When discussing the legends of golf course architecture, we often hear names like MacKenzie, Ross, Tillinghast, Dye, Trent Jones Jr., Fazio and Doak. Mike Strantz doesn’t always enter the conversation.
However, Strantz gave the golf world eight stellar layouts to enjoy before his passing in 2005. They include Royal New Kent Golf Club and Stonehouse Golf Club in Virginia; Tobacco Road Golf Club and Tot Hill Farm Golf Club in North Carolina; Silver Creek Valley Country Club in California; and Caledonia Golf & Fish Club, Bulls Bay Golf Club and the subject of this GRAA Award Winner Profile, True Blue Golf Club in South Carolina. Strantz also redesigned the famed Monterey Peninsula Country Club Shore Course in 2003 prior to it re-entering the rotation for the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro AM in 2010.
True Blue Golf Club was the fourth of Strantz’s courses and opened in 1998 adjacent to his 1994 offering, Caledonia Golf & Fish Club, Mike’s first course. According to the True Blue Golf Club website, “Strantz crafted True Blue Golf Club to echo many of the characteristics of Pine Valley and Pinehurst #2, with an emphasis on maintaining a natural feel to the course.”
A par 72, 7,126-yard layout, True Blue is a 2025 Golf Range Association of America (GRAA) Top 50 Public Facility. The course fits anyone’s game with six sets of tee boxes, and its 18-acre practice facility is the home of the Steve Dresser Golf Academy. Dresser is an Elite GRAA Growth of the Game Teaching Professional.
Bart Romano has been the PGA Director of Golf Operations at True Blue and nearby Caledonia since 2021 after starting at True Blue as an assistant professional 20 years ago and holding the head professional role before assuming his current position. With Caledonia next door, the two facilities host more than 104,000 rounds of golf per year. They also share an expansive driving range on the True Blue side of the property.
“Mike actually designed the driving range to look like multiple golf holes that you’d see on his courses,” Romano explained. “There are target greens on each side and bunkers surrounding them. There’s even a pond in front of the tee box on the golf academy side of the range. The range was as carefully considered by Strantz as the golf holes on his courses. There are pencil sketches that display what he imagined it to be.”
When Dresser’s golf academy came to True Blue, they expanded the teeing area of the range to accommodate the academy students (25 at a time), as well as the Caledonia and True Blue golfers (40 simultaneously). They also added a short game area on the academy side — one large putting green that is used for putting, chipping, pitching and bunker instruction. In addition, they built a four-bay indoor facility that is equipped with Foresight QuadMAX launch monitors. They also use the Onform app for their video analysis and coaching communication with students.
The public short game area consists of one large putting-only green and another that is used for chipping, pitching and bunker practice.
They’re installing Toptracer technology later this year and a covered structure to shelter the golfers from the elements and create a comfortable practice environment where they can hone their skills and get their numbers using the Toptracer bays. The covered structure will be built by Florida-based Cover the Tees, enabling Romano and his team to offer F&B on the range.
As we’re seeing at many facilities across the country, the driving range is becoming the social hub of the club. The expansion done two decades ago when the Steve Dresser Golf Academy came onboard and the exciting additions coming this summer are evidence of that. In fact, several of the activities held during the annual True Blue Member-Guest tournament are hosted right there on the range. With contests, music and food, the socialization and camaraderie enjoyed by all is as important to the event’s success as the competition on the course.
The golf academy hosts a clinic and wine social for local ladies every other month and they use the range for other social events as well. They’re even considering utilizing the range’s target greens for a par 3 course during special member events in the future.
With beautiful conditions and state-of-the-art technology, the practice opportunities are endless for golfers of all skill levels. Add to that the many programming options of the golf academy, and True Blue has everything needed for a complete golf experience, just like Mr. Strantz had in mind three decades ago.