Champions Retreat

[Mark Pritchett]

Champions Retreat is a 27 hole golf club located in Evans, Georgia just outside of Augusta.  Palmer, Player and Nicklaus each designed a nine.  The club is golf only-no tennis, pool, fitness, etc.  It opened in 2005.

The following pictures are from the Island Nine by Palmer Design.  It is the most scenic of the three nines as some holes are on the river.

#1  Par 4





#2  Par 4



#3  Par 5





#4  Par 4







#5  Par 4







#6  Par 3  180 yards  to a shallow green
 


or;  take the bridge to the other tee



and you have 180 yards to a long narrow green



#7  Par 4  Short hole of about 328 yards from the tips, this picture shows the approach to the heavily bunkered tricky green.



#8  Par 3



#9  Par 5





Golf Shop



I hope to have pictures of the Player and Nicklaus Nines posted soon.

If you are in the Augusta area I would recommend you seek out a game at CR. 

[BCrosby]

CR is a wonderful club. The cabins there are delightful and well done.

The three courses are pretty good. I like the Nicklaus nine the least of the three. In his defense, Nicklaus was dealt the worst of the land to work with. 

Both the Palmer and Player nines are fun.

If you are in the area CR is worth a visit. Though just down the road is Augusta CC. Also not much farther along I-20 is Palmetto GC in Aiken SC. And then there's ANGC if you have access.

Bob

[jeffwarne]

or Bob you could just stay in Athens and enjoy a pretty good course too

[John_Cullum]

Champions Retreat is a very good facility. As nice as the river side holes are on the Palmer course, I enjoy it the least of the three. I find the Player course to be the best 9 of the lot. I believe the Nicklaus Company is largely responsible for the Player 9. Also, the 9th of the Palmer Course looked somewhat out of character with the other 8 and I was told Nicklaus did that one as well. I was also told Nicklaus submitted numerous routings, including some across land up around the 6th and 7th of the Player course.

In any event, they turned out a pretty special place.

[BCrosby]

Jeff - Agreed. But it's an Augusta thread and I am going to play nice.

Bob

[Mark Pritchett]

A very good course indeed!

[Paul Carey]

Looks good from the pictures but that is always hard way to judge.

It is hard to understand why they would take the approach of 3 architects for 3 nines.  Was there a strategy (marketing) underlying this decision?  I would guess it would also be much more expensiveto engage three architects as well.

Can you just imagine the cost of all those site visits by Jack, Arnie and Gary?