Picture this. You’re walking (on eggshells) through the Augusta National clubhouse, absorbing the ambiance, admiring the decor, when you spy a glass case with trophies in it. Except they aren’t trophies. They’re Styrofoam cups, cheeky stand-ins for the real things.
An exhibit of that kind would never be allowed at the home of the Masters.
But 30 minutes up the road, at a club whose roots run deeper than Augusta’s, a setup just like it stands on proud display.
Palmetto Golf Club in Aiken, S.C., is a rarity in the game: an historic club for serious golfers that doesn’t take itself too seriously. It dates to 1892, making it the oldest 18-hole course in the American South and the second-oldest club in the same location in the United States after Chicago Golf Club.
As at Augusta National, prominent names had a hand in its design. Thomas Hitchcock got Palmetto’s layout started before Herbert Leeds (of Myopia Hunt Club fame) completed the front nine. Donald Ross is said to have pitched in on irrigation, followed by Alister MacKenzie, who helped convert the greens from sand to grass even as he worked with Bobby Jones at Augusta. Modern-day contributors include Tom Doak, Rees Jones and Gil Hanse.
The course itself is not a bear. It is intimate in scale, tipping out at just over 6,600 yards, but it punches well above its weight in character and charm. Its routing is creative. Its elevation shifts are ample as are its shot-making demands.
Palmetto’s membership runs the gamut: blue-collar locals and Tour pros alike. One of those pros is Kevin Kisner, who, after winning the 2019 WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play, earned a tribute from his home club that was right on brand. Without the actual trophy to display in the clubhouse, Palmetto head professional Brooks Blackburn got creative and mocked one up out of a Styrofoam cup, with Kisner’s name inscribed in Sharpie. Two years later, when Kisner won the Wyndham Championship, he asked Blackburn if Palmetto might honor him with another trophy.
Blackburn obliged. But, he says, “I thought it was a smaller win, so I put it on a smaller cup.” So it goes at Palmetto, where even newly minted champions aren’t above a good razzing.
GOLF.com got a good look at both of Kisner’s “trophies” on a recent visit to Palmetto that was part of a broader exploration of the golf scene in Aiken, which is both old and wonderfully new, with an explosion of contemporary courses to complement Palmetto and other local landmarks. During our time there, we toured courses with Kye Goalby, whose father, Bob, won the 1968 Masters; we followed Tour pro members as they played a money match; and we talked with Blackburn and others about a club where no one walks on eggshells, no one rides a high horse and beers are cheap at the self-service bar.
You can see it all in the video above or below.
