When I was young, I designed a golf course at my childhood home in Yardley, Pennsylvania. A full 18 holes, no less: the front nine traipsed across the front yard and three neighboring yards, and the back nine weaved throughout the back yard, before finishing in the front. I let the land lead the design: mulch doubled as bunkers, Friar and Teich Drives served as rather large water hazards, and hitting the fence or house meant a stroke penalty. I spent hours roaming around “Yardley National” with my orange Callaway foam golf balls and my sand wedge, imitating different golfers’ swings and regularly winning the Masters in my head. I loved every minute of it.
Golf has always been a big part of my life. I played in competitive golf tournaments for nearly ten years, spent four years on my high school team in Pennsylvania, and even played a couple years of club golf in college. I spent four summers working in the cart barn and teaching…(see: chaperoning) kids’ golf clinics at Makefield Highlands Golf Club in my hometown of Yardley. Ever since it opened in 2004, I’ve called the Highlands “home”, and I cherish every single minute I spend at that course.
But now things are different. I’ve lived in North Carolina for more than 8 years now, played all across the Carolinas, but I hadn’t found a golf course that I could call “home” in the same manner I could Makefield Highlands. But that’s changed now thanks to fate, faith, and some clever networking.
I am now very happy and honored to call Candyroot Lodge my new “home”.
It started with a simple social media post in early 2025: a random picture of some sandy soil dotted with small brush grasses. The post read, “It’s a great time to announce our intent to build a new 18-hole public golf course, named Downbonnie, in the northern portion of the Carolina Sandhills, just on the edge of Charlotte metro.”
“Cool…” I thought, “…a new course to play!” And that was it, an innocent picture on social media and an innocent idea. Until a few months later when my coworker Jeff sent me a strange text along the lines of, “Check your phone – sent you something.” And there was a full investor’s presentation on “The Artist Formerly Known as Downbonnie”. I took a few days to peruse it, and think about it, and I texted Jeff back:
“Just read through the Downbonnie CIM and I’m so in. I’ve always wanted to invest in a golf course someday.”
We ended up cold calling the Downbonnie investor relations team to discuss banking with them. Surely, they’d need a local Carolinas bank to help them get their feet on the ground, we thought. We’d be perfect: a couple of Charlotte-based bankers who just so happen to love golf. And it was a great conversation: they weren’t ready to move on anything financially yet, as they still had to finalize their business plan. They had to finalize their capital structure. They were going to do a “friends and family round” of investing. They were…..
They…..
…
“They were going to do a friends and family round? Hmmmmm….”
I sat on that idea for months. It ate away at me. It was too good to be true: a new golf course being built just an hour from my home in Charlotte. A chance to do something insanely cool. An opportunity to realize that childhood dream of owning a golf course. Or a small bit of it, at least. But it would require a giant leap of faith and a rather large amount of money.
But then I thought back to the Tour de NHL. It was undoubtedly the best thing to ever happen in my life, and it enlightened me in many ways. I learned about exploration, about chasing dreams, about the wonderful powers of friendship and family and generosity. But the Tour also gave me something I now call “a natural high”.
Every single day for five years, I thought about the Tour. I thought about the next game, the next adventure. I looked forward to schedule release day and I looked forward to analyzing the flights and dreaming about the cities I’d visit and the games I’d attend. I thought about the stories I was going to tell, and eventually, I thought about chasing the dream of becoming the “famous sportswriter” I wanted to be as a kid. And then I did it. And I accomplished two or three dreams in one year.
And I realized that when it came to the golf course, it was time to accomplish another dream. It was time to chase that “natural high” again, with the other sport I care passionately about. Sure, it was a lot of money. But I truly believe the supply/demand imbalance for public golf in greater Charlotte still exists, and I believe the Carolinas are in a boom for population growth and golf growth and golf social media presence. It’s got to work somehow.
So I met with the Downbonnie folks, first in their hometown of Chicago and then in Charlotte later in the winter of 2025. And I decided to go for it: I verbally committed to investing in November, and in December I found out that apparently I was one of the first people in the “friends and family round” to actually commit.
And I started talking about it with my friends. The golf course, the dream, even the “natural high”. Turns out, some of those friends thought just like I did: that owning a golf course, being a part of something new and exciting, would be a great idea. Ironically, those two friends were the first two “official” guests in Tour de NHL history: Jeff and Graham.
Jeff and I have been great friends since our junior year of college, graduating from finance classes and extracurricular clubs to friendly matches at Forest Oaks in Greensboro to the first official chapter of the Tour de NHL in Columbus, and most recently, a golf trip in August 2025. We’ve bonded over our close relationships with our families, our love of golf course architecture, and now we get to walk the grounds of a new golf course, our golf course, together.
