The First Call Staff • February 6, 2025

Making Inroads at Kawonu Golf Club

Restoration specialist Andrew Green has begun making inroads with his original design. Next up for Green is Kawonu Golf Club in Simpsonville, South Carolina, which is slated to break ground within trst few months of 2025. Located approximately 30 minutes southeast of Greenville, Kawonu will be the first private, golf-only club to debut in the region in more than three decades.


The development is spearheaded by industry veterans Scott Ferrell and Barton Tuck. Ferrell has vast experience with Gary Player Design, the PGA Tour and TPC properties, while Tuck has been involved in the building, management and ownership of more than 60 golf courses in the southeastern U.S., among them Forest Creek in Pinehurst, North Carolina.

"It’s a stunning piece of ground," Green told the Greenville Journal during a September 2024 visit. 

Kawonu Golf Club | Press Feature | First Call Golf

"At the forefront of our mind is to enhance and amplify it, not to destroy. It is such a magical place. There is so much that’s already inherently here that we can draw from. The principles that have guided the best golf in the United States are in place here. The idea is that we utilize the ground really well. We find unique ways to play over, around, across it. Those are critical."



Ferrell, who set up nearly 100 course design contracts worldwide on behalf of Gary Player Design, knows a great site when he sees it.

"Somebody said earlier it’s like nature’s already moved the dirt for us, and that’s a nice way to put it," he said. "It’s a tremendous site with tons of variety. It’s just really tailor-made for a championship golf course. We’re creating an enclave that will add a unique concept to the golf landscape of the Upstate. Local members will not have to travel to 'get away' and national members will not only enjoy the  relaxed club environment but take in  the wonderful town of Greenville."

This article was originally published by The First Call on Feb 6, 2025 — shared here with full credit to the original source.

Kawonu Golf Club Is Becoming One of America’s Most Intriguing New Golf Destinations

By Athlon Sports • July 1, 2026
The latest construction milestones at South Carolina’s Kawonu Golf Club reveal more than progress; they offer the clearest glimpse yet of a private golf experience rooted in timeless architecture, thoughtful design and an unwavering commitment to the game. Every now and then, a new golf course comes along that quietly captures the attention of architecture enthusiasts long before a single scorecard is signed. Kawonu Golf Club is becoming one of those places. Nestled on more than 290 acres outside Greenville, South Carolina, the private, golf-only club has steadily built momentum over the past year without relying on flashy announcements or celebrity fanfare. Instead, it has allowed the land, the design team and a clearly defined vision to tell its story. Two recent construction milestones—the beginning of course grassing and the unveiling of the clubhouse complex—suggest that story is entering an exciting new chapter. For golfers who appreciate great architecture as much as great golf, these aren’t simply construction updates. They’re the first tangible signs that one of the country’s most anticipated private clubs is beginning to emerge from the landscape. Anyone who has ever watched a golf course being built knows the most important work often happens out of sight. Before fairways turn green, countless hours are spent moving earth, shaping contours, installing drainage and laying irrigation. It’s essential work, but it requires a bit of imagination to see what the finished product will eventually become. That changes once grass begins to take hold. Since breaking ground in April 2025, Kawonu has completed much of the heavy construction across the property. With shaping and irrigation now largely complete, crews have begun sodding and grassing the championship layout, moving methodically from greens and tees to fairways. The transformation may seem cosmetic to the casual observer, but in reality it marks one of the most significant milestones in the life of any new golf course. Andrew Green, whose reputation has skyrocketed through acclaimed restoration work at some of America’s most revered clubs, has said grassing is the stage where golfers finally begin to understand the rhythm of the routing. Instead of isolated construction zones, the individual holes begin connecting into a cohesive journey across the property. That’s particularly exciting at Kawonu, where Green has routed the course through rolling meadows, mature hardwood forests and the Reedy River corridor rather than forcing the landscape to conform to a preconceived design. Everything we’ve learned about the project suggests the land remains the star of the show. READ FULL ARTICLE HERE.

Andrew Green’s Next Chapter Arrives With Two Very Different New Golf Courses

By Athlon Sports • June 9, 2026
After years restoring some of American golf’s most important venues, Andrew Green is nearing a new milestone with Firefly in Tennessee and Kawonu Golf Club in South Carolina. Andrew Green’s name has become almost shorthand for one of the most important movements in modern golf architecture. When a historic course needs to remember what it once was without becoming frozen in time, Green has become one of the industry’s most trusted voices. His restoration and renovation work has touched major championship venues, PGA Tour stages and some of the country’s most studied clubs. But the next chapter is not about restoring someone else’s original intent. It is about seeing Green’s own intent come to life. Over the next year, two very different projects will move from construction story to playing experience. Firefly, a new luxury golf community in Spring Hill, Tennessee, is preparing to open an 18-hole championship course and 9-hole short course in fall 2026. Kawonu Golf Club, a private, golf-only club near Greenville, South Carolina, is moving through grassing and grow-in toward a 2027 opening. Together, they create one of the more compelling architecture stories in American golf. Same architect. Same belief in land, strategy and restraint. Two completely different assignments. READ FULL ARTICLE HERE.