Goat Track Soul
Every golf club has an origin story. Ours begins on a humble nine-hole course that shaped not just our love for the game, but our vision for what a golf club could be.
We grew up playing golf at Jim & Lilie Golf Club, a now shuttered little nine-hole goat track in South Carolina that had more hardpan in the fairway than grass. We spent every day of our childhood summers out there, from dusk till dawn, playing loops with farmers and construction workers and veterans and retirees. At the turn we’d stuff our faces with terrible rotisserie hotdogs and plain Lays potato chips and we’d drink Gatorade from cans and water from the hose.
It was the absolute time of our lives.
We’re going to leave the quality of the golf and the hotdogs behind us where they belong, but why would we ever want to mess with the rest of it? We didn’t grow up fancy, and we won’t pretend to be now. At Old Charlie there are no trophy rooms, no mahogany lockers, no coat-and-tie dinners, and no bathroom attendants. It's just not that kind of place.
Our only goal at Old Charlie is to create an unforgettable golf experience for our members.
We’re not here to impress. We’re here to facilitate joy.
So while we may pass on a few unnecessary luxuries, you can rest assured that the money we save by not being so damn fancy is being spent on things that make the golf experience better.
Like limiting our capacity to 72 players a day. It's expensive to say we'll never have more than 18 groups on the course at a time, but it means that our members' experience here will not include a lot of waiting. That, to us, is worth it. So is having enough beverage carts to be sure our guests never have an empty drink. So is having a really good house musician who plays for us every evening and knows a few Robert Earl Keen tunes. So are drinks that cost less than a sleeve of Titleists. You get the idea. Out here we really only care about two things: seriously good golf, and having a seriously good time.
Old Charlie isn't just built on land. It's built on memories. We're creating a place where today's golfers can experience the same joy, camaraderie, and love of the game that defined our childhood summers. Only this time with much better golf, and maybe some better hotdogs too.
We can’t wait to welcome you to the party.
Memories of Jim & Lilie Golf Club. From top: 1) A few old friends in front of the clubhouse complex 2) J&L’s version of the Redan, the 5th, complete with ditches to the right and in front 3) A strong approach into the green at no. 2 4) A solid drive from no. 2 tee
“Ye'll come away from the links with a new hold on life, that is certain if ye play the game with all your heart.”
— GITK
Who is Old Charlie?
The name of the club, Old Charlie, is one of the very few things that hasn’t changed since the first day we started talking about building a golf course. There are two very important Charlies in our lives, and the name Old Charlie is a tribute to both of them.
The first is Mr. Charlie Steed, the founder of Jim & Lilie Golf Club in Jackson, SC. He built the course, named Jim & Lilie to honor his parents, back in 1955 on a 65 acre parcel of land that they had granted him for the purpose. Jim & Lilie was a Jackson institution for years, and the club produced a surprising number of high calibre players. Some say it was because if we had any semblance of a short game on those hardpan fairways then we could take that to any course in the world and make it work. Maybe so. What’s absolutely certain is that very few of those players would have ever been exposed to the game were it not for Mr. Charlie. We owe him and his descendants a huge debt of thanks for keeping Jim & Lilie operating and affordable for us working folk on this side of the river for so many decades. We sure do miss it.
The second Charlie is Mr. “Cove” Charlie McKinney, of Altapass, NC. We are direct descendants of this legend, who had at least four wives and fathered at least 48 children. He maintained a small apple orchard on part of the land that is now The Orchard at Altapass, near mile marker 328 on the Blue Ridge Parkway, just south of McKinney Gap in North Carolina. He made whiskey and apple brandy, went to church every sunday with all the wives and children, and by all accounts got along well with just about everyone. We’ll let Mr. Bill Carson, owner of The Orchard at Altapass, tell you more of the story of Old Cove Charlie.
Bill Carson, owner of The Orchard at Altapass on Charlie McKinney (the Charlie stuff starts around 1:20). Video credit to MtnTourist (https://www.youtube.com/@MtnTourist).