Graham was so enthusiastic about Candyroot, too. He was hooked from the first time I talked to him about my investment, and he couldn’t wait to join in. In the same enthusiastic manner that he drove from Grand Rapids to Detroit to join me for the Red Wings game. From a sports bar watching the MLB All-Star Game in 2016 to the South Carolina Sandhills in 2026, Graham has been a wonderful friend every step of the way. I couldn’t be happier to have him in the Candyroot family!
In early March, I had the pleasure of visiting Candyroot for a tour of the grounds. I didn’t see a single blade of grass; just some shaped-out holes, some flat patches of dirt called “greens”, and some bunkers with no sand.
But I witnessed this amazing course being built out of a 200-some odd acre patch of sandy soil that falls downward toward Buffalo Creek in Upstate South Carolina. And I got to spend an hour driving around the property with the mad scientist himself: Mike Koprowski, the architect.
Mike’s story is well known to golf sickos like me, and it’s rather remarkable. He had no formal education in golf course architecture; Mike went to Notre Dame, majored in history and joined ROTC, and spent a four-year tour in Afghanistan with the Air Force. Then he earned Masters’ degrees from Duke and Harvard and spent several years working in Washington, D.C.
But golf course architecture was his passion, and Mike cold-emailed up and coming architect Kyle Franz and asked if he could work on the upcoming remodel of Southern Pines Golf Club near Pinehurst. Not exactly the traditional path, but Franz agreed, and Mike’s design career was off to the races.
But the real test, and desire, was to design, build, and own his own course. That dream led to Broomsedge Golf Club, a private club on 190 acres near Columbia, South Carolina. Broomsedge is a remarkable property, earning coveted high-8 scores on our 10-point ratings scale from both my close friend Aubrey and I during our November 2025 round.
I got to sit with Mike for an hour, hearing all about this fantastic property in Jefferson, South Carolina that would become Candyroot Lodge’s first course, and my new “home”. To see it as just an open piece of land and envision the same open vistas and challenging holes that Broomsedge has was special. And to hear Mike’s vision and design philosophy straight from the designer’s mouth, trudging around the grounds in a four-seater UTV: that’s a once-in-a-lifetime kind of opportunity.
I heard all about the gorges that rolled through the property that Mike compared to the legendary Cape Kidnappers in New Zealand. It’s a remarkable part of the course: five holes cross over the gorge at all different angles. I heard about the small greens, all but two of which are under 6,000 square feet (the PGA Tour average size). The other two, by the way, are a double green for holes 5 and 7, and a 10,000+ square foot green for the par-3 14th hole, which has two sets of tee boxes to play the hole nearly 90 degrees apart. Sickkkkkk!
But I also loved his humility, his passion, and his down-to-Earth nature to welcome a random guy like me into his UTV and show me around, answering all my dumb questions he’s probably heard a dozen times before. It’s the same humility and passion shared by the entire Candyroot team, and by one certain investor who can write somewhat decently. It’s what makes this place special: people want this place to succeed, and they are so welcoming to everyone.
And then the countdown began. First it was months, then weeks, and I legitimately counted down every single day for the 30 days leading up to opening day. Every new Instagram post, every little hint of life on social media, every new picture of the grounds stirred up more and more excitement. That “natural high” from the Tour de NHL returned, and I don’t think I’d ever been more excited to play golf in my life.
The final day of the Tour de NHL in April 2023 was the happiest day of my life. It was perfect: beautiful weather, a fun train ride from Ottawa to Toronto, a delicious dinner, and a fitting walk down Bremner Blvd, which dead-ends into Scotiabank Arena. It was so fitting: a triumphant walk to “the end of the line”, with Mom and Dad and Drew and Mike by my side.
When the Star-Spangled Banner started before that final game, I just broke down and happy cried. I had made it. All 32 NHL arenas, years planning and tens of thousands of miles of travel. I accomplished my dream, and I did something that made me really happy, like Grandma taught me.
That was my one goal for Opening Day at Candyroot: to happy cry again. To relive the exhilaration and joy from Episode 32. To walk with my best friends up the 18th fairway at Candyroot, score be damned, and just happy cry to celebrate accomplishing another dream. And I got to do all of that on Thursday, October 8th, 2026.
That first day at Candyroot was remarkably special. It didn’t have the same “emotional disbelief” that Episode 32 in Toronto had; just a gleaming sense of pride and accomplishment mixed with some profound first tee jitters. I’d experienced those jitters before at some famous courses: Merion outside Philadelphia, Bethpage Black on Long Island, Ballybunion in Ireland. But this was different: this was MY course, not somebody else’s. I imagined this moment for more than a year, dreamed about striping it down the middle of the 1st fairway and then confidently and happily starting my 4-hour journey around the course.
