Southern Comfort
No. 5 at Aiken Golf Club
AIKEN, S.C. – Maybe it’s the torpor of Southern air.
Or the way the canopies of magnolia and live oak trees drape the land and wrap it in green vellum. Somehow, history lives on here undisturbed, fending off the modern world and taking comfort in timeless ways.
At 5,800 yards from the back tees, par-70 Aiken Golf Club might seem an anachronism. But golf in its traditional form has a long shelf life. A century, in fact, which is precisely the age of this lovely, gracious, rambling little daily-fee layout.
During the same week that long- hitting Bubba Watson was blasting his way around Augusta National Golf Club, a group of Golfweek course raters paid a visit to this quiet enclave 22 miles to the east. We found a golf course that, despite being about
100 yards per hole shorter than the home of the Masters, still tested, teased and entertained us. Its compelling topography and tree-lined fairways ...
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