Tom Fazio-designed Keowee Vineyard features
eight holes lining the Lake Keowee shoreline.
Mountain Park and its
13 acres of sand are
consistently ranked as
one of top courses in
South Carolina.
golf commentary fame, rounded out the
group. How The Cliffs continues to perfect
what those architects originally did pays
dividends. The owners, Silver Sun Part-
ners, recently spent $500,000 on enhance-
ments at Valley, approximately $400,000
at Keowee Falls and another $200,000 or
so at Keowee Vineyards.
Experts have continued to take notice.
Five of the six courses located south of
the state line were rated in the top 50
of the South Carolina Golf Course Rat-
ings Panel’s 2018 rankings. Keowee Falls
Glassy, which sits more than 3,000 feet
above sea level in the mountains, has been
ranked fourth most scenic in the country.
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was selected to host the NCAA Divi-
sion I men’s golf championship in 2020,
and others in the group have hosted
Web.com Tour events and Bill Haas’ annual
charity tournament.
Those big-ticket events pale in compari-
son to the daily environment. Peeples said
the courses see approximately 108,000
rounds per year, a creation of the seven
diverse options. Roughly 80 percent of
those rounds are played by members; the
rest is a product of the properties’ numer-
ous charity events, which take place on a
weekly basis. What those lucky enough to
get more than 18 holes in notices is some-
thing different from one course to the next.
“Our two Nicklaus courses are dif-
ferent playing surfaces. Our two Fazios
have dif ferent surfaces on the greens.
They all play different,” Peeples said. “We
could have a member play an all bentgrass
course in the morning and an all Bermuda
course in the afternoon. It’s just unrivaled
golf. From a golf standpoint, it doesn’t get
any better than this. To have seven qual-
ity golf courses at a member’s disposal
is unusual. The condition in which we
provide year in and year out is probably
what I’m most proud of.”
vsga.org
There’s the original, Glassy. It was fol-
lowed shortly after by Valley in 1995 and
Keowee Vineyards in 1999. Walnut Cove,
the lone North Carolina track, opened
for business in 2005, with Keowee Falls
and Keowee Springs getting their starts
in 2007 and 2008, respectively.
Lastly, Mountain Park went live in 2013
after a few years of financial hang-ups that
eventually led to a sale of the entire brand.
A few years after that momentary glitch,
golf at The Cliffs is as strong as ever.
Each course has its own head golf
professional, and 19 certified pros are
employed in total.
What they oversee are seven courses
designed by some heavy hitters.
Jack Nicklaus laid out two of the designs,
as did Tom Fazio. Tom Jackson and Gary
Player have one each, and Ben Wright, of