Saddle Up

It’s a 23-mile drive along U.S. Highway 64 on an east-west axis between the towns of Lake Toxaway and Highlands in the far western corner of North Carolina. This patch of waterfalls and thick green foliage of rhododendron and laurel is commonly referred to as the Highlands Plateau. It’s thick with outstanding golf clubs, with some 13 courses along the way, among the most notable the Donald Ross-designed Highlands Country Club (1928) and Tom Fazio-designed Wade Hampton Golf Club in Cashiers (1987).  

One club staking a claim to having the most unique offering is the Old Edwards Club, which is located seven miles east of Highlands and features a Tom Jackson designed 18-hole course that dates to the late 1990s and a par-three course called The Saddle that is now in its third season of operation.  The Saddle was designed by architect Beau Welling, who lives in the area and has an office located just down the mountains in Greenville, S.C. It’s 12 holes because club officials wanted to do something different than the typical nine- or 18-hole layout, but it’s certainly playing into the evolving theme of alternative options and short courses that have popped up in recent years at golf destinations like Pinehurst (The Cradle), Bluejack National (The Playgrounds), Bandon Dunes (The Preserve), Streamsong (The Roundabout), Cabot Links (The Nest) and Blackwolf Run (The Baths). 

“Everything we are doing here is designed for a multi-generation, active lifestyle,” says Jerry West, the club’s director of operations and a native of nearby Franklin. “Some of my fondest memories growing up were visiting my grandparents. For years, the only thing for kids to do on the Plateau was that one week of golf camp while visiting their grandparents. At The Saddle, they fall in love with the game together. No one has to start playing golf on some daunting 457-yard par-four with 18 bunkers.”

The “Saddle” name and logo were derived from the shape of the mountains in the distance.

“Camaraderie in golf,” Welling says, “is one of the game’s most precious assets, and it needs to be fostered even more than the game itself.”

The Saddle and two accompanying real estate communities known as GlenCove and Norton Ridge, a clubhouse named “The Barn” and a recreational enclave with venues for soccer, wiffle ball, croquet, pickle ball and many more activities encompass around 200 acres adjacent to the original course. Old Edwards Hospitality Group, the umbrella company that owns the historic Old Edwards Inn in Highlands, in 2008 bought the course that originally opened as Highlands Cove. They acquired the adjacent 160-acre Burt Farm in 2017 and added additional parcels to create an environment that club President Lou Miller calls “summer camp for adults—and their grandkids.” 

Like all mountain courses, the greens, fairways and tees are bentgrass and the rough bluegrass, though there’s precious little long grass in play. Walking is, of course, the mode of transport at The Saddle, though the club has a modest inventory of single-rider carts and electric pushcarts for those whose age or physical limitations warrant some help. You’ll need more than just a couple of wedges and a putter, though, as the holes range from 180 yards down to under 100 (total yardage is 1,601). Every hole has markers at 50 and 75 yards as well to encourage golfers to pick whatever length works for them—and that includes a six-year-old putting from 50 yards if that’s the play.

“We try to set the tees up each day so they hit every 10-yard increment from 180 yards down,” says Old Edwards Director of Golf Jordan Kenter. “Good players from the tips have to hit some precise shots to some tight pins. But there are few forced carries and you can just about play along the ground the whole course.” 

The course is named for the land mass of the mountains in the distance connecting two peaks and positioned as a horn and cantle on a saddle, and a waterfall to the left of the second green is named “Moonshine Falls” in a salute to an old still operation the construction crew found when building the course. 

Welling paid homage to golden era architects C.B. MacDonald and Seth Raynor by weaving template holes into the course. The fifth hole runs uphill and was conceived with the Redan template in mind with a right-to-left oriented green protected by a deep bunker on the left side. The eighth models the Biarritz concept with a deep green and a large swale running across the center. 

It adds up to an equation that has had as many as four generations on the course on a given day (club and resort owner Art Williams has 17 great-grandchildren). The popular “Friday Night Lights” event is staged twice a month during the summer with food, beverages and golf on the eight holes that are lit. Club staff are flexible with the rules, allowing as many as eight or 10 golfers to play together in a birdie-or-bust format (if you don’t make a two, you’re in your pocket). 

“There is not a more vibrant, more energetic, more youthful and engaging membership on this plateau or this area than what we foster and have built here,” West says. “My father was passionate about the game, and it rubbed off on me. I love the game, I love to walk, I love the feeling of being around it and its history. 

“We wanted to do something historical yet contemporary as a par-three to add to a really good golf course. We wanted a place where multiple generations could find the game, play the game, love the game.”

You don’t need a full bag of clubs on The Saddle, but you’ll need something to carry about 180 yards on the longest hole on the golf course.

For more information on the Old Edwards Club and Saddle experience, call 828/526-1783 or click https://www.oldedwardshospitality.com/old-edwards-inn-spa/experiences/golf.