To the impatient and eager eye, the flagstick can seem like the only fixed truth in a landscape of untold obstacles and hidden hazards.
Yet, as veterans of the game know all too well, great golf is seldom that simple. Whether fueled by ignorance or arrogance, stubbornly attacking the flag often results with the sandy indignity of a bunker lie or the disheartening splash of a nearby hazard.
What more seasoned players know, though, is that the best approaches are often counterintuitive. Away from the pin. Beyond the ‘look at me’ allure of the fluttering flag. They know to listen to a course and learn its language. To examine the terrain. To anticipate green speeds from subtle shifts in light. To read and re-read that spot thirty yards to the left of the hole, where a small swale could create a clear path to the backside of the cup. This tempered, mature perspective, this willingness to play away from the pin, is one of the game’s greatest lessons in humility. It is, fundamentally, an admission that the land knows more than the golfer.
That perspective, that rejection of the obvious, provides valuable insight into the spirit and sensibility of Fenmoor, the newest championship golf course at Reynolds Lake Oconee. Split by creeks and streams at the north end of the lake, the course plays through meadows, across wooded hills, and along lowland marshes and shoreline — all matching the course to the site rather than forcing and re-engineering the site to match a design.
Fittingly, this counterintuitive point of view, this penchant for ‘playing away from the pin,’ also sheds light on the newly formed partnership responsible for Fenmoor’s design.
Often talked about as a ‘course designer’s course designer,’ Smyers is an accomplished architect and past President of the American Society of Golf Course Architects. He is also one third of the recently established firm, Smyers, Craig, & Coyne. The venture pairs Smyers’ half-a-century of expertise with the talent and promise of an ambitious young protégé, Colton Craig — and rounds out the trio with the narrative depth and knowledge of legendary golf journalist and author Tom Coyne.
The unexpected combination is turning heads. Insiders and aficionados are as excited about who is involved as they are about the story-driven way they are approaching their first collaborative projects, including Fenmoor.
Smyers outlined the firm’s philosophy and their recent work at Reynolds as he walked the course mid-construction. Minimal intervention. Native plant material. Submitting to the site’s natural contours. He gestured toward gentle rolls and valleys and hummucks that were all being incorporated. He talked out the detours, the stairstepped bunkers, the exacting play they would require — and the delight they would deliver.
As he maneuvered the roughed-in fairway between Fenmoor’s clubhouse and what will be the lakefront green below it, his feet sinking in fresh mud with each step, he began breaking down the story of the terrain with the clarity and patience of a gifted interpreter.
“You’ll approach from here, then down and through to there. It’s a journey following the land, moving players through these outdoor rooms.” He motioned in the air with his hand, calling out the thoughtful views and diverse play intended for each portion of the sequence. He spoke with the confidence of someone who sees clearly what others don’t, as if he’s simply revealing to us what’s always been there.
Smyers admits that as a younger designer he often tried to impose the game, and his vision for it, on the land. “Now,” he says with a laugh, “It’s like I’m cheating… I just listen to the land. What does it want to be? How does it want to be played?”
Those questions, and this unique site, helped crystallize the three partners’ approach. All agreed that the course should be elegantly simple. Not easy, but definitely not exaggerated. The primary challenge would be maintaining the natural flow, while infusing opportunities where accuracy was critical — and even where trouble was imminent. The goal would be thoughtful, engaged golf. The kind of play that invited risk, rewarded effort, and thrilled those who worked themselves through it for an exciting round.
“The difference is, we’re not just bulldozing a straightforward tee-to-pin experience. That’s what’s so great about this new partnership — and this new course,” Smyers looked around, taking it all in. “Tom and Colton and I are all committed to avoiding the obvious answers… to restrained, thoughtful design that really does create deeper, richer stories for players."
Just as the savvy golfer may play away from the pin to make their way to the cup, it’s clear this trio is willing to take the long and even counterintuitive way, too. The result? A strikingly different approach to design and a truly different kind of course for Reynolds — plus a poignant, waterfront reminder that the flag may be where you’re going, but the most rewarding part of the game really is all about how you get there.
