Reserve at Lake Keowee

Situated half an hour’s drive to the south of Tom Fazio’s Cliffs at Keowee Vineyards course, the eighteen fairways of The Reserve at Lake Keowee layout comprise a Jack Nicklaus Signature course which opened in 2002, three years after the Fazio course was unveiled.

The course acts as a sporting focal point within a vast 3,900-acre residential development that also provides residents with a variety of other leisure amenities, such as a 200-berth marina, four floodlit tennis courts and two outdoor swimming pools.

As the name suggests, water plays a large part in proceedings here, but not always in the form of the crystal clear waters of the lake as creeks cross the fairway just in front of the green at three of the four par fives.

There’s a very strong finish to the round here, starting at the long par four 15th (which plays to a stonewall-fronted, elevated green) and ending at the 444-yard 18th, a tightly bunkered closer that runs parallel to the penultimate hole.