Golf

The Ford Plantation features a premier Pete Dye-designed championship course with two distinct nine-hole challenges: the front nine is designed around 250 acres of freshwater lakes, and the back nine resembles a great Scottish links-type course, with holes placed among the Plantation's original rice fields. Mr. Dye calls his Ford course "arguably my finest southern design."

One of America's finest private golf clubs, The Ford Plantation does not require tee times—members play whenever they wish. The course is challenging and plays from "executive length" short to “pro length” long, and rewards for accuracy and shot-making. And, the surrounding scenery is extraordinary—naturally beautiful with frequent sightings of bald eagles, osprey, and fox.

The Clubhouse is classic and impressive, perched on the edge of the marsh on the site of the antebellum Cherry Hill Plantation. A formal colonnade of live oaks still greets visitors as it has since the middle of the 18th century. In keeping with the best sporting clubs, the Golf Pro Shop, practice facilities, and staff are superb. A full range of programming and instruction is available to players of all skill levels.

Please click here for a pdf of our golf yardage book.

Golf Tournaments

For a pdf of our Golf Tournaments brochure, please click here.

Golf Club Championship
Friday, October 21–Saturday, October 22, 2011. The Golf Club Championship is a Ford Plantation tradition held each year on Homecoming Weekend. This members’ only tournament is a two-day individual event with men’s and women’s divisions. Each player will be preflighted according to his or her handicap. Each flight will have a handicapped flight winner and runner up, with the low gross player in the Championship Flight winning the Club Championship.

Men’s Member/Guest
Thursday, November 3–Saturday, November 5, 2011. This popular event presents a wonderful opportunity to host friends and colleagues at Ford. The event is a two-man match play tournament. Each team will be preflighted based on their combined team handicap. The play will be four-ball match play, and each team will play five nine-hole matches.

Ladies’ Member/Guest
Thursday, November 10–Saturday, November 12, 2011. Ladies have the opportunity to invite guests to comprise teams of two for this popular event. The format is a Two Day Net Eclectic. Competitors will keep their best net score for the team for day one. If they have a better score on a hole the second day, they count the second day net score. Players can only better their day one score! This event is played with a full handicap.

Empty Bottle Open
Sunday, January 1, 2012. Join us on New Year’s Day for our annual Empty Bottle Open. Individuals will play 18 holes, using a Stableford scoring system. Rather than counting the total number of strokes taken, Stableford involves scoring points based on the number of strokes taken at each hole. Unlike traditional scoring methods, where the aim is to have the lowest score, under Stableford rules, the objective is to have the highest score. The tournament has no set tee times, but all competitors must tee off before 10:30 a.m. This event has both men’s and women’s divisions. The player with the most points at the end of his or her round will be the Champion.
 
Gentlemen’s Match Play
Friday, February 10–Saturday, February 11, 2012. Match Play is a format we don’t often get to play—and it just so happens to be one of the most fun formats as well as the format that was most
commonly played when golf was in its infancy centuries ago. We encourage members to partake in this exciting tournament, in which the score is kept by the winning and losing of holes, rather than the numbers of strokes. First and second match rounds will be played Friday, February 10 and Saturday, February 11, with the time to be determined considering weather conditions. After the first weekend, competitors will schedule their own matches, to be completed by Sunday, March 25. Competitors will receive 90% handicap.

Par 3 Challenge
Wednesday, February 29, 2012. In the Par 3 Challenge, we will play the course backwards from the “next hole tee boxes” to the “previous green.” For instance, we will play from the 18th tee to the 17th green and so on. Where conditions are not conducive to direct line play, we’ll establish special tees—mostly on the front nine. All skill levels are encouraged to participate. The handicap is 25% of your Blue or Red Tee course handicap.

Men’s and Ladies’ Member/Member
Friday, March 9–Saturday, March 10, 2012. Pick your favorite member (or the member who is playing particularly well!) and make a team. This two-day tournament features a One Best Ball format on day one and a Two Person Quota format on day two.

The England
Friday, March 16, 2012. This is a black tee championship honoring the memory of former assistant golf pro Andy England. It is a one-day individual, nonflighted handicapped tournament. The low net player for the event will be the Champion.

Men’s Invitational
Thursday, March 29–Saturday, April 31, 2012. Members have the opportunity to invite guests to comprise teams of two. The format for this popular event is a 45 hole, Net Best Ball and Two-Man Quota with 27 holes on day one and 18 on day two. Each player will receive full handicap for both formats. At the completion of play, all flight winners will be involved in a shoot-out playoff, and one team will be eliminated each hole. If two teams tie a hole, a chip-off will be held to determine which team advances to the next hole. Flight runners-up will compete in a closest to the pin contest to determine which flight runner-up team advances to the shoot-out.

Couples’ Golf Championship
Friday, April 13, 2012. This tournament offers the opportunity for one couple to be crowned our Couples’ Champion. This 18–hole format tournament will be followed by lunch at The Clubhouse, which will be a la carte.

Hook and Slice
Friday, April 27, 2012. The Hook and Slice Tournament combines fishing and golfing skills into one wild competition. This is the seventh year for this tournament, and it seems to get crazier and more fun every year. We can accommodate up to 10 foursomes. The tournament fee includes a boxed lunch, t-shirt, gift bag with tackle, and awards dinner that evening. Teams will have 25 minutes per hole to fish and golf each hole and five minutes between each hole.