Golf’s post-pandemic resurgence has changed many things across the industry, development included. The National Golf Foundation recently revealed that there were more new courses under construction (69 at the start of 2024) than at any time in more than a decade.
The uptick in development has yielded opportunity for both veteran and up-and-coming architects to get in on the action beyond renovations, reconstructions, and restorations. Especially on the private side.
Here are 14 new golf projects in the works to note within the U.S. market.
Paul Azinger with Fry/Straka Design—Miakka Golf Club (Myakka City, Fla.)
Azinger, a native of Bradenton, has co-design credit on this private project on the banks of the scenic Myakka River, less than 30 miles southeast of the Sarasota/Bradenton Airport. The former PGA Tour pro and TV analyst is teaming with the award-winning team of Dana Fry and Jason Straka to build an 18-hole championship course and 12-hole short course on a property that has two miles of river frontage. The main course is set to open for play in early 2025.
Dave Boyden—Wohali Golf Club (Coalville, Utah)
Boyden grew up in Salt Lake City, with his family owning the land that’s now home to the luxury lifestyle community of Wohali. Boyden has a background in project management and design, helping plan and develop courses and resort developments in the U.S. and Mexico with names like Tom Fazio and Davis Love III. The 19-hole Eagle Course, which will open for play in late 2024, is Boyden’s first solo design.
Jim Craig—Rodeo Dunes (Roggen, Colo.)
After 25 years as a top assistant to Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw, Craig is getting his first solo billing, designing one of the two courses at the newest destination golf property in the Dream Golf portfolio that includes Bandon Dunes and Sand Valley. Craig’s course and a layout by Coore & Crenshaw will lay the golf foundation at Rodeo Dunes, located 50 miles northeast of downtown Denver, with play on one of the two designs anticipated to begin in 2025. Craig is also starting work on an innovative short course at Sand Valley that’s less than 18 holes and modeled after village greens in Scotland that were a common area of sorts where locals could enjoy golf as well as other public events, activities, and gatherings.
Tripp Davis—The Rose Golf Club (Athens, Ga.)
Davis, who was part of the University of Oklahoma’s 1989 national championship team and has earned numerous accolades for his redesign and renovation projects, is the lead architect for this private course project 10 minutes from downtown Athens. He’ll collaborate with several professional golfers who are University of Georgia alums (Bubba Watson, Brendon Todd, and Chris Kirk among them) in blending traditional and modern design on the 588-acre property. Construction is set to begin this summer.
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Lester George—Contentment (Hays, N.C.)
George, who designed courses like Ballyhack and Kinloch in Virginia, embraced template holes from C.B. Macdonald and Seth Raynor in creating the layout at this private club in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains. Set on 900 acres of untouched farmland, the luxurious golf-centric retreat is scheduled to open in 2025.
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Andrew Green—Kawonu Golf Club (Simpsonville, S.C.)
Having built a reputation as a master of renovation through his work at prominent clubs like Inverness (Ohio), Oak Hill (New York), and Congressional (Maryland), Green gets a chance to design from a blank canvas at this private golf club about a half hour from Greenville in the northwest corner of South Carolina. Kawonu, a name derived from the Cherokee word for duck that pays homage to the property’s roots as a hunting preserve, is expected to open in spring of 2027, if not sooner.
Scott Hoffmann—Mapletøn Golf Club (Sioux Falls, S.D.)
Hoffman worked for years under Tom Fazio, establishing a reputation as a respected course router, and made a major splash with his recent design debut at the private Lost Rail Golf Club outside Omaha, Neb. At Mapletøn, another standalone club, Hoffman is creating a natural, prairie course that he compares to layouts like Shinnecock Hills and National Golf Links on Long Island. The course is expected to open in summer 2025.
Davis Love III—Watersound Club (Inlet Beach, Fla.)
There are already two 18-hole courses at this private club community in northwest Florida, so it’s only fitting that Love is designing “The Third Course.” Love already designed the six-hole Origins course—a regulation course that alternatively plays as a 10-hole par-3—for Watersound in 2007. The new 18-hole course, located just north of the Greg Norman-designed Shark’s Tooth course and about 20 minutes from the Tom Fazio-designed Camp Creek course, is scheduled to open in 2025.
Native scapes all over Watersound
Just the way it was meant to bePictured is #6 pic.twitter.com/MZNvNk0Hmh
— Love Golf Design (@Love3GolfDesign) March 5, 2024
OCM Golf—Tepetonka (Willmar, Minn.)
The Australian-based design team of Geoff Ogilvy, Mike Cocking, and Ashley Mead have created the 18-hole layout at this private golf destination two hours from Minneapolis. It’s the first all-new U.S. golf course from Ogilvy’s design firm and is expected to open in the summer of 2025. OCM is also working with broadcaster Jim Nantz, one of the club’s founding members, to build a 9-hole par-3 course called “Hog Heaven” at Tepetonka.
Introducing Tepetonka….our new project in Minnesota, USA. https://t.co/oXJXBsX6vbhttps://t.co/cjDE7nzJSB pic.twitter.com/2BvOCBBPwq
— OCM Golf (@OCMGolf) March 3, 2022
Tom Fazio II, Mike Davis, and Kyle Phillips—Apogee (Hobe Sound, Fla.)
Gil Hanse and Jim Wagner opened the first course, the West, at the new 54-hole Apogee Club in southeast Florida this year, while Tom Fazio II and former USGA chief Mike Davis are collaborating on the second course called the South set to debut in December 2024. Phillips, best known for his original design at Kingsbarns in Scotland and redesign at Cal Club in San Francisco, is designing the third 18-hole course (North) at Apogee, a massive golf-centric project spread across over 1,200 acres in Hobe Sound. Phillips’s layout has a projected opening of December 2025.
Nick Price—Soleta Golf Club (Myakka City, Fla.)
A three-time major champion, Price is probably best known in U.S. architecture circles for his design collaboration with Tom Fazio at McArthur Golf Club in Hobe Sound, Fla. Price is back in Florida—on the west side of the state—for the private Soleta project, which includes a 7,400-yard course that’s routed separately from an enclave of 93 luxury residences and other amenities. The course could open for play at the end of this year.
Lee Singletary—1876 Country Club (Celina, Texas)
The Texas-based Singletary, who founded his design company in 1983, is creating a 7,337-yard championship course that’s part of the Legacy Hills luxury development in Texas, 40 miles north of Dallas. Named after the year the town of Celina was founded, the course could open for limited play as early as November 2024.
Hal Sutton—Darmor Club (Columbus, Texas)
Sutton, who in 1983 won the PGA Championship and was the PGA Tour’s leading money winner, spent the past year helping create the course at a private club between Austin and Houston. Built on land that was mined for sand and gravel more than a century ago, the course will open this year and feature holes inspired by templates, with names like Sahara, Punchbowl, Alps, Hog’s Back, and Biarritz, along with Himalayas and Hal’s Alley.
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Tom Watson—Cypress Shoals (North Augusta, S.C.)
A two-time Masters champion, Watson is building the first of two 18-hole courses at this master-planned community less than five miles from Augusta National, just across the Savannah River. Watson counts courses like Cassique in Kiawah Island, S.C., to his credit, but has a long way to go in the design business to reach the generation of golf greats that preceded him: Jack Nicklaus, Arnold Palmer, and Gary Player. The open date for Watson’s design is still to be determined.
What other golf projects in the works are you excited about?
