Every year, legions of American golfers fly to the British Isles to enjoy the game the UK way – at members’ courses that open their gates to outdoor play. Then they go to the United States, where such democratic welcomes in the main private clubs are extremely rare.
Since his birth nearly two years ago, Broomsedge Golf Club counted among the exceptions. Now it’s going further.
Late last week the club announced that Baker Thompson has come on board as majority owner and CEO. Thompson is no stranger to this corner of the golf world: He served as a founding member and club captain of the Lido, the highly regarded Wisconsin club that allocates an installment of meeting time to guests of Sand Valley just across the street. Thompson arrives with an ambitious build already in motion: four-bedroom villas for members and guests and a food and beverage venue overlooking the course, with a second golf course to follow. Along the lines of courses such as Ballybunion, North Berwick AND Royal Dornochmembers and their guests will have priority, but foreigners will be able to book rooms and golf as well. “It felt like a great fit to be able to take Broomsedge to the next level and continue to embrace the UK/Lido model,” Thompson told Golf.com.
Located in Rembert, SC, on the same strip of sand that underlies Pinehurst two hours north, Broomsedge was built differently from the ground up. The driving force behind it was Mike Koprowski, an Air Force veteran who spent years as a policy analyst in Washington before turning to golf course design. Among his inspirations was Sand Hills, the pioneering minimalist layout in Nebraska that has long allowed non-members who have never played the course to claim a tee time by writing a letter. Koprowski benefited from this policy first hand, having gone down this path with his father. After finding Rembert’s place and financing its purchase with a military loan, he collaborated with architect Kyle Franz on a layout that runs through an unruly, pine-framed lot. When Broomsedge opened in the fall of 2024, it adopted the Sand Hills attitude: private but not completely enclosed. Non-members can request an appointment, once.
Thompson first encountered Broomsedge on a trip south with Sand Valley co-developer Michael Keiser, and came away struck by the earth movement and piney terrain that surrounded it. Keizer is not an investor in Broomsedge, but he has been a booster since the beginning and has now signed on as an adviser, a role he sees as carrying on the advice he has received from others, among them Sand Hills developer Dick Youngscap, Cabot co-founder Ben Cowan-Dewar and his father, Bandon Dunes developer Mike. “Americans overseas have always benefited from the welcoming nature of clubs in the British Isles,” Keizer said. “There’s no reason it won’t work here.”
Until now, Broomsedge has operated with bare infrastructure, including a professional shop out of a trailer. The club’s build and embrace of the British model comes at a pivotal time for Broomsedge and an interesting time in the industry. As it is in many places, golf is booming throughout the Carolinas, with new courses springing up across the Sand Hills and beyond. Most of the development is private. While the appetite for high-end golf is real, access, for most players, is not. Broomsedge excels at the balance it aims to strike.
