Fifteen miles and a seeming universe of opportunity and advantage separate Congaree Golf Club and the Sergeant Jasper golf course in this flat, tree-covered corner of South Carolina not far from the Atlantic Ocean.
Amid the live oaks and movie-set beauty at Congaree this week, the PGA Tour’s C.J. Cup has relocated from South Korea, bringing 15 of the top 20 players in the world rankings together for a rare autumn gathering of stars at a place so exclusive that it doesn’t have members, it has ambassadors who pay no initiation fee but agree to make philanthropic donations to the Congaree Foundation.
Some of those donations have gone to the Sergeant Jasper course, which was named in honor of a Revolutionary War hero and as different from Congaree as chocolate is from vanilla. Set in South Carolina’s largest and poorest county, “The Sarge,” as some locals know it, sits off a two-lane blacktop that eventually turns into a gravel road, and its nine holes are what have survived from an 18-hole private club that thrived in the days of bell-bottom trousers.
Aware of Congaree’s mission to improve the lives of others, a group of tour pros raised approximately $16,000 last year by committing $100 per birdie to the golf course fund, with 2021 RBC Heritage champion Stewart Cink matching the initial contribution after his victory at Harbour Town.
“With that $16,000, we got to put in an irrigation loop around the greens. We got the sprigs donated so we had some grass on the greens,” said John McNeely, managing director at Congaree and one of the visionaries behind the club that was created by billionaires Dan Friedkin and the late Bob McNair.
Now, The Sarge is available to five area school golf teams, a site for First Tee activities and gradually attracting more players as it struggles off its deathbed.
It’s not fancy and it’s not thriving, but it’s alive and has a strengthening pulse. There is no definition between fairways and rough, and both needed a fresh mowing on a quiet October afternoon this week. The story goes that a dwindling membership and persistent tax bill forced owners to sell off one hole at a time to pay what was owed, leaving it without its swimming pool and only half the holes with which it started years ago.
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