By Jeff Lawrence, ASGCA – Lawrence Golf Design
On South Carolina’s Kiawah Island, golf is inseparable from the landscape. The marshes, live oaks, and coastal breezes shape how the game is played — and how courses are designed to endure. When Cougar Point Golf Course was redesigned, the goal was to preserve that Lowcountry soul while updating the course for modern playability, sustainability, and aesthetics.
Under the Gary Player Design brand, Jeff Lawrence, ASGCA, played a leading role in the renovation, overseeing design development, field implementation, and coordination with Kiawah’s agronomy and operations teams. The result is a course that respects its roots while performing to modern standards.
Originally developed in the 1970s and later reimagined by Gary Player, Cougar Point has long been one of Kiawah Island’s most approachable and scenic golf experiences. The course features a routing that blends marsh views, tidal creeks, and inland forest corridors, a classic Lowcountry layout with subtle movement and rhythm.
When the time came for renovation, the design team’s philosophy was to refine, not reinvent. Lawrence helped evaluate each hole to determine what could be restored, simplified, or enhanced to match contemporary expectations while protecting the course’s natural beauty.
The guiding idea behind Cougar Point’s renovation was to make the course more playable and engaging for a wider range of golfers without sacrificing strategic interest for stronger players.
Lawrence focused on green complex restoration and recontouring, improving pinnable area and surface flow for smoother transitions and better recovery options. Bunkers were repositioned and reshaped to be visually appealing but less penal, improving both playability and maintenance efficiency.
The end result is a layout that invites thoughtful shot-making and rewards creativity, true to Player’s design philosophy, executed with Lawrence’s modern touch.
Kiawah Island’s beauty also presents challenges: salt influence, sandy soils, and heavy seasonal rains. A major part of the renovation involved improving drainage and turf performance to ensure reliable playing conditions year-round.
Working closely with Kiawah’s agronomy team, Lawrence guided upgrades to drainage infrastructure, green profiles, and turfgrass selection. The course’s new grass varieties tolerate heat and salinity while maintaining firm, fast conditions consistent with the island’s coastal style.
These improvements not only enhanced playability but also made Cougar Point more sustainable and easier to maintain in the Lowcountry’s demanding climate.
Bunkers are essential to the visual and strategic language of Cougar Point. During the renovation, Lawrence helped reimagine their shape, placement, and maintenance approach.
Steep, high-maintenance faces were softened to reduce washouts and improve drainage. Sand areas were consolidated for visual clarity and faster maintenance, resulting in bunkers that now serve both strategic and agronomic efficiency.
This approach reflects a design principle that continues to guide Lawrence’s work today: strategy and sustainability must coexist for a golf course to thrive.
Few golf environments are as distinctive as Kiawah’s tidal marshes. The renovation team worked to highlight the course’s relationship with its natural surroundings, opening long views across the marsh, framing holes with native vegetation, and refining transitions between maintained and natural areas.
The course feels more connected to its environment, allowing golfers to experience the true character of the Lowcountry while enjoying improved playability and visual appeal.
Through careful grading and subtle shaping, the renovation enhanced the land’s natural contours rather than imposing new ones, a hallmark of both Player’s philosophy and Lawrence’s design sensibility.
The Cougar Point renovation also served as a learning ground for sustainable coastal design, reinforcing lessons that Jeff Lawrence continues to apply across the Southeast today.
From Florida to South Carolina and up through the Carolinas and Georgia, Lawrence has carried forward the principles of efficiency, playability, and design restraint he helped implement at Kiawah. His work demonstrates that great golf architecture doesn’t have to choose between artistry and practicality. The best designs achieve both.
The Cougar Point renovation on Kiawah Island stands as a testament to thoughtful design evolution, a course that honors its history while performing at the highest modern standard.
Under Gary Player Design, with Jeff Lawrence playing a leading design and implementation role, Cougar Point became a model for how renovation can restore charm, improve playability, and protect environmental integrity.
That balance between respect for tradition and commitment to progress continues to define Jeff Lawrence’s work today, both in the Southeast and internationally.