Bebop Golf at Cheraw State Park

 

By Mike Dojc

 

Find Your Swing Rhythm in this Peaceful Hidden Haven

 

Bebop comes alive in Dizzy Gillespie’s hometown the third weekend in October for the South Carolina Jazz Festival, but Cheraw’s soul soothing soundtrack can be heard and played year round on the towering pine and white cedar strewn grounds of its State Park’s golf course, a hidden gem which deserves to be trumpeted just as loudly.

You’ve heard of Two Buck Chuck but fine discount golf so good it’ll change the hearts and minds of players who’d gladly fork over three figures for a round of this caliber is a much more rare swill.   But with $35 dollar green fees on weekends, Cheraw State Park comes in at just under two Washington’s per hole, a true steal for a secluded 6,928-yard Tom Jackson spectacular where red-cockaded woodpeckers and scampering fox squirrels outnumber golfers by a wide margin.   If Jackson’s name rings a bell but you can’t place it, the Greenville native is the guru behind Landrum, SC’s The Cliffs at Glassy which has been heralded by Golf Digest as the fourth most scenic place to play in America trailing only an iconic bucket list threesome in Cypress Point, Pebble Beach and Augusta National.

Getting Jazzy

Attacking flags is often an improvisational art, with plenty of room for not only creativity around the greens but also the choice of instruments along the way. With plenty of wide fairways creating multiple approach scenarios, one’s game must be in tune to find the proper tier on many subtle sloping green surfaces.

You can be forgiven if found scat singing “Salt Peanuts” in the middle of the fairway on No. 13, a most stout 496-yard par 4.  This sharp dogleg left brushes up against a scenic expanse of Lake Juniper, a 309-acre fishing hole swimming in bass, bream and crappie.  Unless you can channel your inner Jordan Spieth and rip it off the tee, there will be some major deliberation on that second shot with regard to laying up versus attempting to carry the water to reach the green and give yourself a chance at a birdie on arguably the biggest mettle tester on the track.

Lake Juniper’s blue orbit also pulls you in when approaching No. 6 (419-yard par 4) and No. 17 (160-yard par 3). And she’s ready to swallow wayward tee shots on No. 14 (164-yard par 3) along with the finishing hole, a 513-yard par 5.

Getting There

It’s an hour and forty-minute drive Northeast. From Columbia simply hop on I-20 followed by U.S. 1 North with a large finishing stretch of the journey traversing beautiful Pee Dee country roadway. 

Plan Your Trip

Olde English Golf: http://oldeenglishgolf.com/

 

 

A card-carrying member of the leisure cognoscenti when Mike Dojc isn’t repairing impossibly large divots or alphabetizing his impressive ball marker collection, he’s slinging copy for a diverse range of editorial and corporate entities. Highlights of his client roster include Nike, Geico, Atlanta Magazine, Maxim, Metro News, SCORE Golf, Huffington Post, Golf Canada, Fairways Magazine and many others.  He blogs at SlingingBirdies.com

 

 

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