Thankfully, Candyroot management instituted a local rule that all partners have permanent “breakfast ball” privileges on the 1st tee. Exercising the benefit of that rule, I promptly striped my SECOND drive right down the middle of the fairway, and off I went.
And over the next four hours, I joined Charlie and Mike, my fellow Elon friends from Charlotte, on a magical four-hour walk around the grounds, chasing our golf balls around the property. Smiling and laughing and cheering on great shots and taking in this special new golf course. What a remarkable four-hour walk it was! Charlie and Mike both loved their day at Candyroot, and I couldn’t quite believe that this dream had come true, right in front of our eyes. It must’ve been that “natural high” carrying me all day.
A week later, on October 15th, I got to experience “the Root” again with Jeff and his father Paul. That round offered a rare opportunity to both enjoy the course again for myself, while also taking in the experience of being a spectator for Jeff on his maiden voyage around the links. To “take a walk in somebody else’s shoes”, to be there with him to celebrate, just as Charlie and Mike were there for me. Just like I’ve had the privilege of doing for Craig on his baseball trips.
Well, that “walk in somebody else’s shoes” was quite the hike. We elected to play Candyroot’s “Lodge tees”, which stretch to a hefty 7,248 yards over a par 70 course. But Jeff and I both agreed that the course played at least a few hundred yards longer than the numbers on the scorecard due to the severe elevation changes on the property. And there were plenty of forced carries from the “Lodge tees” that made for some demanding shots all day.
It was undoubtedly a difficult day of golf; hitting tons of long irons into rock-hard greens isn’t exactly a recipe for great scoring. But there were still plenty of highlights and smiles and laughs. Jeff nearly made the first ace in Candyroot Lodge history on the par-3 12th hole, knocking a pitching wedge to just a few inches! And we may or may not jointly share the course record from the Lodge tees with less than stellar rounds of 87, but hey, we survived, and we had fun nonetheless!
And then October 17th capped off an incredible ten-day stretch in my golf career. A third journey to Candyroot with Doug and Aubrey and Doctor Mike, for our third golf trip of the year. In the spring of 2017, Doug, Aubrey, and I planned our first annual “SB2K” spring break golf trip to Tampa, Florida. We wanted to create an annual tradition to carry forward, to enjoy and to explore the wonderful world of golf together. And over the past ten years, we’ve done exactly that, from Tampa to Pinehurst to the mountains, the beaches, and everywhere in between.
I am pleased to report that Doug and Aubrey both loved Candyroot. They found the course architecturally stimulating, yet playable and fun at the same time. Both agreed that Candyroot marries so very well the three schools of golf architecture: strategic, penal, and heroic. We all struggled at times on a blustery day in the Sandhills, but we still had a blast!
The boys has plenty of thoughts on Mike Koprowski’s design in our post-round huddle. Doug thought that “it’s a really unique property, because I’ve played big, open courses, and I’ve played courses with small greens, but I’ve never played a big, open course with small greens. It really does a good job toeing the line between being accessible for bogey golf but also offering tough birdie chances.“ Tough birdie chances are made notably easier when you can tap in with your driver!
Aubrey also had high praise for the Root: “As far as the modern game and modern golf design goes, it’s the first one I’ve played that gets it right. You can feel intimacy on different areas of the course that make it special. It took “modern, big, bold” without feeling exhausting, especially on the back nine.” A strong review from a generational driver of the golf ball!
I agree with both of them: the golf course is fantastic. It’s still a little rough around the edges in some areas, and will obviously need some time for the fairways, greens, and native areas to settle in. In particular, the greens are incredibly firm and require equal doses of spin and creativity to navigate. But the course is so unique for metro Charlotte, taking elements from the world famous Shinnecock Hills Golf Club in New York, some Midwestern prairie-style courses, Pinehurst #2, and Mike Koprowski’s own Broomsedge Golf Club.
The course itself seems wide open because there’s no trees on the property, but there’s a ton of native areas and Baranca and Pinehurst-y scraggly areas. Most of the greens are tiny, but there’s a plenty of collection areas around them so you can get creative with the ground game if you need to. Like the par-5 16th, with plenty of landing area around a small green.
And there’s a wide variety of golf to be played: there are a few blind tee shots uphill, plenty of long par 4’s, some short and reachable par 4’s, short par 3’s (two of which can play less than 100 yards), one long par 3 over a gorge, two reachable par 5’s, and two absolute behemoth par 5’s. The par-5 6th hole pictured below is bananas! It stretches to as much as 697 yards, plays severely downhill and to the right around a hazard, and ends here at one of the courses’ smallest greens.
