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A new golf resort is taking shape in the Carolina Sandhills.
The first yet-to-be-named course at Candyroot Lodge in South Carolina's rural Kershaw County is set for a soft opening this fall, followed by a full debut in 2027. Architect Mike Koprowski found the sandy site while driving to complete his first design, Broomsedge Golf Club (with Kyle Franz) in Rembert, S.C. He introduced the land that had been cleared of trees by a timber company to Candyroot's developers, brothers Aaron and Ethan Oberman.
Koprowski promises the walking-only design will be different from not only anything else in the region but from many of the new courses being built today. He noted the site's 80 to 90 feet of elevation change and choppy terrain is more dramatic than that of most courses in the Carolina Sandhills, which most golfers don't realize extend from North Carolina through South Carolina and into Georgia.
"The exciting part is we interact with these fingers, ridges and gullies," he said. "No. 16 rides a ridge the entire way. On [hole] three, we bench a green into a ridge. No. 11 plays diagonal from one ridge to another. It has created a lot of intrigue in the golf course. It is a really cool and strange natural environment. There are a lot of long views where you look at the landscape and think, 'How did Mother Nature do this?' When you can marry sand and cool topography, it works well for golf."
Perhaps the most exciting component is Candyroot will be easily accessible for public golfers. Many new courses being built post-pandemic are either high-end private clubs or expensive resort courses somewhat hard to get to for traveling golfers. Candyroot, named after a native plant, is located within a 90-minute drive of Charlotte and an hour of Columbia, S.C.
The Obermans bought four different parcels of land from multiple owners to pull together the 1,200-acre resort blueprint, which could eventually be home to as many as four regulation courses, plus a short course.
"Why hasn’t this been done in the Sandhills before?", Ethan asked rhetorically. "We learned very quickly. Dream Golf [the brand behind Bandon Dunes and Sand Valley] can buy 5,000-acre parcels. You can’t drop down into the Sandhills and buy that. It doesn’t exist. The land has been chopped up and given to different family members [across generations]. Getting enough acreage for a [large-scale resort] facility is really hard and requires some luck. We did get lucky and all the stars aligned."
Golf at Candyroot Lodge
The golf at Candyroot will deliver a high-end, walking-with-a-caddie experience that's en vogue. Green fees will range from $180 in the offseason to $300+. Caddies will be an additional expense. Grab-and-go comfort stations stocked with food and drinks are another amenity that elevates the feeling of southern hospitality.
Koprowski, a minimalist to the core, has already tweaked the routing after spending more time on site.
"The fourth hole has a jump over the gully," he said. "When I saw it in the field, I got uncomfortable. I don’t like forced carries on second shots on par 4s. I wasn’t in love with how it was looking to my eyes."
The fourth hole has since transitioned into a short par 4 with a green before the gully. Instead, a new par 3 at no. 5 now requires a tee shot over the gully to the old fourth green, and the sixth became an extended par 5.
Two streams dissect the land, affecting several holes, although negotiating them should never feel too intimidating for the average golfer.
“The thing with the forced carry, it’s penal," Koprowski said. "The elite player, it's not something they think about. You only made it harder for people who don’t hit it as far. That’s backward thinking."
The course is trending to have between 55 and 60 bunkers, a big change from the heavily-bunkered Broomsedge.
"It doesn’t feel like the land wants it, the contours are doing a lot of the work," Koprowski said. "It's choppy land, serpentine, with diagonal grassing lines. Shinnecockian.
“There is a lot more room out there. The grass lines that bob and weave along the natural contours, they reward players who can shape the ball in both directions. When you have sweeping doglegs, you are asking players to move the ball along the fairway. The grassing lines are doing the work. The strategy is in the way the fairway lines move."
Only one tree - a lone pine on the third hole - resides within the course's interior. It's not a tribute to the Lone Fir on the 15th hole at Chambers Bay. Simply a happy coincidence.
There is no defined rough and many greens will be smaller, ranging in size from 4,000 to 6,000 square feet, a prominent shift from the overbearing, undulating greens found on most modern designs. Approach shots can bounce into most greens or settle into areas where putting, chipping, flopping or bumping the ball remain options.
"We're building some old-school stuff," Koprowski said. "There will be a big range across the board, but there will be more small greens than they’ve (golfers) have seen in a while on a new course."
The Obermans are not ready to announce who will build the second course and the short course that will be lit for nighttime play next, although they're at the "one-yard line" in negotiations. They promised a "well-known" name, just not one of the "big five". They are purposely giving younger architects other than Doak, Hanse, McLay-Kidd and Coore & Crenshaw a platform to showcase their artistry.
"We've talked about maybe doing a 24-hole course," Aaron noted. "He and [the architects we hire] need to look at the land a little closer, maybe to do something different."
The vision for the resort at Candyroot Lodge
The development of the resort will be measured as business builds. The plan is to cater to the drive-in daily golfers until more golf courses come online. Aaron estimated that cabin accommodations probably won't be built at scale until 2028. Some cabins will open to a lighted range, letting golfers hit shots into the darkness for nightly entertainment. It's small details like this that the brothers are focusing on getting right.
Wellness will be a key component away from the course, including saunas and steam rooms, strength-training facilities and miles of biking and hiking trails. The brothers envision an experience that's attractive to families, women and golfers alike.
Housing is in the plans but away from the golf, added Ethan, who has a background in real-estate development.
"We haven’t spent a lot of time thinking about that (building homes)," he said. "Right now our focus is on great golf, and our vision for how we see the experience unfolding. I would be lying if I didn’t think about real estate. When we get the golf experience right, the real estate will follow eventually. We will make it as good as it can be. We are not building where you see houses littering the fairway. If we did it down the line, it will be segregated and you're not hitting into someone's living room."
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