South Carolina’s golf landscape tells a story of contrast — from the breezy marshlands of Kiawah Island to the rolling foothills around Greenville. Each region carries its own accent: salt and sand in the Lowcountry, clay and pine in the Upstate.
For decades, these environments have defined how the game feels here. But today, many classic layouts are aging — and thoughtful renovation has become the key to keeping them alive.
Few architects understand that balance better than Jeff Lawrence, ASGCA, founder of Lawrence Golf Design. His work across the state — from Cougar Point on Kiawah Island to Holly Tree Country Club and The Cliffs at Mountain Park in the Upstate — shows how modernization and preservation can work hand in hand.
The coast poses challenges that test even experienced designers — salt air, high water tables, and the wear of year-round play. At Cougar Point, Jeff Lawrence led a series of green re-designs, bunker adjustments, and grass conversions to enhance the golf experience and improve long-term conditioning of the golf course.
By blending contemporary technology with restraint, the project preserved the course’s Lowcountry charm while delivering the performance standards modern golfers expect.
The lessons from Kiawah ripple across the state: invest first in infrastructure — irrigation, drainage, and soil profile — then layer in visual and strategic improvements once the foundation is right.
Drive west into the foothills and the golf shifts from resort-style vistas to member-driven community clubs.
At 3’s Greenville, LGD developed a master plan combining bunker renovation, select re-routing, and a new nine-hole par-3 course.
Similarly, The Cliffs at Mountain Park and Holly Tree Country Club underwent targeted upgrades — new grasses, restored greens contours, and tee adjustments — all designed to strengthen consistency without erasing the courses’ small-town personality.
Across many projects, a recurring theme emerges: design as a maintenance solution.
Every bunker reshaped, every green re-graded is an operational decision as much as an aesthetic one.
At Holly Tree Country Club in Simpsonville, NC, Lawrence Golf Design’s comprehensive master plan reimagined every green complex, tee, and approach with the superintendent’s daily workflow in mind.
By improving design features and adjusting mow lines, the course now maintains a refined look with fewer labor hours — proof that good design can save effort while elevating presentation.
Renovation can do more than refresh turf — it can reconnect a community.
At 3’s Greenville, a compact par-3 concept adjacent to downtown, Jeff Lawrence helped refine greens and bunkering to create an accessible, social space where new golfers and lifelong players can meet.
That philosophy — inclusivity through design — is spreading. Short courses, flexible teeing grounds, and walking-friendly routing are helping South Carolina clubs appeal to modern lifestyles without sacrificing integrity.
South Carolina’s golf future will be defined by adaptability.
Courses that survive the next twenty years will be those that:
From Cougar Point on the coast to The Cliffs at Mountain Park in the foothills, Lawrence Golf Design’s body of work illustrates how timeless design can stay relevant in a fast-changing world.
Renovating South Carolina’s golf courses is about more than new sand and turf.
It’s about protecting identity — the contours, colors, and community that make the state’s golf culture unique.
Through patient, region-specific design, Lawrence Golf Design continues to prove that the best renovations don’t reinvent golf; they let it shine again.