Located less than an hour and a half east of Atlanta, Reynolds Lake Oconee is one of America’s most impressive golf facilities, where many of its more than 3,000 resident-members have access to a golf course for every day of the week.
Now, that menu is about to grow by one, as the complex will soon be home to an eighth 18-hole golf course, which will be laid out by architect Steve Smyers.
Fenmoor Golf Club, Reynolds Lake Oconee’s eighth golf course, will sit on a 140-acre tract towards the northern tip of Reynolds’ total 12,000-acre domain. The course is meant to be walkable – a first at the community – with a routing that straddles both sides of a finger of the lake and will feature nine holes that will interact with the lakeshore. Depending on the extent of clearing that ultimately takes place, golfers may be able to glimpse Lake Oconee from as many as 14 holes.
“The land is absolutely ideal for golf,” said Smyers. “We’re very fortunate to have a piece of property this diverse, with the movement of the land—gentle rolls, swales, valleys, hummocks, mounds and ravines—combined with the presence of water running through it. This site allows us to create a course with a distinct look and feel unlike any other at Reynolds Lake Oconee.”
Smyers adds his name to a heady list of architects that have laid golf out in Georgia’s tranquil lake district. That list includes Jack Nicklaus (Great Waters), Rees Jones (The Oconee), Tom Fazio (The National; Richland), Bob Cupp (The Preserve; The Landing) and Jim Engh (The Creek Club).
Smyers, an accomplished amateur and senior amateur player, has developed a reputation for crafting fun but stout tests of golf throughout a design career that stretches back to the late 1980s. His Wolf Run Golf Club in Zionsville, Indiana, was known as one of America’s toughest golf courses and one of the best in the Hossier State before it ultimately closed in 2017. Smyers’ design at Indiana University’s Pfau Golf Course tips out at 7,900 yards with a Rating of 80.2 and a Slope of 155. While somewhat polarizing, several reviews have noted that its difficulty is offset by beauty and a sense of adventure.
“This course has to be one of the best in the Midwest or [even] the country,” notes a review of The Pfau Course from 2022. “It is extremely challenging but what makes it fun is the creativity required to get around the course. Each hole makes you think about your next shot which is exactly what I look for, it keeps your attention for all 18 holes.”
Smyers’ designs tend to have loyal followings and distinct looks. Located in Tampa and sporting an Australian Sandbelt-inspired look, Old Memorial Golf Club is regarded as one of Florida’s top courses, with a low-handicap membership that walks its course with caddies in tow. And Smyers’ Southern Dunes Golf & Country Club gets my vote as the best publicly-accessible golf course in the Orlando area. He also turned in a wonderful effort with his restoration of Donald Ross’ Fort Myers Country Club, a top-tier muni in the Sunshine State.
Golfers should expect Smyers’ new golf course at Reynolds Lake Oconee to blend challenge and playability in a way that members and their guests will appreciate.
Fenmoor is being planned as a private course within the growing Reynolds Lake Oconee community. It is slated to open in the fall of 2026.
