The Landings Golf and Athletic Club in Savannah, Georgia, has approved a masterplan from Brandon Johnson Golf Course Design to redesign the practice facility near the club’s Marshwood and Magnolia courses.
The club is home to six 18-hole courses, with designs by Arnold Palmer, Tom Fazio, Arthur Hills and Willard Byrd. There are four practice facilities that support the six courses.
With The Landings membership growing and the demand for a top-quality short-game complex increasing, the club turned to Johnson who had worked on the Marshwood and Magnolia courses while at Arnold Palmer Design Company. “The existing Marshwood/Magnolia practice facility, while on a small, narrow footprint, still has unused space and untapped potential for improvement,” he said. “Tall pines on the left and a grove of mature oaks on the right create a very narrow and basic practice space. Visibility down the driving corridor is limited due to tree growth and limb overhangs, as well as contours which obscure views down range. The drainage and overall maintainability also require improvement. Our goal is to unlock the potential hidden in the unused spaces of a very small footprint.”
Johnson sought input from the club’s executive director, director of golf and director of agronomy to identify areas of improvement. His plan aims to transform the back end of the driving range into a three-green short-game area, which can be used for general practice as well as dedicated lessons. This area has bunkers of various depths and styles, and the three greens match the style, character and slopes of putting surfaces found on the Marshwood and Magnolia courses.
“The new facility will be a huge upgrade on the 25-year-old existing facility,” said Johnson. “Converting the back of the driving range into a secluded short-game oasis will be fantastic for the club. Having a small synthetic tee will still allow them to set up the back end of the range for tournaments and overflow tee space when needed.”
The masterplan also includes an expanded and realigned driving range tee, with the entire body of the range being recontoured to create highly visible and defined target greens that will be grassed with synthetic turf to maximise definition and ease of maintenance. We will reconfigure the 210 to 300-yard range to resemble a fairway with synthetic bunkers located at carry distances.
The project will include tree clearing to widen the range, with some of the target greens located close to the new treeline to resemble an enclosed green site. “A community access path that runs along the existing driving range will be realigned and converted into a natural understory feature,” said Johnson. “It will also serve as informal cart parking so members can access the facility from a wide variety of points and disperse wear patterns evenly across the facility.”
Contractor Duininck Golf will carry out the renovation, with the project slated to begin in spring 2026.
“The aim is to create a facility that excites the player to practice,” said Johnson. “We want to create features and shot options that promote ‘playful practice’ while simulating real on-course scenarios. We want to entice the ‘inner child’ in us to come out and play, and experiment with a variety of golf shots. The goal is to produce a space where members can turn a 30-minute session into a two-hour experience and still feel as if there are shot options to be explored.”