Meet the Team
Our Talented Partners
Design/Build: Rhebb & Johns
Keith Rhebb and Riley Johns are two of the most highly respected shapers in the game today, and they’re even better people. You can learn all about the golf and their pedigree here.
Engineering: O’Connell Engineers
Neill and his team have exactly what we want in an engineering team: they’re experienced in Walton County Florida, and they have a successful track record with golf course projects (including the recently opened The Third at Watersound). Their small and responsive team is the perfect partner for Rhebb & Johns for this project.
The Team
I’m Cliff. That’s me (on the left) and my brother Luke at Sweetens Cove for the July 4th tournament a few years back, and then below at Jim & Lilie’s circa 1986. Luke’s in this thing, as is the rest of the family, but if it’s breakfast then they’re the chickens and I’m the pig. They’re involved. I’m committed.
He’s a retired Marine Corps Sergeant Major who restores old trucks in his spare time. He’s responsible for security, our Airstream bar, and for making sure that we’re thinking about folks who aren’t quite as batshit crazy about golf as I am. It helps.
I’ve been a finance guy for the last fifteen years. Nearly ten of those I spent with a company called APR Energy that builds temporary power plants around the world, for disaster relief and other purposes. I’ve seen and budgeted more than my fair share of construction projects.
And before that, from between the ages of about 15 and 30, I did almost every job there is to do on a golf course. I was a cart boy and a caddie and a club repair specialist and everything in between. I’ve cleaned carts, cleaned bathrooms, stocked drinks and chips, closed registers, cut holes, raked bunkers, and I even taught a few folks how to play. I was a club pro for a while, just after college at the incomparable Highlands Country Club in NC during the summers and then at Fiddlesticks CC in Fort Myers in winter. I even coached a high school golf team for a few years.
We’re surrounded by an amazing team of supporters and advisors, from CFOs to event coordinators to golf professionals. Most of them are helping out with not much more than my gratitude to show for it. I’m incredibly thankful to each of them for allowing me to keep costs down and the team lean at this critical time. The paybacks are coming…
I’m building Old Charlie because I love this game. I truly believe that playing it makes us better humans. It’s an antidote for our increasingly disconnected, virtual lives. It teaches us honor and integrity and self-respect. But mostly it’s just a really, really fun thing to do while you’re hanging out with your friends and family. That feature alone has saved my sanity hundreds of times over the years.
Old Charlie is a vision for the kind of golf that my friends and I like to play. We like to joke. We like to gamble. We like to laugh and day drink and play emergency nines and hang around all day long. That’s not everyone. If it’s not you, then Old Charlie probably isn’t your place. But if it is, then we’d love to have you as a member.
Reach out anytime.
hello@oldcharliegc.com
