Appeared in April 2005 LINKS

Located just outside Aiken, S.C., fewer than 20 miles from the home of the Masters, Sage Valley Golf Club is accustomed to the Augusta National parallels: ultra-exclusive membership, pristine parkland layout, passionate love-for-golf atmosphere. This broad-shouldered Tom Fazio design is the brainchild of Weldon Wyatt, a retired retail developer who overlooked no detail in realizing his longheld dream of owning a club celebrating “golf as it should be.”

Built on rolling hills of virgin timberland, the 7,331-yard layout is complemented by a stately red-brick clubhouse and a handful of cozy, Augusta-like guest cottages. “There was never anything but total support for the best possible product that could be built,” Fazio told The Wall Street Journal. “You couldn’t spend any more, although that sounds a little obnoxious.”