Earlier this year, the Sherrill Center had an indoor golf facility installed. While at first glance it may just seem like a new space, the story behind this facility makes it a symbol of resilience and community.
The Sherri and Rob Daniels Golf Center was installed over winter break and officially opened Jan. 11 with a ribbon cutting ceremony. The facility was created for the women’s golf team after Hurricane Helene destroyed their old practice facility in 2024.
Sophomore Kate Bennett has been on the women’s golf team for two years. When their old facility was destroyed, it meant more than just losing a space to practice putting.
“It was really upsetting, because that was kind of like our locker space,” Bennett said. “That was where we connected as a team and came together. So we kind of lost our meeting ground or a safe space for us as a team, as well as losing all of our equipment, shoes and gear.”
Following this loss, Bennet said the team was split up and placed at different schools to compete and practice. Though due to golf having only one home event, they weren’t able to stay in one place for long.
Janet Cone is the Athletic Director and women’s golf coach. Cone organized for the players to all meet up and travel to compete.
“Janet had organized for the entire team to come together,” Bennet said. “We met in Charleston, then we competed throughout South Carolina and Georgia, and then back in North Carolina for about a month, just traveling across the area, staying in hotels and stuff.”
When the 2024 season came to an end, the team used a temporary practice space provided by the Country Club of Asheville. However, that would soon begin to change when Bennet and her teammate, Caroline Patterson got lunch with Sherri and Rob Daniels.
The Daniels are part of UNC Asheville’s Leaders for Leaders. This is a program where student athletes get paired with community members in a mentorship relationship. In August of 2025, the Daniels asked their mentees how they could better support the women’s golf team and learned that the team still didn’t have a dedicated space to practice.
UNC Asheville Athletics put out a press release describing what led to the construction of the golf center.
“Motivated by this need, Sherri and Rob began exploring ways to help,” the release said. “In September 2025, they approached Director of Athletics Janet R. Cone to express their interest in supporting the women’s golf program through a new facility. Following that conversation, Cone quickly developed a plan to bring the vision to life.”
The Daniels requested the facility to be located on campus and be complete before winter break so the team could use it as soon as they got back. In order to make this a reality, the athletic department converted a racquetball court that wasn’t seeing much use.
“Racquetball courts on college campuses nationwide have largely trended into conversions for other recreational uses since the early 2010’s,” said Leah Belt, director of campus recreation.
“I’ve been on campus since 2002 and have never known us to have a racquetball team. In the last five years, we’ve had no regular users of the space. Other student interests on campus have grown, needing their own spaces, and we’ve taken those needs into consideration and made these strategic decisions for upfitting the courts to serve our students better,” Belt said.
By Dec. 31, 2025 the golf center was complete in time for the team to start practicing. To honor the Daniels’ contributions, the new facility was named after them.
“We are so grateful for it, I could not express in words how much I appreciate it,” Bennet said. “It also just means so much that our mentors care so much about us, to do something so big like that for us.”
No one could have predicted the damage Helene would cause, but by sticking together and getting help from their community, the women’s golf team is back to practicing.
“It was difficult, but we all experienced it together, so we were able to support each other through it,” Bennet said.
