An Augusta-area golf course closed for years is celebrating its grand re-opening during Masters Week.
Jones Creek Golf Course, 4087 Hammonds Ferry Rd., Evans, was set to play host on Monday to visitors eager for a glimpse of the re-imagined links sitting in the middle of a golf community that for nearly eight years didn’t have a functioning golf course.
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“After two years, Jones Creek Golf Course is back. We approached every phase of redevelopment with precision and purpose. I wanted the course in championship shape, and that’s exactly what we’ve delivered,” said Andrew Brooks in the re-opening announcement. He’s the founder of Bond Golf Global, the golf event services and golf course management company that partnered to restore and operate the course.
An undated photo shows a golfer walking toward his next shot at the revitalized Jones Creek Golf Course in Evans, Ga. The course opened in 1985, closed in 2018 and scheduled its 2026 grand re-opening on the Monday of Masters Week.
Organizers sought to preserve the integrity of the links that opened in 1985, which were designed by legendary golf course architect Rees Jones and updated through the course’s peak years by Tom Fazio, the designer of more than 200 courses worldwide.
The new 7,000-yard course emphasizes playability for all skill levels. The fairways have been sodded with Tifway 419 Bermuda grass, and the turf surrounding the greens is Tahoma 31. The greens have been planted with Tif3D, a dense, ultra-dwarf Bermuda grass variety.
Nicholas Moorhead of Alpharetta swings his driver at the Practice Club at Jones Creek in this photo from 2023.
Reworked sand traps use technology from Bunker Solution, a company that produces three-layer trap liners designed for easier maintenance and better drainage.
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While owners and investors planned the golf course’s future, Bond Golf Global opened the Practice Club at Jones Creek in 2023, with 16 lighted hitting bays. TopTracer equipment using advanced ball-tracking technology augments the bays.
The grand re-opening marks an uplifting chapter for a formerly troubled golf course sitting just 7 miles from the storied Augusta National Golf Club.
In 2011, the previous course owner, Jones Creek Investment LLC, sued the Columbia County government and other parties. Faulty engineering and other factors caused the club’s Willow Lake and downstream waterways to clog with sediment and debris, causing runoff that damaged the course, according to the suit.
The county won in court and in subsequent appeals while denying any liability.
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Jones Creek Golf Club closed in September 2018. Then-club general manager Ray Mundy, in a posted letter to members, attributed the closure to “the delay and uncertainty of the ongoing litigation against Columbia County.”
In 2019, the course’s clubhouse and adjoining parking lot were purchased separately by a homebuilder who rented the building to a catering business while the course fell into disuse and later foreclosure. The course failed to sell at public auction in October 2020.
With the clubhouse legally separate from the course, the building’s owner proffered no immediate plans to return the clubhouse to its original use.
The clubhouse’s conspicuous absence made selling the course difficult, remaining in the hands of retired textile industrialist Julian Saul. He then partnered with Bond Golf Global to resurrect the course.
This article originally appeared on Augusta Chronicle: Closed Augusta-area golf course resurrected, reopens during Masters
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