Musgrove Mill Tops Clubs With ‘Single’ Best Golfers
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UNLIKE THE OCEAN COURSE at Kiawah Island Resort or the Country Club of Charleston, they will never host a major. Not a PGA Championship, nor a U.S. Women’s Open. Never draw spectators by the tens of thousands. And certainly, never headline coverage on Golf Channel. Yet they are home to some of South Carolina’s best golfers, players who, as much as fresh air and exercise, love the competition, against the course and each other. They are clubs that are home to the greatest concentration of golfers with single-digit handicaps in the state. Just who “they” are will likely surprise you. On top of the lists, for men and for women, are clubs that can fairly be said to sit in the middle of nowhere. On the men’s side, and overall, the club with the highest singledigit density is Musgrove Mill Golf Club, an Arnold Palmer
BY TRENT BOUTS design in the Upstate with proximity to more cows and goats than humans. In fact, as of the most recent U.S. Census, the club has twice as many members (about 260) than the nearest incorporated town, Cross Anchor, has people (126). Nudged against the Enoree River amid 315 acres of forest about six miles east off I-26, Musgrove is roughly half-way between Columbia (67 miles) and Greenville (50 miles). Clinton, the town from which the club takes its postal address, is nearly 10 miles away. As Golf Digest magazine once observed, it is “remote.” Yet, good golfers want to play there. Using handicaps maintained through services provided by the South Carolina Golf Association, two out of every three (66.90 percent) male golfers who belong to the club are single-digit players. That’s a staggeringly high concentration when you consider that, nationally, less than a third
(31.31 percent) of all men have handicaps that low. “They just love the challenge of this place,” says Jeff Tallman, Musgrove’s affable and longtime director of golf. And challenge is right. From the championship tees, Musgrove has a slope rating (the USGA’s measure of difficulty) of 153 on a scale that runs from 55 to 155. From the forward tees the slope drops to 131. “It is a second shot golf course because it’s forgiving off the tee,” Tallman says. “The golf course really starts from 150 yards in. You really learn how to hit golf shots, how to control your distances.” Indeed, thanks to perched greens, waste areas or water, there is barely a handful of holes where the ball doesn’t have to be flown in. You are constantly taking a yardage then adding or subtracting for an elevation change. The penalty for messing up that math or failing to execute
the swing lends to the test that good golfers enjoy. As proof of that last point, Tallman notes that the SCGA’s current Player of the Year, Robert Lutomski, and Senior Player of the Year, Walter Todd, Sr., are both members at Musgrove. “That’s pretty amazing, I think,” he says. “For one club to have both at the same time.” The club also attracts talented juniors. Roebuck’s Nathan Franks just returned from a seventhplaced finish in The Junior Players Championship at TPC Sawgrass in Florida and Phoebe Carles from Clinton won the SC Junior Match Play Championship. Natalie Srinivasan, who went from Dorman High School to Furman University’s women’s team, recorded a top 20 finish at the inaugural Augusta National Women’s Invitational this spring. Any surprise that Musgrove attracts such a wealth of good players comes from its geography, not the quality of the golf course. Jeff Tallman, Director of Golf at Musgrove Mill
A serene view of the 18th green and ninth fairway at Musgrove Mill in “the middle of nowhere.” 10
Palmetto Golfer
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