Reversible 54-acre course at the Lowcountry community opened January 2024
PALMETTO BLUFF, SC – South Street Partners, one of the largest owners and operators of private residential club and resort communities in the United States – including Kiawah Island, Palmetto Bluff, The Cliffs, Naples Grande, Barnsley Resort, Elevation Hotel & Spa and Residences at Salamander – is excited to announce, ‘Crossroads,’ Palmetto Bluff’s reversible nine-hole course from acclaimed golf architecture firm, King-Collins Golf Course Design.
Sited on +/- 54 acres with a mix of Par 3, Par 4, and Par 5 holes, the course is in the Moreland area of Palmetto Bluff and will be part of a larger collection of planned amenities. The first significant golf-focused project in the Lowcountry community since the Jack Nicklaus Signature May River Golf Course was built in 2005, Crossroads opened in January 2024.
Led by golf industry mavericks – King-Collins’ Principal Designer, Rob Collins, and Managing Director, Tad King – the innovative course runs along an expansion of Palmetto Bluff’s extensive inland waterway, which will make it accessible by electric boat and kayak.
The course is a departure from traditional layouts and features two routings – The Hammer and The Press – which can be played in reverse, crisscrossing over itself to provide an exciting and dynamic experience every time. Crossroads offers golfers unlimited shot-making options and encourages exploration of the course’s captivating landscape.
With its sandy soil and firm playing conditions, golfers can fully appreciate the diverse terrain and strategize their way through each hole, regardless of their skill level. Designed specifically for match play, both routings lead to dramatic finishes on the final holes, ensuring a thrilling end to every round.
The course’s meandering layout inspires a choose-your-own-adventure style of play, where members can venture off the beaten path and discover the hidden ‘cross country’ holes tucked away within the format.
Crossroads showcases a unique golfing experience in the Lowcountry, featuring stunning dune ridges reaching heights of 40 feet and elevation changes of +/- 10 feet, a focal point of the course.
Offering multiple tee boxes, players have the flexibility to tailor their yardage anywhere from 3,100 yards to 1,000 yards, depending on their preferences and course conditions. The course comprises 35 acres of turf and three acres of green surface, and the overall turf quantities are as much or more than many 18- hole courses, creating nine big holes. A 34,000 square-foot “Himalayas” putting green near the first tee is a surprising, and fun, amenity.
“Tad & I were extremely excited about the opportunity to work with South Street Partners on the new reversible nine-hole golf course at Palmetto Bluff,” said Rob Collins of King-Collins Golf Course Design. “It was our intention to build a thrilling course filled with variety and loaded with shot-making interest alongside the expanded inland waterway. With the ability to play the golf course clockwise and counterclockwise, the golf staff at Palmetto Bluff will have wide latitude in setting the course up from day to day, ensuring that it will never tire upon repeat play.
“We were also excited about the nearly unlimited supply of sand at our disposal, which has allowed us to build a visually stunning layout that will play firm and fast, while accommodating the ball flight characteristics of all classes of players. It was truly an honor to receive this commission, and to create one of the most unique playing experiences anywhere in the United States at Palmetto Bluff.”
The Palmetto Bluff Conservancy, keepers of the natural and historical world of Palmetto Bluff, provide land management services, conduct invaluable research, and provide world-class biological and ecological educational programs.
All planning and development at Palmetto Bluff is guided by the land, and King-Collins carefully crafted a plan that respected the property’s topography, wetlands, and miles of marsh. Integration with Palmetto Bluff’s natural bounty was top of mind for Crossroads, and the vision for the native areas was a mixture of open sandy areas blended with low-growing sparse vegetation to contrast with the tight-mowed fairways and greens to create great views and vistas across the course.
The native areas were established with hydroseeding to blend all species and use erosion- controlling germination mats on the steep slopes. Native species planted on the course include Sheep’s Sorrel, Goldenrod, Black Eyed Susan, Switchgrass, Lavender Grass, Purple Love Grass, Little Bluestem, Sand Dropseed, and Prairie Junegrass.
King-Collins has become synonymous with a brand of fun, inventive, quick golf, which has taken the once-staid industry by storm. Considered one of the more impressive golf architectural achievements in recent years, King-Collins’ Sweetens Cove has become a pilgrimage site for top golfers from around the world who annually flock to the duo’s game-changing nine-hole course outside Chattanooga that opened in 2014.
Their unconventional approach – and rejection of the traditional assumptions about location, length, and the configuration of golf holes – is also evident at Taavo Somer’s Inness, a hotel, restaurant, member’s club, and nine-hole course situated on 220 pastoral acres between the Catskill and Shawangunk mountain ranges in New York’s Hudson Valley. Boasting a flowing, eco-friendly layout, this innovative course features massive greens with a wonderful variety of movement.
South Street’s investment and development experience in the luxury marketplace provides the opportunity to impact and improve every aspect of a project, from concept to execution and operations. The new course is part of a slate of unique programs and amenities South Street is integrating to augment the incredible lifestyle and real estate offerings Palmetto Bluff is known for and demonstrably raise the membership experience for all stakeholders.
