Old Chatham

At some point, avid golfers in sizable communities come together to create a club that focuses entirely on their preferred sport, and nothing else. There were many such hobbyists spread among North Carolina’s “Research Triangle,” and they came together to buy a wooded plot in the Raleigh area for the pursuit.

Rees Jones was chosen to create the layout, which is guarded tightly along the forest-lined fairways by large (and deep) sand hazards that all but guarantee green-in-regulation will be out of the question. Even those who hit every fairway may not be assured of a birdie opportunity, as the course can be extended to nearly 7,250 yards. Although the location limits the wind on any given day, Jones routed the course as to ensure no consecutive hole faces in the same direction.

As an organization dedicated to golf, Old Chatham also takes pride in its caddie program, and it has a great wellspring for talent. The same “Research Triangle” features a number of universities with noteworthy golf programs, and the players on these squads lend advice (and muscle) at Chatham.

The course hosted the US Senior Amateur in 2019 and it will stage the US Girls’ Junior championship in 2026. In between those dates, Rees Jones and Greg Muirhead renovated the layout, reconstructing all the bunkers with capillary concrete liners and reducing their overall size by 18 per cent. The 16th hole was also redesigned, bringing a small lake into play short left of the green and introducing a bail-out area to the right of the putting surface, beyond a new bunker complex.