Welcome to the Two Down Press golf newsletter!

When I wrote about the Charlotte Country Club renovation recently, I mentioned that it was a full-circle moment, as we tracked that project from beginning to end. Today’s headline is no different, as we have real updates on real golf holes at Candyroot Lodge!

This morning, we’re breaking down our recent visit to South Carolina’s newest golf resort, which opened earlier this fall for preview play. Whether you’re reading this on Friday morning or sometime in the distant future when your Outlook starts working again, I hope you enjoy today’s newsletter!

THIS WEEK’S HEADLINE

I had the pleasure of visiting Candyroot Lodge earlier this week as part of a group outing facilitated by our friends at Twilight Golf Club. Pulling into the property was quite surreal, as the prospect of playing this golf course seemed lightyears away when we first heard about “Downbonnie” 18 months ago.

We were the first group off #1 on Tuesday morning and were able to get 27 holes in on a perfect November day. I’m still processing what I saw, and my takes have only had 48 hours to marinade, but here are my first reactions to the newest addition to the Charlotte golf landscape.

The location: When I plugged in the address the night before, my Maps app showed only a 75-minute drive to Candyroot! I woke up at 6 AM for my 8 AM tee time - it’s wild how close this place is to Charlotte.

Once you start closing in on the course, however, things do feel extremely rural and remote. The biggest thing I noticed driving in? Sand. When you start seeing front yards that could pass as waste bunkers along the side of the road, you know you’ve found some good land for golf.

The land: After parking in the gravel lot and walking down to the temporary clubhouse, I was eager to get a feel for the site. While the trailer serving as the pro shop is set on a high point, you can’t actually see a ton of the property from the first tee. It’s not until you get out to holes 4 or 5 that you start to get a good sense of the size and shape of the parcel.

The course is generally set on a hillside, with the predominant slope starting high near the clubhouse and pitching down toward a creek system in the low area right of holes 3-5. The slope is not consistent, however, as it is divided by a series of ridges and gulleys and run down the hill, creating a network of halfpipe and hogsback features that are perfect for laying out golf holes.

On an episode of the Designing Golf Podcast from earlier this year, Architect Mike Koprowski commented that the site was one of the most severe he’d seen in the Carolina Sandhills, and that the sharp undulations created routing challenges that took several iterations to untangle. Despite the abrupt elevation changes, Koprowski’s routing is extremely walkable and varied, as he found creative ways to use the hillside and avoid sending players marching straight up and straight down.

The layout: The design at Candyroot is extremely varied and poses unique questions in the world of modern golf design. The first thing that stood out was the sequence of the holes, as Koprowski nailed the ebb and flow of scoring opportunities. The course shifted gears from gettable to challenging at what felt like the perfect times, forcing golfers to stay focused and attentive from 1 through 18.

The holes themselves presented a ton of different looks and required a wide variety of shots. There were holes with massive fairways and others where the landing zone was surprisingly narrow. The greens came in all shapes and sizes (including some that are quite small for modern standards!), some featuring backboards and side slopes to funnel your ball toward the hole, others with false fronts ready to reject a poor strike. I hit every club in my bag, and with the firm playing conditions we experienced on the day, I was frequently encouraged to keep the ball on the ground.

There are several great stretches at Course One, but holes 9 through 11 stood out to me as exemplary of Koprowski’s modus operandi. While consecutive par 4s could run together at other courses, these 3 holes presented wildly different challenges and were a great example of Koprowski’s effort to mix up the way he used the hillside. The final 4 holes also made for a great finish to a match, as stout par 4s at 15 and 18 paired perfectly with the birdie opportunities found at 16 and 17.

Like most modern destination courses, fun and playability were certainly key design considerations, but I wouldn’t call this place easy! There are some forced carries over native areas that will be tough for weaker players, and the staff is already noticing parts of the course that could benefit from converting sandy waste to more traditional centipede rough. For a course that is still very early in Preview Play, however, the overall course conditions were fantastic and will only improve over time with small tweaks and continued care.

As he did multiple times at Broomsedge, Koprowski built a hole (13) at Candyroot with 2 greens that will alternate from day to day, each with a corresponding tee box for subsequent par 3. There is also a double green with a large aiming pole in the middle to help players orient their approach shots on the par 5 7th. These quirky flourishes are quickly becoming a Koprowski staple!

The bottom line: There has been a ton of golf development in South Carolina in recent years, so naturally folks want to know which new course is “the best.” Ultimately your ranking is your own, but I can confidently say that Course One at Candyroot is in the same conversation as places like Broomsedge. You may prefer one to the other, but it is absolutely a conversation.

I left the day extremely bullish about the Candyroot project and the prospect of having a world class golf destination so close to Charlotte. The land is great and the owners have already secured over 1,000 acres in the area. Plans for Course Two are underway, with an architect allegedly already selected. Keep an eye out for an announcement soon and visit the Candyroot website for more information on Preview Play.

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STORIES TO TRACK

South Carolina’s Jackson Wins Birmingham NIT: The reigning South Carolina Mid-Amateur champion won the prestigious National Invitational Tournament last weekend at Country Club of Birmingham. Jackson, who made the semifinals of the 2023 U.S. Mid-Amateur at Sleepy Hollow, finished at -5 and was the only player in the field to shoot all 3 rounds under par. View final leaderboard.

3’s Charlotte Shares Nicklaus Routing Plan on Website: We’ve been tracking this story since it was first announced in 2024, when the Greenville, SC-based Par 3 brand announced they were taking over the former Pebble Creek Golf Course in Indian Trail. Updates on the project, which initially targeted a 2025 opening date, have been few and far between until recently, when some details were shared on a new Charlotte-specific website. The page includes a conceptual rendering from Nicklaus Design, which shows 16 par 3 holes, a short game facility, and a large putting green.

HOUSEKEEPING

We published our first newsletter (still a good one IMHO) on November 14th, 2024. What started as a simple challenge to exercise the writing muscles weekly has turned into something pretty special, and I’m incredibly grateful for the opportunities, connections, and friendships that have developed because of this little publication. I continue to be blown away by the generosity and passion of the Charlotte golf community.

As always, thank you for reading and subscribing - writing the newsletter wouldn’t be nearly as fun without you following along!

-Luke

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