- Joined
- May 8, 2002
- Posts
- 438,171
- Reaction score
- 44
After collaborating with “golf royalty” to create courses globally, Scott Ferrell is teaming up with longtime Greenville resident and businessman Barton Tuck to kick off a golf club close to home.
“There isn’t a golf project like this in Greenville,” Ferrell says. “There hasn’t been a private golf club developed here in 30 years. I think the market is ready.”
Ferrell and Tuck are developing Kawonu Golf Club, a private, golf-only club on 300 acres, 17 miles south of Downtown Greenville.
While other clubs in the Upstate feature amenities for swimming, tennis and pickleball, Kawonu will be designed specifically for local and out-of-town golfers.
“That golf-only concept is appealing to people who are passionate about golf,” Ferrell says. “You don't find that within 25 minutes of Greenville. We're creating a place where you can get away without having to get away.”
Kawonu will be located at Fork Shoals Road and Hwy. 418 in Simpsonville. The closest similar courses are in Aiken or Beaufort, he says.
“We believe that our plans, our site, our architects, our team … We can raise the bar for golf in the Upstate,” Ferrell says. “I love Greenville. I've been here 17 years. It's a phenomenal place. I think having a world-class, golf-only destination project is going to make Greenville even better than it is.”
Ferrell has not always worked close to home. His career has taken him from coast to coast and around the world with the PGA and legendary golfer and course designer Gary Player.
Golf is a constant in his life.
“I grew up in a small town in Virginia, and we had a little club. I was 7 when I started playing. I fell in love with the game. My whole family played. We played, we watched, we worked at the golf course. I had a passion,” he says.
Relationships are another constant. “I'm still close to the people I’ve met along the way, even the 7-year-old I started with. We remain best of friends,” Ferrell says. “As Gary Player always said, ‘Golf is a friend-making machine.’”
Two decades after Ferrell first swung a club, he took a job with the PGA Tour and later with Player.
Originally from South Africa, Player won the Masters Tournament three times, the British Open three times, the PGA Championship twice, and the U.S. Open once. He received the PGA Tour Lifetime Achievement Award in 2012.
“I traveled the world with him for 15 years. Most of what we did was international,” Ferrell says. “I saw places I never thought I might see. And I did it with golf royalty.”
As President of Gary Player Design, Ferrell helped establish golf courses in China, the United Arab Emirates, Bulgaria, Morocco, France, Honduras, Mexico, Canada, India and other locations.
“My role was to identify new projects. I located the developers who had the property, funding and permits,” Ferrell says. “We had talented architects who worked with Gary on the golf concepts and strategy. We would design the golf course and help market it through Gary Player.”
The organization worked in and out of China for about a decade. “There was a time (in the mid-2000s) that golf was soft in the United States and starting to grow in China. The whole industry flocked to China. I would run into my competitors at the airport in Shanghai.”
Ferrell worked on approximately 10 golf courses in China. However, later, 80 courses were bulldozed in Beijing as part of an anti-corruption movement. “They felt that golf was tied to the corruption,” he says.
“We never did another project there. It went from the hottest place in the world to nothing in a very short period.”
Before Ferrell left the Player organization in 2016, he and his family relocated to Greenville from Florida to work on the golf course at The Cliffs at Mountain Park. Then he took a break and served on the board of a company that created and later sold a software program for golf course superintendents.
And he met Barton Tuck.
“Barton has probably developed 30 golf courses. He and I kept trying to figure out things to do together. We'd have lunch often to stay in touch. Now he’s my partner in this project,” Ferrell says.
Ferrell says his research convinced him that Greenville would support a private, golf-only club. Then, he and Tuck found the undeveloped 300-acre tract along the Reedy River.
“The buzz was starting in Greenville about what we were doing,” Ferrell says. “A buzz has to turn into memberships for this to work. But I felt strongly that the buzz was real. When we officially went out to invite members, our bullishness was affirmed, and people were ready to commit. We've had a lot of success.”
Tuck and Ferrell engaged architect Andrew Green to design the course. “He was on the rise, and since then has been even more on the rise,” Ferrell says. They selected Joel Newman to design the clubhouse and as many as 20 four-bedroom cottages.
A ceremony celebrating the upcoming groundbreaking is scheduled this week. The opening is projected for spring or early summer 2027.
Ferrell says Kawonu Golf Club has been welcomed by those who worry about the pace of development in southern Greenville County.
“We're taking 300 acres out of play. Up to 800 homes could have been built there. That's not going to happen anymore. People love the open space,” Ferrell says.
Green’s design does not disturb 60 acres in the Reedy River floodplain. Ferrell says he is working with conservationists to safeguard that property.
“The site is perfect for a golf course. It's got five existing lakes. We're not going to move a lot of dirt,” he says. “Andrew Green wants to use what we have. That's very environmentally friendly and sustainable.”
The cottages will be designed to accommodate a four-person golf outing, not for seclusion, Ferrell says.
“We will have a clubhouse with a full food and beverage operation. So, we would prefer to see people come to the clubhouse for meals and social activities,” he says.
“They’ll see everybody else on the property. A social environment. That's what golf is all about.”
