Yeamans Hall Club

Seth Raynor designed the course at Yeamans Hall Club in South Carolina in 1925. It has been called “a time capsule in Charleston” in appreciation of it embodying all that is good in traditional golf course design (of course that could be said of all Raynor courses). And don’t let a modest course yardage fool you into thinking this is a short course, as several drives have to be played into upslopes which afford little forward ball momentum.

Yeamans Hall enjoys just about the firmest playing conditions of any course on the eastern seaboard of the United States and it is blessed with wide, tree-lined fairways and greens which are a trademark of their designer – all except two are receptive to the running approach shot.

In the late 1980s, many greens had shrunk to nearly half their original size, so the golf club restored the 1st and 13th putting surfaces to gauge the effect it would have on the membership. Such was the impact, Tom Doak was contracted in 1998 to rebuild the remaining sixteen greens and this was done over six months that year with the total putting surface area increasing from 80,000 to over 140,000 square feet.

Unique Raynor design features like horseshoe contours within the green were re-established on the 3rd and 10th putting surfaces and spines dividing greens in two were introduced on the 4th and 15th and, of course, the increase in green size now offers so many new, interesting pin positions.

A feature hole is the par three 6th measuring 180 yards called “Redan” which, as the name implies, is a Raynor remake of the famous 15th hole at North Berwick. The narrow green slopes from right to left and is framed by magnolias and oak trees bedecked in hanging moss. Three bunkers at the back are very much in play as the putting surface slopes steeply into them.

Raynor said of Yeamans Hall in 1925, “this course is going to combine the sandy seaside features… the fairways made beautiful by magnificent live oaks and large pines bordering them… to make one fall in love with golf at Yeamans Hall.”