(CHARLOTTE, N.C.) – Zinkand Golf Design (ZGD) – led by golf course architect David Zinkand and his more than 25 years of experience designing, managing and shaping projects in the field – has completed The Scurry, a new 12-hole course at Okatie, South Carolina’s Chechessee Creek Club. The course opened for member play on September 1.
Rather than using length to create difficulty, The Scurry relies on angles, contours, hazards and choices. Short par 4s and par 3s unfold through a Lowcountry landscape of live oaks, wetlands and native vegetation, while expansive areas of low-mown turf surrounding the greens create a ground game that can reward creativity just as readily as precision.
“The course is really about options,” said Zinkand. “You can challenge a hazard and create a better angle, play away from trouble and accept a more difficult approach or use the contours around the greens to your advantage. We wanted those decisions to be fun for every player, regardless of ability.”
For Chechessee, bringing the concept to life was as much about the collaborative process as the finished product.
“Working with Dave and the entire Zinkand Golf Design team has been a terrific experience from the beginning,” said Bill Kennedy, general manager of Chechessee Creek Club. “They understood what we wanted The Scurry to become and brought a tremendous amount of creativity and thoughtfulness to the project. Our members’ feedback to the course has been incredibly positive; they’re having fun with the variety of shots and options.”
Construction on The Scurry began in Spring 2025. The finished course provides Chechessee Creek members with a compact alternative to the club’s existing 18-hole Coore & Crenshaw-designed course, creating opportunities to expand on a day’s golf with another dozen holes or play a meaningful round when time is limited.
The opening five holes form a par-3 loop that moves through a continuous expanse of turf. Its generous playing corridors make the loop approachable for beginners, higher-handicap players and younger golfers, while changes in length, orientation and green design continue to test accomplished players.
The remaining seven holes turn up the strategic pressure without abandoning The Scurry’s emphasis on playability. The sixth is a short par 4 where players decide how much of the live oaks along the inside of the fairway they want to challenge. The seventh requires a carry over wetland to a high green, with an aggressive line rewarded.
At the eighth, the golf course crosses another wetland before arriving at a punchbowl green framed by a large front bunker. The ninth follows with a tightly bunkered, domed green, while the 10th presents a gracefully contoured target with a pronounced false front. The 11th offers plenty of room from the tee but uses the bunkering configuration to create multiple strategic choices. The final hole is a par 3 played over native vegetation to a green tucked into a towering pine grove.
Throughout The Scurry, ZGD used the ground surrounding the greens as an extension of the putting surface. Bumps, ridges and spines can feed balls toward pins, repel them from targets or provide recovery routes.
“The low-mown areas allow the ground to become part of the strategy,” said Zinkand. “Sometimes the contours help you and sometimes they don't. They create opportunities to use imagination rather than simply hitting another conventional pitch or chip.”
The course also places an unusual emphasis on the landscape beyond the playing surfaces. ZGD, guided by one of its three stated strategic principles (genius loci, or sense of place), preserved and incorporated native Lowcountry vegetation while creating varied habitats and ground formations intended to increase ecological diversity and reinforce the site's natural character.
That approach culminates in one of The Scurry’s most distinctive features: a carnivorous plant bog beside the eighth tee. ZGD excavated a cavity, installed an impermeable liner and an outlet to regulate moisture, then planted the bog with pitcher plants, Venus flytraps and other moisture-dependent species.
“It is definitely something golfers don't expect to see on a golf course,” said Zinkand. “But it fits the character of the site and the experience we wanted to create. There are a lot of moments where the natural landscape is doing something interesting, and the bog is probably the most memorable.”
The result is a course designed to feel distinctly of its place while offering a different kind of challenge from the club’s existing 18 holes.
For more information about ZGD, visit zinkandgolfdesign.comor @zinkandgolfdesign on Instagram.
About Zinkand Golf Design
Zinkand Golf Design stresses three overarching principles – Strategic Options, Sense of Adventure and Genius Loci – to strategically guide clients through project completion. Adapting these principles to each client’s ambitions in a site-specific manner enables the firm to produce results that cost less while elevating artistry and emphasizing realistic upkeep. This perspective was adopted when principal designer David Zinkand, PLA, ASLA, was studying the great golf courses of Great Britain and Ireland as a recipient of the Dreer Award, and then crystallized during his 14 years working for Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw. Some of Zinkand’s recent clients include Old Elm Club (IL), Monterey Peninsula C.C. (CA), Sharon Golf Club (OH) and Chechessee Creek Club (SC).
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