Jim McNair knows he can put more weight on his golf course.
“But we’re happy where we are,” he says. He says greens fees start at $30. But he’s also happy with his location, in Aiken, SC, just 25 minutes away Augustawhere the Masters starts this week. If you keep up with the headlines, you know that Aiken has emerged in recent years as one of the hottest golf destinations in the country, with a proliferation of exclusive enclaves.
McNair’s course is something different. He runs Aiken Golf Clubwhich his father bought in 1959 and which he took over in 1985. The club itself goes back much further. Founded in 1912, it began with 11 holes, built as an amenity for a hotel, and was later expanded to 18 by John Inglis, a golf professional and founding member of the PGA of America who had worked with Donald Ross in New York.
Then the Depression hit. Struck by the recession, the hotel eventually closed and the city of Aiken stepped in to keep the course alive until Jim’s father, James Sr., a scratch player and respected teaching professional, took over. Under his watch, the course operated as Highland Park CC, a family-oriented club that became a magnet for young players and aspiring professionals, many of whom went on to distinguished careers in the game.
When Jimmy inherited the operation in 1985, he realized that feelings alone would not sustain him. With an unused budget, he ran the pro shop and doubled as a supervisor. By the late 1990s, with aging infrastructure and new competition flooding the market, desperate times called for a complete remake.
“I realized it was now or never,” says McNair.
With the help of the city, he rebuilt the course from the ground up. It reopened in 1999 as the Aiken Golf Club. On its centenary in 2012, McNair was officially recognized as a co-designer alongside Ross and Inglis.
The road on which he has poured his life runs for less than 6,000 yards in an intimate location. Small in scale, it has an extraordinary personality. With doglegs taking the driver out of your hands and steep greens protected by well-placed bunkers, it’s a strategic delight, widely recognized as one of the best values ​​in the country and a standout in an area that GOLF has recently explored in depth.
McNair’s contributions to the local golf scene extend beyond the course he owns. He also designed and built Chalkmine, a par-three layout that serves as a practice range for local college players and a home base for First Tee programming. It’s another small-scale project with a big impact.
To learn more about golf in Aiken and McNair’s work in the area, watch the video above.