But more than just the construction of holes, I think Candyroot’s property tells a distinct story. Golf courses that tell stories are unique and special. Merion Golf Club was once described as “a three-act play” of drama, comedy, and tragedy. Pinehurst #2 is of course known for its insanely difficult putting greens, sandy soil, and famous US Open wins for Payne Stewart and Bryson DeChambeau. Undoubtedly, dozens of courses in the United Kingdom and Ireland tell stories, and Broomsedge even has its own story called “survive the five”. A story keeps the audience, in this case the golfer, captivated and excited for more.
Candyroot’s story might be “a hike through the canyons”. Imagine going on a hiking trip with your friends at the Grand Canyon, arriving on site and parking towards the top of the canyon. Candyroot is the same way: the parking lot sits atop the property near the putting green, the 1st tee, and the 18th green. Then, the course immediately flows downhill toward Buffalo Creek, and remains on the lowest part of the property for the first five holes. For more than an hour, you and your friends hike down the lowest part of your “hike through the canyons”, including here on the par-3 2nd hole.
Then beginning with the 5th hole, you begin to criss-cross over the property’s ravines, as if you were crossing creeks with your friends. Along the way, you go down over a ravine, come right back up over it 3 holes later, then cross it on the following 3 holes as well. You’ve reached the “adventurous” part of your “canyon hike”, and along the way you get to enjoy remarkable views of the entire property. The par-4 11th might be my favorite hole on the course, with a rare tree guiding you to the fairway. Let’s just pretend that’s where I ended up!
And then you spend the final 4 holes gradually zig-zagging back uphill toward the clubhouse, playing a really fun final 3 hole loop with a short, downhill par 5 16th hole, an uphill risk-reward par 4 17th hole, and a long, strong, and difficult boundary hole par 4 18th. Your hike comes to an end at the same spot you began, just a few dozen yards from the 1st tee. And as you emerge from your “hike through the canyons”, you can turn around, look over the scenic, ravine-filled property, and appreciate a great golf course and a special place.
During my second and third rounds at Candyroot, I took plenty of time to reflect on my personal golfing journey. It began humbly, accompanying Dad for some post-work walks at Yardley Country Club, where I’d tee off from the beginning of the fairways and get really excited to push the push cart. Those earliest rounds sparked a love for a game that’s brought me to some remarkable places and introduced me to lifelong friends.
I thought about the summers toiling away at the driving range and the putting green at Makefield Highlands, that eventually gave way to my summer job cleaning golf carts, re-filling water coolers, and picking golf balls off the driving range. I thought about the many fun rounds of golf I played at the Highlands with my friends and colleagues, and about the happy feelings I always have going back “home” there.
I thought about the dozens of junior tournaments I played over the years, and about the ups and downs of trying to find my way there. I thought about getting a phone call about winning the Merion Junior Invitational in 2010 with my Yardley teammates, and about the dreaded “Meltdown at Woodcrest” that essentially ended my competitive career.
I thought about how that fateful summer day in 2012 freed me to just go out and enjoy the game of golf without all the pressure and anxiety. That freedom led to finally shooting par, then finally breaking par, and then finally breaking 70. That freedom led to a desire to travel and start checking top courses off the bucket list, from the intimidating warning sign and daunting rough of Bethpage Black to the seaside links of Ballybunion and Tralee in western Ireland, and God and weather-willing, to the Old Course at St. Andrew’s in January.
I thought about the joy of sharing my new course with Charlie and Mike, as Charlie has shared his home club of Pine Lake Country Club with us. I thought about the round of golf that Jeff and I didn’t get to play on day 1 of the Tour de NHL in Columbus, and about the great rounds we DID play last summer in Wilmington and Myrtle Beach. I thought about redemption at Pinehurst #2 with Doug and Aubrey and Doctor Mike, and about the magical second nine we had as the sun set on that beautiful Sandhills Saturday in May.
And I thought about dreams. I thought about dreaming about winning the Masters as a kid, never accomplishing that dream, but somehow still living the dream with Dad on Tuesday at Augusta in 2024. I thought about that perfect final day on Tour in Toronto in 2023, and all of the happy emotions and tears that followed. I thought about writing and publishing the book, and about surprising my family with it over Thanksgiving. And of course, I thought about Candyroot, how it became another dream of mine that I got to live out over the past two weeks. And we’re only just getting started.
“Be careful what you dream about,” some may say. “That dream might just come true.”
And once again it did.
Because I found a place to call “home”.
