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) Women's Golf National Championships.

The events are expected to provide an important economic boost to the local community.

The 2011 tournament will be May 17-20 and the 2012 tournament is scheduled for May 15-18.

Tammy Kinser, the Partnership's tourism director, made the announcement during a Thursday morning press conference at the Hampton Inn.

NAIA student athletes and their supporters who will be here for the golf championships are expected to spend $250,000 locally during each of the two tournaments, Kinser said.

NAIA President and CEO Jim Carr said, "The NAIA is excited to make this announcement and we fully realize that the Greene County Partnership [and Greene County] will be the perfect fit for the NAIA Women's Golf National Championships."

Kinser said she learned in a March 1 telephone call from a NAIA official that Greene County's bid to host the golf championships for two years had been successful.

On Feb. 5, the Partnership's Sports Council had hosted NAIA officials who came to town for an official "site visit."

During that visit, she said, NAIA officials had been shown all local hotels, the Niswonger Performing Arts Center and Link Hills Country Club and its golf course.

Women's golf has been an NAIA championship sport since 1995.

The women's golf championships have never been held in Tennessee. Greene County will become the 11th different site to host the championships.

Kristin Gillette, NAIA manager of championship sports, said in a release, "Greene County, Greeneville, and Link Hills Country Club will provide a tremendous national championship atmosphere for our student-athletes."

"With the community out in full force, the backdrop of the Smoky Mountains and the commitment already shown by the Greene County Partnership and Link Hills Country Club, there is a real excitement for the NAIA Women's Golf National Championships to be there for 2011 and 2012," Gillette added.

Bob Ward, general manager and director of golf at Link Hills, said the club and its members are "extremely excited" to host the NAIA championship tournaments.

"We host three college golf tournaments a year with Tusculum College and also allow Greeneville High School and Middle School golf teams access to the course," he said.

"It's going to be a super situation for not only Link Hills, but also for Greeneville and the region," Ward said of the NAIA tournaments.

Link Hills Country Club is a private, 18-hole course built in 1955 by the legendary Robert Trent Jones Sr. The course is 6,733 yards long and has a par of 71.

"The impact that the national championships will have on Greene County will not only be felt in the lodging industry, but community-wide," Kinser said.

There are 140 NAIA schools that currently sponsor a varsity women's golf program.

The 2010 National Championships will be contested May 25-28 at Meadowbrook Municipal Golf Course in Rapid City, S.D.

Kinser said that Greeneville Parks & Recreation Director Butch Patterson had approached her last year with the idea of this community bidding to host the NAIA Women's National Golf Championships.

Patterson, who also officiates NAIA basketball, said he got the idea of applying to host the NAIA Women's Golf National Championships while officiating last year at an NAIA basketball tournament in Sioux City, Iowa.

"When I came back to Greeneville, I went to see Tammy [about the possibility of hosting the championships]," Patterson said.

"She just ran with it. She immediately got the Partnership's Sports Council together.

"We said, 'Hey, we're going to go for this'. We then had them [NAIA officials] in for a site visit and we're very, very happy to be selected."

Patterson, who will be tournament director for the two tournaments, said he believes NAIA officials looked favorably on this community "because they would be a big fish in a small pond here."

He said NAIA would have been a "small fish in a big pond" had they chosen to award the 2011 and 2012 tournaments to San Diego or Salem, Ore., the two other communities that were finalists.

"They like our charm," Patterson said of the NAIA. "They like Greeneville and Greene County and what we have to offer. We look forward to a great two years."

Patterson said NAIA officials have inquired about whether Greeneville and Greene County would be interested in hosting other NAIA athletic championships, possibly including football, baseball and wrestling.

Stan Harrison, athletic director and women's golf coach at Tennessee Wesleyan University, said during the press conference that his school will be the host school for the tournaments.

"I'd like to express how extremely honored we are to be the host team and how much gratitude we have for Greeneville and the Greene County area for allowing us to be part of this partnership," Harrison said.

He said he had been associated with NAIA national championships for the past 25 years and was not surprised that Greeneville and Greene County was selected.

Harrison said the NAIA is "a small organization" that is "about doing what is right for student athletes.

"I think the message that Greene County sent was that 'we are here to support student athletes and make a positive experience with them,' " he said. "I look forward to being in your community for the next two years."

Harrison also said he had spoken briefly with Ward, general manager at Link Hills, about the possibility of bringing golf teams from a large number NAIA schools here in the fall to allow the athletes to become familiar with the Link Hills course.

"A lot of teams that compete in the national championships like to get on the course, if possible in the fall," he said. "This could be a double for you, not just a single, in baseball terms."

Greene County Mayor Alan Broyles said winning the NAIA tournaments had been the result of a "team effort."

Broyles said that when Patterson approached him with the idea of attempting to host the NAIA events some time ago, his secretary asked him later if he believed Patterson actually thought hosting the golf tournaments was possible.

"I told her that it would be like pushing a boulder up Viking Mountain, but that I thought we could do it," Broyles said.

Randy Rumbley, chairman of the Greene County Partnership, said, "This tournament will play a major role in the economic boom of our community by increasing overnight stays and traffic to our local businesses and restaurants."

The GCP's chairman said hosting the tournaments is a "great opportunity for Greeneville and Greene County.

"In addition to generating revenue for local businesses and governments, he said, hosting the tournaments represented an opportunity to "make friends," and possibly bring people back to Greeneville and Greene County.

Rumbley thanked all those who had been involved in the successful Feb. 5 site visit by NAIA officials.

In particular, Rumbley thanked Satish Hira, owner of the Hampton Inn, for providing rooms for NAIA officials during the site visit and for hosting Thursday's press conference.

He also thanked Russell and Sheila Ooten, owners of Greene Coach Tours, for providing a bus used to take NAIA officials to various locations around Greeneville and Greene County during the site visit.

Rumbley also thanked Greene County state Sen. Steve Southerland, R-1st, of Morristown; state Rep. David Hawk, R-5th, of Greeneville; and state Rep. Eddie Yokley, D-11th, of Greene County, for their support.