In January 2025, Golfers’ Choice ranked Clemson University’s Walker Course as the No. 2 collegiate golf course in the nation. But that didn’t just happen by chance. The Walker Course’s prestige is a result of everything its golfers don’t see.
Clemson’s home course opened in 1995. The 18-hole, 6,911-yard course sits on Lake Hartwell and takes advantage of the iconic, rolling hills of Clemson, South Carolina.
Designed by DJ DeVictor and named after John E. Walker Sr., the Walker Course highlights and blends seamlessly into Clemson’s landscape.
“The course in itself was discovered; it wasn’t built. All the fairways, greens and bunkers work with the existing topography,” Cauthen Best, maintenance team member and senior landscape architecture major, told The Tiger.
While the Walker Course boasts some of the best views in the country, views alone aren’t enough to earn the honors that the course has received. The course’s accolades and national recognition are a result of careful planning and tedious upkeep.
The course is managed by golf course superintendent Don Garrett, who doubles as a Clemson professor.
“Our job is basically to make every morning and every afternoon a golfer’s paradise,” Best said.
The course is only getting better, too. Recently, renovations were made to the clubhouse, alongside the construction of the brand-new Nieri Family Alumni and Visitors Center. The 18th hole was reconstructed earlier this year with this in mind, as the par-4 plays over a retention pond and toward the shiny, new buildings.
The focus is now on a new, state-of-the-art driving range, which will be just a short walk away from the check-in area. A halfway house will also be added as a pit stop at the end of the front nine.
The poster child of the Walker Course is the 17th hole, or the iconic Tiger Paw hole. With the green and four bunkers forming a paw, this par-3 embodies Tiger spirit. But a Clemson newsletter could have told you that.
So, let’s get down to the dirt. Literally.
Garrett and his team take every inch of grass seriously. Greens are cut every morning. Fairways, collars and tee boxes are cut on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, with the rough taking priority on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Weekends are all about preparing for the flood of Saturday and Sunday players.
Garrett’s greens are Zoysia, a unique type of grass that requires meticulous maintenance, especially as a putting surface.
“It’s really impressive, and huge kudos to him that he takes a passion for the Zoysia greens. It’s very rare that you see Zoysia greens,” Best said.
The superintendent also isn’t scared of potential sunlight-blocking trees around the greens.
“The easy way out for keeping greens alive is to cut all of the trees around the green out so there is as much sunlight as you possibly can get. But Don and all of us take a real passion in the fact that we don’t go around the challenges, we go through them, as I like to say,” Best said.
The conservation of the greens doesn’t go unnoticed. Players have come to love the large, lime-green putting surfaces, but they can be deceiving.
“When you think of big greens, you think ‘I can miss certain spots and be fine,’ but truly it’s not. There’s certain places on the greens where you have to hit to leave yourself a good putt,” Best continued.
As a Walker Course insider, Best loves the fact that no two holes are the same. The course accommodates all levels of golf, but beware the marathon par-4 on the 9th hole.
“It really has that aspect of the weekend golfer, the average golfer and the pro golfer can all go out there and have a great experience,” Best said.
So tee it high and let it fly. All that Best asks is that you respect the course and leave it better than you found it.
“What I like to say is that us as the maintenance crew, we’re like the O-line of a football team. We are in the trenches, we are doing the dirty work, but we don’t need any thanks,” Best told The Tiger.
