Built by billionaires, Congaree Golf Club one of the best in South Carolina has only 1 member but a grand purpose.
The following written content by Josh Berhow
Congaree is a stunning golf course, one of the best in South Carolina, and this week it gets its first ever PGA Tour event, the Palmetto Championship. That’s big, but that’s not the sole purpose of this story — or the club. Far from it.
Congaree Golf Club opened in 2017 in Ridgeland, S.C., the brainchild of billionaire businessmen Dan Friedkin and the late Bob McNair. They had a vision for more than just 18 great golf holes designed by Tom Fazio, so they established the club’s charitable arm, the Congaree Foundation, which is headlined by the Congaree Global Golf Initiative. The latter is a collegiate preparatory program for underserved high schoolers who aspire to play college golf.
One week is not going to change their lives, but it’s that week with the two years following that changes their lives.
BRUCE DAVIDSON, CONGAREE DIRECTOR OF GOLF
Through the Congaree Global Golf Initiative, 36 students around the age of 16 spend a week on site over the summer working with the club’s bevy of experts in an effort to prepare themselves to beat the many barriers of playing collegiate athletics.
“That’s our stated goal, to give kids educational and vocational opportunities,” says Bruce Davidson, Congaree’s Director of Golf, a title he shares with John McNeely. Davidson and McNeely were both involved in building the club and its programs with Friedkin and McNair. “We are trying to get these kids into colleges in America, where they can study and earn a degree, and at the same time play golf.”
The club opened with two members — its owners — and now has one, after McNair’s passing in 2018. There are, however, ambassadors, prominent figures in their respective fields and well-connected industry types who join via invite only. They not only promote the club but lend their time and capital. There are more than 200 ambassadors, plus another 100 or so honorary and professional ambassadors, guys like Nick Price, Tom Watson and Mark O’Meara. Read more from Golf.
