Over the last few months the rumor in clubhouses and golf courses around the Upstate has been about a new course being developed in Greenville.

Rumors had the new course being more demanding than the Ocean Course and more exclusive than Augusta National.

The rumors did not set a date for the new course to host a US Open, but if Scott Ferrell had not publicly announced the plans for Kawonu Golf Club in March, plans for a major in the Upstate certainly would have been added to the rumor mill.

“Hopefully our announcement will settle down the rumors,” offered Ferrell.

A long time executive with the Gary Player Golf Group Ferrell moved to the Upstate with the company around 16 years ago.

With Player he managed the development of golf properties for the company all over the world, but a few years back decided Greenville would be home.

“We love Greenville and with my background I wanted to see if we could bring a new course here,” he said.

After a great deal of planning and with some help from noted Greenville golf developer Barton Tuck as an advisor the idea of an exclusive club on the order of Congaree in Ridgeland and Sage Valley in Aiken took hold.

Kawonu Golf Club will be the first new course in the Upstate since The Cliffs at Mountain Park opened,

It will be the first new private club to open in Greenville since Thornblade Club over 30 years ago.

And it will be all about golf and only golf, Ferrell has promised there will be no pickle ball courts.

“If you love golf you are going to love this place,” said Ferrell. “It is not going to be a real estate development, it is just going to be a golf course,” he added.

Using the Congaree model or closer to home the original plan for Musgrove Mill, Kawonu will have a clubhouse and some stay and play accommodations.

Membership in the new club will be by invitation. Ferrell expects the limited membership to be a mix of local and national members.

“We will be about 25 minutes from downtown. Greenville people will be able to get away and our national members will have the opportunity to experience Greenville,” said Ferrell.

After years working with many different golf architects and designers Ferrell has chosen a new designer for the course.

“He is Andrew Green and up to now he is best known for his renovation work at many of the top golf courses.”
said Ferrell

Green has been responsible for major renovation projects at Inverness, Oak Hill, Congressional and the major update at East Lake.

This will be Green’s first original design and Ferrell has confidence the land for the course will provide Green with a blank canvas to create something very special.

“We have walked around the property and we are in the early stages of a routing plan and securing the engineering permits,” said Ferrell.

Construction is expected to start next year with a first tee shot, hopefully, set for the spring of 2027 or sooner.

While Green is tending to the golf course design, Ferrell now has to put his marketing experience to work creating the public image of the new course.

The name itself offers a number of possibilities.

“Kawonu comes from the Cherokee heritage of the area and we want to develop it,” he said.

Loosely translated from Cherokee, Kawonu means duck. The land for the new course includes a number of ponds where “Kawonus” were hunted.

Ferrell is in the process of developing a website, logo and membership offerings for the new club located near Fork Shoals Road and Highway 418.

While the rumors seemed a bit too grand, what Ferrell is building may not be far off.

“I couldn’t be happier with the way things have been going, We have the pieces in place to make Kawonu one of the great clubs of America,” concluded Ferrell.