Is Charlotte a Good Golf Town?

Welcome to the Two Down Press golf newsletter!

The PGA Championship is here! We can finally turn our attention to the actual golf after a long week of weather speculation, Quail complaints, and off-course takes. Who knew hosting a major championship made you such a magnet for criticism!

All this talk has me in a contemplative mood this week, so we’re launching a new content series assessing Charlotte’s standing as a golf locale. We also have PGA picks from some friends of the program, as well as some exciting news from the last week. Thanks for reading and enjoy the tournament!

THIS WEEK’S HEADLINE

Is Charlotte a Good Golf Town? Part 1: Excelling

If you follow this publication and are even peripherally plugged into the world of online golf discourse, you probably saw the recent headline about No Laying Up’s Tron Carter “roasting” Charlotte on a recent podcast episode. This clip spurred a flurry of reaction from critics and defenders, and admittedly made me a bit reflective about my hometown of the last 7 years.

While I don’t feel qualified to defend the merits of Charlotte’s restaurant scene or wax poetic about the city’s cultural identity, I have been pondering a question more squarely in my wheelhouse - is Charlotte a good golf town?

Today, we’ll kick off a 3-part series looking at this question from multiple angles to assess where Charlotte golf is excelling, passing, and failing. It’s PGA week and the vibes are high, so let’s start with some of the positives!

Excelling

Dr. Charles L. Sifford Golf Course

You won’t find all of our municipal golf courses in the “excelling” bucket, but the facility at Sifford deserves to be at the very top of any list of Charlotte golf successes. It’s proximity to the city, excellent short game area, and unique, interesting, and fun golf course make this 9-holer a huge community asset. It’s an awesome hub for the First Tee, post-work summer leagues, and new entrants to the game. A true model for urban public golf.

Golf Community

Simply put - Charlotte’s got a lot… of golfers. Outsiders may bristle at the number of logo polos found at a South End brewery on a Saturday afternoon, but it makes me feel right at home. It’s one of the reasons we host an annual PGA Tour event - the community is full of individuals and businesses eager to support the game.

High-Level Ams

There are a ton of great amateur players in Charlotte, several of whom have made waves on the national stage in recent years. Both Brett Boner and Hayes Brown nearly went all the way in recent U.S. Mid-Ams (2018 and 2021), and Chad Wilfong captured the U.S. Four-Ball title with partner Davis Womble in 2022. Combine these performances with numerous CGA tiles and other tournament accolades, and you have quite the resume building for the current crop of top players. It’s this level of competition that makes the City Am such a great tournament.

Diversity of Club Options

Like Charlotte’s neighborhoods, I find there is not just one golf club that locals aspire to join. There is a flavor for everyone depending on where you live and what you’re seeking - golden age or modern, upscale or low-key, full-service or golf-centric. Whether the total number of clubs is enough to support the city’s growing population is a question we’ll save for a future installment, but I view the variety of club experiences on offer as a benefit to the overall golf scene.

TOURNAMENTS

PGA Championship Picks from Friends of 2DP

Who ya got?! We asked folks who have been featured in or contributed to Two Down Press for their PGA Championship winner picks. Here’s what they said - click the links to check out their 2DP features:

Emilia Migliaccio Doran (Freelance Golf Broadcaster): Rory McIlroy

Ron Green Jr. (Global Golf Post): Xander Shaueffele

Ryan Cummings (Palmetto & Pine): Scottie Scheffler

William Rainey (Johnston Gray Designs): Rory McIlroy

John Eades (3x City Am Champion): Ludvig Åberg

Oliver Wilson (2x DP World Tour Winner): Bryson DeChambeau

Rick Riddle (Carolinas Golf Association): Justin Thomas

Stephen Edwards (Twilight Golf Club): Ludvig Åberg

Me? I’ll roll with Bryson to win his 3rd major and avenge his runner-up finish from 2024. It’s a bombers paradise, after all…

STORIES TO TRACK

New Public Golf Project Called “Downbonnie” Announced: In a cryptic Instagram post earlier this week, an anonymous poster stated their intention to build a new public facility “on the edge” of the Charlotte Metro area in the northern portion of the Carolina Sandhills. The post stated the ownership group has selected Mike Koprowski to design and build an “architecturally significant” public course, filling a void in Charlotte’s golf landscape.

• Rising Star: Koprowski, relatively new to the golf architecture game, is riding high as his debut design at Broomsedge in nearby Rembert, South Carolina is garnering rave reviews. Cool to see him get another opportunity to continue building out his portfolio.

• Dollars and Sense: I’d love to see the financial model for this project, as the vast majority of new golf development today is A. Remote, or B. Private. I’d expect some $$$ greens fees if/when this course gets built given the land acquisition costs associated with a property of this size near a major metropolitan area.

Tap In Golf Set to Open in Former Weathered Souls Brewing Location: A new golf simulator facility is coming to LoSo this summer. Tap In will be located on Clanton Road next to Red Clay Ciderworks.

• Converging: We wrote late last year about the proliferation of golf simulator businesses in Charlotte and wondered who would be first to open a location closer to the heart of town. Very curious to see if this model is sustainable in a higher-rent area.

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