Old Barnwell sits less than an hour from Augusta National, and it is building something of its own. Nick Schreiber was in his late thirties when he set out to found a club, and he wanted to chart a new vision for what a golf club of the future might look like. He wanted a family-friendly place that would bring a community together rather than divide it. So the plans read almost like a manifesto. There is housing and unlimited access for four aspiring women professionals. There is a youth caddie program for fourteen to twenty year olds who are paid even when they do not pick up a loop. There is a paid maintenance apprenticeship for high schoolers drawn to agronomy, and a budding partnership with two historically Black colleges and universities. Dogs are welcome with prior approval. In the Deep South, where golf's old gates have stood a long time, this club is actively taking them down. The golf just happens to be wonderful. Brian Schneider and Blake Conant had 575 acres of sandy loam, and the course they opened in 2023 uses it fully, with width as a primary part of play. The card says par 73, with only three one-shot holes. The routing leaves the clubhouse on the 1st and does not come home until the 18th. The very first obstacle is a berm, and from the first tee you sense this will be different. The 2nd is a short par 4 of just over 300 yards. The 3rd green could have been found in the Outer Hebrides. By the 5th the diagonals and ridges begin, and they become the character of the round. Conant has spoken of "intentional disorientation," used on the 3rd, 5th, 10th, 12th, 13th, 16th and 18th. The 6th runs 460 yards and crosses the little 17th, and on all that open ground a single centreline bunker shouts at you from the tee. The 7th chicanes around two bunkers that may become hallmarks of the design. At the 9th, from 315 yards, you lay up or go for it, with another centreline bunker guarding the ideal line and a berm set at forty-five degrees. The 10th, 11th and 12th form a small loop you could play on repeat: a 455-yard par 4, a 230-yard par 3 with a massive tiered green, then a 535-yard par 5. Then comes the 14th, just 285 yards, perhaps one of the best new short par 4s in America. A safe landing waits 185 yards out with a blind wedge beyond. A 230-yard carry might trundle onto the green. You can take two measured shots, or smash driver right and face a pitch that demands perfection. You could spend a day on it and never be bored. The 15th follows at 625 yards and stirs thought on all three shots. The 16th, 545 yards, plays across a ravine to a green perched halfway up the hillside, so you climb half the slope after your approach and the rest after you putt out. The 17th is the shortest hole, a postage stamp that only looks like a breather. The 18th, 430 yards, comes home past two rampart bunkers short and right. The greens are deliberately balanced: six subdued, six moderately sloped, six bold. This kind of architecture is not always easy to present, and some features need personal care. Director of Agronomy Chase Watson handled the grow-in, and the care shows. General Manager John Lavelle, who worked for Tom Fazio at Augusta National and at Congaree, has nurtured the whole enterprise. The club keeps growing, toward a second eighteen, or toward two more Schneider-Conant nines and a kids' course that would make forty-five holes. The Kid's Course is under construction, and The Gilroy, shorter, with funnelling greens and generous landing zones, is coming in 2027. Each year around Masters week the doors open to anyone with the means, at $500 a player in 2024, and visitors can see what idealism looks like when it is cut into sand.