Timberlake's Cherokee golf course

Justin Timberlake Wins Green Award With Native-Themed Golf CourseAt the Environmental Media Association‘s 21st annual Environmental Media Awards, held October 15, Actor and singer Justin Timberlake received the EMA Futures Award for his Mirimichi golf course, located near his hometown of Memphis, Tennessee.

Timberlake, who initially rose to fame as a member of boy band *NSync and then as a solo artist and has starred in such films as The Social Network and the upcoming thriller In Time, has made occasional comments about his likely Native ancestry. In an article at contactmusic.com he is quoted as saying: “I’ve had my genealogy studied and I want to say that I am of British descent. … There was a British lad who was in a war, not sure which war, but he ran away from the war because he fell in love with an Indian girl, and that’s where my family tree started.”

On its website, Thompson, the firm that helped develop the brand for the course, specifically identifies Timberlake’s ancestral tribe and explains the course’s name. “Justin is part Cherokee Indian,” it reads, “We discovered the word mirimichi by searching old Indian names. Mirimichi happens to mean, ‘Place of happy retreat.’”

The course’s logo is an arrowhead, and its holes are given Cherokee names: #2 is Gada-ama (“Muddy Water”), #9 is Egategawi (“Sunset”), #10 is Inadu (“Snake”).Comment:  For more on Native golf, see 4th NB3 Challenge and NFL Stars to Golf at Pechanga.