After six years, the reopening of the Jones Creek Golf Course is underway.
The 18-hole course has been closed since 2018 amid flooding and deterioration. Since then, the Jones Creek Clubhouse has changed hands, separately from the course—first to developer Mark Herbert, who bought it in 2019, and then to its current owners, Jones Creek Clubhouse LLC, who acquired it in 2023.
In the midst of that, as well as controversies surrounding attempts to rezone the clubhouse property, golf tourism company Bond GolfGlobal opened the Practice Club at Jones Creek, a Toptracer-powered range facility in the Jones Creek subdivision.
“We’ve had the range over for 18 months, and we understand the fact that there’s a demand for the product,” said Andrew Brooks, owner of Bond Global, which is spearheading the renovation of the golf course. “The idea of doing the range first was to put golf back into the arena, so all of a sudden golf is being played again.”
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The Jones Creek Homeowners Association notified the subdivision’s residents of the restoration project via its newsletter in August. Reconstruction work began on the course in July, says Brooks, with crews cleaning up playing surfaces and cutting back of overgrown bush, making way to rebuild the Willow Lake dam and refurbish the irrigation system.
Among the many tasks to follow include realigning creeks, drainage work, converting the bunkers, enlarging and repaving the parking lot at the Practice Club, and installing TifEagle putting greens and Bermuda grass fairways.
“We’re going to improve the playability of the golf course,” Brooks said. “Essentially, you’re going to have a whole new golf course out there.”
Bond Golf Global was able to reach an agreement with property owner Julian Saul to launch the golf course renewal after “lots of negotiation,” Brooks says. By early 2023, Saul had already entered a contract with the company to develop the Practice Club, while his attempts to sell the golf course were thwarted.
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Brooks also notes that Arcis Golf, the golf resort company that purchased Champions Retreat in Evans last year, and is listed among Bond Golf Global’s clients on its website, is not involved with the Jones Creek revitalization.
“[Saul] is behind it, but we’re fronting it, so we’re doing it,” he said. “Obviously, he needed to be confident that the modeling was going to work. We’ve done a lot of models and internal work to really assess what’s needed in the area.”
He also stresses that the new iteration of Jones Creek Golf Course will be open to the public, with a light membership and a daily fee course.
“This is not this is not just the Jones Creek community, this is the community of Evans and Augusta,” said Brooks. “That’s why we’re doing this.”
Despite delays on the cleanup efforts due to Hurricane Helene, the Jones Creek Golf Course is projected to open in August 2025.
The Practice Club at Jones Creek powered by Toptracer is located at 4087 Hammonds Ferry in Evans.
Skyler Andrews is a reporter covering business for The Augusta Press. Reach him at skyler@theaugustapress.com.
