Teeing it up around charming Aiken, South Carolina, once named “Best small town of the South” by Southern Living, is about to get quite a bit more, well, charming.
Two new layouts – Old Barnwell and Zac Blair’s Tree Farm – will join a regional roster of layouts that includes classical treasure Palmetto Golf Club and the uber-upscale Sage Valley. The new kids on the block will offer tee times of a different stripe.
Ground has been broken on Old Barnwell, a planned twin-course complex with an expected 2023 opening of the initial private eighteen. The structure and approach on the second course are still under discussion, but expect it to be a Bryson DeChambeau drive different from the first.
Barnwell is the realization of a longtime dream of Nick Schreiber, Chicago born and now a resident of Charleston, South Carolina.
The early Windy City days found Schreiber on summer breaks caddying on classical gems such as Old Elm, Onwensia and Shoreacres. Those layouts as well as family getaways to the Wisconsin resort course at Maxwelton Braes – followed by young-adult trips to National Golf Links, The Old Course and other heralded layouts – spawned then cemented in Schreiber a curiosity and love for classical golf. He dreamt of someday doing something in golf; he just didn’t know what.
Fast forward 20 years. With family established and a successful business under his belt – he was a co-founding executive at a human resources technology company that was purchased by a private equity firm in 2017 – Schreiber found himself thinking again of golf. Now with the time and means, his dream started to coalesce. He wanted to build a club that would not just make a mark but a statement.
First things first: a site was needed. Schreiber knew sandy soil is the essence of quality golf land, so he and his team set out to locate a Southeastern site to fit that bill. When an ideal plot just outside Aiken became available, Schreiber, along with architects Brian Schneider and Blake Conant, jumped.
Schneider and Conant?
“The only problem with living in the ‘second golden age of golf architecture’ is that all the best opportunities are going to the same few architects (Tom Doak, Coore and Crenshaw, Gil Hanse and Jim Wagner, et al),” said Schreiber, who has one founding member interested in taking a small equity stake in Old Barnwell but otherwise is financing the project himself. “The preeminent architects of the last 20-30 years have helped create such a remarkable crop of young talent. When Old Barnwell was just an idea, I knew that I wanted to not just find a great site but to also give an opportunity to someone who has earned the chance to do something great.”
There’s an intriguing back story here.
Many of the old guard, having designed the lion’s share of golf courses in the past half century, have reached or approaching the end of their architectural careers. Arnold Palmer, Arthur Hills, Robert Trent Jones Sr., Bob Cupp and Pete Dye are gone. Tom Fazio, Jack Nicklaus, Rees Jones, Robert Trent Jones Jr., Tom Weiskopf and others can see much of their work in the rear-view mirror. Doak, Hanse and the team of Crenshaw and Coore, meanwhile, are becoming more selective in their projects.
Where does that leave the world of course architecture? We might soon see a new face or two.
Fazio’s son, Logan, is taking on major duties in his dad’s firm. Brandon Johnson and Thad Layton, associates for the Palmer group, and Jack Nicklaus Jr. are now the principal designers for their storied founders.
Patrick Burton, who once worked for a number of architectural firms, is supporting Dana Fry and Jason Straka as well as doing renovation and alternative golf projects on his own. As is Crenshaw and Coore associate Jim Duncan, who has taken a prominent role in the development of the new Brambles in California while also designing his first solo course in northern Africa. Jay Blasi, associate designer at Chambers Bay who once worked for Trent Jones Jr., is off on his own. (Editor’s note: Blasi also works with the Golfweek’s Best rater program and contributes stories to Golfweek.)
A number of Doak associates and supporting shapers and designers work both for Doak and on their own, including Schneider and Conant, the team Schreiber tapped for Old Barnwell as their first joint effort.
“My associates are in a different place in their lives,” Doak said. “They want to take on more consulting work, while I was thinking more of slowing down.”
Even Straka, president of the American Society of Golf Course Architects, is a member of the new breed. A longtime associate of Michael Hurdzan and Dana Fry, Straka – who stepped up to partner with Fry as Hurdzan reduced his workload – is credited with several recent joint designs.
The guard is changing, and Old Barnwell, in the hands of Schneider and Conant, stands to benefit.
Per the membership prospectus, “Old Barnwell’s 575 acres of sandy loam stretch across valleys and ridges, through prairies, secluded timber forests and spacious corridors winding in and out of native vegetation.”
The Old Barnwell course will be a neo-classical layout, a tip of the cap to famed English heathland designs. Shotmaking and strategy will be championed on a lay-of-the-land 18 well-suited for the ground game rather than aerial attacks. Hole lengths will not be daunting. Forced carries and lost balls will be few. Creativity, especially around the greens, will be promoted. The goal at Old Barnwell is for a round to be as rewarding for the accomplished as it is for the not-so-accomplished player, bringing a smile to all walking off the 18th. Schreiber even hopes the design boasts a little “sense of humor.”
The second course, called The Gilroy and nominally slated to open in 2025, scratches a much different itch. More of a training course, The Gilroy likely will be short with friendly channeled landing areas, bowled greens and more subtle putting surfaces. A “holiday course,” as coined by Conant, The Gilroy may or may not be eighteen holes.
Old Barnwell’s mission statement is both simple and noble: “Bring people together through golf.” At one end Old Barnwell will stand as a private club boasting sought-after national and tiered memberships, while at the other end it will be a retreat for a broad range of younger members, families, collegiate golfers and those who aspire to a professional career in the game.
One goal of the club is to annually sponsor, including housing and full club access, four recent female college graduates pursuing careers in golf. Old Barnwell is also in discussions with several local historically black colleges and universities about providing access for golf programs as well as all students and faculty at select times.
The club plans a vibrant caddie program at Old Barnwell, where guaranteed pay, playing privileges and scholarship opportunities will be available for area teenagers. Even training on the agronomy side has not been forgotten.
“We will promote a one-year apprenticeship in local high schools for any graduating senior to earn salary plus benefits and on-the-job training under John Lavelle, one of the most respected leaders in the maintenance industry,” Schreiber said.
Expect a high-end practice area that facilitates group and youth clinics. Greens with surfaces matched to the main course may lure post-round players, drinks in hand, to putting contests. An intimate clubhouse will include a Southern-style wraparound porch. Upstairs rooms as well as a small 10-room lodge will be available for overnight guests.
And a somewhat non-traditional theme of welcoming will be a core of the club, a promotion of inclusivity for people of all walks in both the game and community. The complex, inside and out, will be arranged in such a way to physically bring people together.
Unique, indeed, and there is one additional distinction for Old Barnwell. Not only is this the first joint design effort for Old Barnwell architects Schneider and Conant, it also is the first joint design effort ever by two Golfweek’s Best course raters.
Cool. In fact, very cool.
Jonathan Cummings is a Golfweek’s Best rater who contributes extensively to the compilation of this publication’s course rankings.