18 Photo: Rob McCallum TEE BOX Olde Eight grassed and ready to open Olde Eight Golf Club, formerly known as The Links at Stoney Point, in Greenwood, South Carolina, is set to reopen in November 2025 following a renovation by Drew Rogers. The architect is preserving the original Tom Jackson routing but has completely redesigned every hole to deliver a new golfing experience. Rogers has worked alongside Total Turf Golf Services, Leibold Irrigation, Mazzella Partnership, Tahoma 31 and Better Billy Bunker. Olde Eight’s founding partners are Ashley and Shane LeBaron, Mitch Kovitz and Matt Green, and former professional golfer David Duval is involved as an investor. Rogers, Shane LaBaron and Nick Mazzella discussed the project in the Summer 2025 issue of By Design magazine, with LaBaron saying: “It was vital for us to produce something out here with Drew that would create a memory where the holes talk to each other. I want you to play this once and it sticks. I want everyone to be able to tell a story of all 18 holes.” The course is growing in and according to Chris Jordan, director of greens and grounds at Olde Eight, it is well set for the reopening date of 7 November. “We have Tahoma 31 everywhere except the greens which are sprigged with TifEagle,” said Jordan, who has grown and managed Tahoma 31 before, at the Tom Fazio-designed North course at Berkeley Hall in Bluffton, South Carolina. “I like how tight you can mow it. If you want to take your tees or your collars down to a quarter of an inch, you can. Tahoma 31 has a lot of body to it – it’s a full upright-feeling grass. “Some of the grasses that make good playing surfaces at fairway height don’t do well in the rough at two inches. Tahoma 31 keeps enough body as an upright grass in the rough and I can mow it at a quarter to three inches if I need to, and it will still do what I want. The flexibility in the height of cut allows us to use it in different areas on the course, too.”
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