Touring Tree Farm with architect Kye Goalby

Kye Goalby was in grade school when his father won the Masters, too young to fully grasp the magnitude of the feat.

He learned soon enough.

Bob Goalby’s victory in 1968 came, of course, with a lifetime Masters invite, which in turn gave rise to a gig for his son. By his late teens, the younger Goalby was caddying for his dad in the tournament. Even as the years wore on and he gave up those looping duties, he kept coming back to watch and walk the grounds. His ties to the Augusta area run deep.

In more recent years, those ties have extended to Aiken, S.C., which Goalby says has become something of a “home away from home.” That affection is due partly to Palmetto Golf Club, a historic layout whose understated atmosphere and character-rich design suit Goalby’s own laid-back sensibility, not to mention his love of great golf architecture. But his affinity for the area has a professional dimension as well. A former shaper for the likes of Tom Doak and Gil Hanse, Goalby has built a reputation as a skilled architect in his own right, and one of his credits is in Aiken.

GOLF recently spent time with Goalby in the Aiken area, tracing his fondness for the region and touring the Tree Farm, one of the standout courses in a swath of South Carolina that has become one of the hottest destinations in American golf.

Routed by Doak and designed by Goalby on behalf of Tour pro Zac Blair, the Tree Farm doesn’t clamor for attention. Then again, neither does the unassuming Goalby. Not one for chest-beating, he took a restrained approach to the project, which his collaborators shared.

“At the time we were building this, and even still today, the courses you see are trying to get Instagram photos and trying to get a dramatic look, and I was kind of sick of it,” he says. “No one cared about ratings when we were building this. Let’s not rely on a lot of flash and let the land speak.”

The result is an expansive, rumpled course that takes advantage of ample elevation shifts, draping elegantly across the terrain in ways that, in places, call to mind the broad-shouldered movement of Augusta National. The fairways are generous, but angles off the tee are essential. The greens appear serene, but they demand careful thought and a delicate touch. The bunkering is free of the flamboyant edges fashionable elsewhere, and around the greens, Goalby often dispensed with bunkers altogether, trusting the ground itself to conjure more than enough intrigue.

For more on Goalby, Tree Farm and the wealth of golf in Aiken, check out the video above.

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