Calhoun at Calhoun Country Club

Calhoun Country Club sits in St. Matthews, a small town in Calhoun County in South Carolina's Midlands region, roughly halfway between Columbia and Charleston. The course was designed by Ellis Maples, a prolific North Carolina-based architect who worked extensively throughout the Carolinas from the 1950s through the 1980s. Maples, who trained under his uncle Donald Ross, developed a reputation for creating playable courses suited to their natural settings, often working with modest budgets for community-oriented clubs.

The layout occupies relatively flat terrain characteristic of the South Carolina Coastal Plain, where gentle elevation changes and natural drainage corridors shape the routing. Maples typically incorporated strategic bunkering and used existing tree lines—predominantly pine and hardwood—to define holes and frame playing corridors. Courses from this era in the region often feature Bermuda grass fairways and greens, with an emphasis on straightforward shot values rather than dramatic contours or forced carries.

Calhoun Country Club serves as a traditional community facility in a rural South Carolina setting, where golf functions as a social and recreational anchor for the area. The club reflects the character of many small-town country clubs across the Carolinas: unpretentious, member-focused, and designed to accommodate a range of skill levels. Maples's work here would have prioritized playability and maintainability, creating a course that fits comfortably within its landscape and community context.