Another Green World

Construction of Kawonu Golf Club in Simpsonville, South Carolina, will begin in early 2025. It will be the first new private club in the Greenville area for more than 30 years and will include a golf course designed by Andrew Green.

Many golf architecture fans first became familiar with the name of Andrew Green only in 2023, during the PGA Championship at newly renovated Oak Hill, or later that same fall, when Atlanta's East Lake shut down following the Tour Championship to embark upon a Green renovation of its own.

At first glance, it seemed surprising that someone outside the triumvirate of Tom Doak, Coore-Crenshaw or Gil Hanse had managed to land such plum assignments - in the new millennium, these men and their firms have dominated the headlines of classic course restoration - but these are only some of Green's most high-profile gigs. The 46-year-old Virginian had already amassed a sizable body of work, minus the tournament hoopla, at Golden Age lodestars like Inverness in northwest Ohio, Congressional in suburban D.C., and Rhode Island's Wannamoisett, venerated host of the Northeast Amateur. The architect has also guided refurbishments at a trio of Philadelphia clubs - Huntingdon Valley and Philmont (both William Flynn designs) and Whitemarsh Valley (George Thomas). Along with East Lake, he's worked at Donald Ross-pedigreed clubs, including Scioto in Ohio and Interlachen in the Twin Cities. He's taken on modern courses by Tom Fazio and Robert Von Hagge, and soon his team will break ground on the principal's first original design - in the serendipitously named South Carolina community of Greenville.