Jeff Warne has no problem with private clubs. He grew up in Augusta, Ga., in the shadow of the game’s most famously exclusive grounds, and he now serves as director of golf at The Bridge, one of Long Island’s most gilded enclaves.
Warne walks comfortably in lofty circles.
But talk golf with him, and a different side emerges. On his own trips, Warne is often drawn to off-the-beaten-track courses in the UK and Ireland, where members’ dues are modest and access to the tee sheet is democratic. He adores those places as much as he appreciates the fully private kind.
Those two sides of Warne’s golf life have been taking shape on a sandy, pine-studded stretch of land in Aiken, S.C., where he is developing New Holland Golf Club, a project GOLF visited earlier this year as part of a broader look at one of the hottest golf destinations in the country.
Aiken has been having more than a moment. Anchored by historic clubs like Palmetto and Aiken Golf Club, the area has attracted amplified attention with headline arrivals like The Tree Farm, Old Barnwell and the 21 Club, all within the orbit of Augusta National, which sits some 30 minutes to the south.
New Holland, situated on rolling land across from The Tree Farm, aims to complement that constellation: a members’ club built on the British model, with a compelling course that welcomes outside play. Though an opening date has not yet been announced, the course has been routed, the playing corridors and green sites have been established and work continues pushing forward. Warne has enlisted Brian Schieder for the design, which sits gracefully on the terrain. New Holland will have a minimalist layout that will be adjoined by amenities to match: the infrastructure is meant to be modest — with a clubhouse, a locker room and a hot dog stand at the turn — stripped of the extravagant extras that ornament so many American private clubs.
Warne and his team want golf to be the focus, and the club itself to be an enticement to wider explorations of the area.
”To me, Aiken is the destination,” Warne says. “We’re just going to tap into all the great golf around it. You can get a great meal in Aiken. There’s a great bar scene. We also want to have a culture where you can play the Tree Farm in the morning and come over here in the afternoon and pay a daily fee.”
You can learn more about Warne and his hopes for New Holland — and on Aiken’s growing place on the golf map — by watching the video below.
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