This article originally appeared on Greenville News: A New Green Hitting Greenville - Longtime Developers Tee Up New Golf Club South Of Greenville
Continue reading...
“There isn’t a golf project like this in Greenville,” Ferrell says. “There hasn’t been a private golf club developed here in 30 years. I think the market is ready.”
You must be registered for see images attach
Ferrell and Tuck are developing Kawonu Golf Club, a private, golf-only club on 300 acres, 17 miles south of Downtown Greenville.
While other clubs in the Upstate feature amenities for swimming, tennis and pickleball, Kawonu will be designed specifically for local and out-of-town golfers.
“That golf-only concept is appealing to people who are passionate about golf,” Ferrell says. “You don't find that within 25 minutes of Greenville. We're creating a place where you can get away without having to get away.”
Kawonu will be located at Fork Shoals Road and Hwy. 418 in Simpsonville. The closest similar courses are in Aiken or Beaufort, he says.
“We believe that our plans, our site, our architects, our team … We can raise the bar for golf in the Upstate,” Ferrell says. “I love Greenville. I've been here 17 years. It's a phenomenal place. I think having a world-class, golf-only destination project is going to make Greenville even better than it is.”
Ferrell has not always worked close to home. His career has taken him from coast to coast and around the world with the PGA and legendary golfer and course designer Gary Player.
Golf is a constant in his life.
“I grew up in a small town in Virginia, and we had a little club. I was 7 when I started playing. I fell in love with the game. My whole family played. We played, we watched, we worked at the golf course. I had a passion,” he says.
Relationships are another constant. “I'm still close to the people I’ve met along the way, even the 7-year-old I started with. We remain best of friends,” Ferrell says. “As Gary Player always said, ‘Golf is a friend-making machine.’”
Two decades after Ferrell first swung a club, he took a job with the PGA Tour and later with Player.
Originally from South Africa, Player won the Masters Tournament three times, the British Open three times, the PGA Championship twice, and the U.S. Open once. He received the PGA Tour Lifetime Achievement Award in 2012.
“I traveled the world with him for 15 years. Most of what we did was international,” Ferrell says. “I saw places I never thought I might see. And I did it with golf royalty.”
As President of Gary Player Design, Ferrell helped establish golf courses in China, the United Arab Emirates, Bulgaria, Morocco, France, Honduras, Mexico, Canada, India and other locations.
“My role was to identify new projects. I located the developers who had the property, funding and permits,” Ferrell says. “We had talented architects who worked with Gary on the golf concepts and strategy. We would design the golf course and help market it through Gary Player.”
The organization worked in and out of China for about a decade. “There was a time (in the mid-2000s) that golf was soft in the United States and starting to grow in China. The whole industry flocked to China. I would run into my competitors at the airport in Shanghai.”
Ferrell worked on approximately 10 golf courses in China. However, later, 80 courses were bulldozed in Beijing as part of an anti-corruption movement. “They felt that golf was tied to the corruption,” he says.
“We never did another project there. It went from the hottest place in the world to nothing in a very short period.”
Before Ferrell left the Player organization in 2016, he and his family relocated to Greenville from Florida to work on the golf course at The Cliffs at Mountain Park. Then he took a break and served on the board of a company that created and later sold a software program for golf course superintendents.
And he met Barton Tuck.
“Barton has probably developed 30 golf courses. He and I kept trying to figure out things to do together. We'd have lunch often to stay in touch. Now he’s my partner in this project,” Ferrell says.
Ferrell says his research convinced him that Greenville would support a private, golf-only club. Then, he and Tuck found the undeveloped 300-acre tract along the Reedy River.
“The buzz was starting in Greenville about what we were doing,” Ferrell says. “A buzz has to turn into memberships for this to work. But I felt strongly that the buzz was real. When we officially went out to invite members, our bullishness was affirmed, and people were ready to commit. We've had a lot of success.”
Tuck and Ferrell engaged architect Andrew Green to design the course. “He was on the rise, and since then has been even more on the rise,” Ferrell says. They selected Joel Newman to design the clubhouse and as many as 20 four-bedroom cottages.
A ceremony celebrating the upcoming groundbreaking is scheduled this week. The opening is projected for spring or early summer 2027.
Ferrell says Kawonu Golf Club has been welcomed by those who worry about the pace of development in southern Greenville County.
“We're taking 300 acres out of play. Up to 800 homes could have been built there. That's not going to happen anymore. People love the open space,” Ferrell says.
Green’s design does not disturb 60 acres in the Reedy River floodplain. Ferrell says he is working with conservationists to safeguard that property.
“The site is perfect for a golf course. It's got five existing lakes. We're not going to move a lot of dirt,” he says. “Andrew Green wants to use what we have. That's very environmentally friendly and sustainable.”
You must be registered for see images attach
The cottages will be designed to accommodate a four-person golf outing, not for seclusion, Ferrell says.
“We will have a clubhouse with a full food and beverage operation. So, we would prefer to see people come to the clubhouse for meals and social activities,” he says.
“They’ll see everybody else on the property. A social environment. That's what golf is all about.”
This article originally appeared on Greenville News: A New Green Hitting Greenville - Longtime Developers Tee Up New Golf Club South Of Greenville
Continue reading...
