First Tee’s Kids-Only Golf Course in West Ashley, Where Adults Play as Guests

First Tee – Greater Charleston is building a nine-hole golf course in West Ashley where the members are children. Any golfer aged 5 to 18 will be able to play it, whether or not they are enrolled in a First Tee program. Adults can play too, but only as the accompanied guest of a junior golfer. The course will not sell tee times.

The Kids Course is going up on a 13.8-acre wooded site at 2275 Henry Tecklenburg Drive, beside a new learning center for the nonprofit's classes. The Post and Courier and Golf Digest both reported an opening target of January 2028, and WCBD News 2 reported crews clearing the land in late September.

"The kids are the members, and adults can only ever be a guest," First Tee – Greater Charleston CEO Bucky Dudley told WCBD News 2.

Membership Rules

The project's own FAQ sets out how the course works. Young people aged 5 to 18 can play during designated open play times. They count as members. An adult can play only as a junior's accompanied guest, with one exception: Ambassadors, the donors who fund the course, at Ambassador events. First Tee will not sell tee times, and players may make a donation if they choose.

First Tee describes the course as the only public course in the Southeast built for youth play alone. Kevin Murphy, a member of its facility committee, put the idea plainly on the project page: "There are plenty of places for adults to play golf, but hardly any where kids are truly the priority."

Course Design

The course is a nine-hole par 3 on about seven acres. Two architects are designing it. Troy Miller, of Miller Golf Design, grew up in Charleston and worked on the City of Charleston Municipal Golf Course and the Ocean Course at Kiawah Island. Brian Schneider, a former lead associate of the architect Tom Doak, designed the kids' course at Old Barnwell in Aiken.

Golf Digest reported that the idea came from a trip Schneider made to North Berwick in Scotland, whose children's course admits adults only when a junior brings them. Dudley told the magazine the Charleston course will meet the USGA minimum of nine holes and 750 yards, so a child can set up a handicap there and keep it.

The holes are routed through pines that are already standing. Miller described that on the project page: "the instant maturity the course will have with all the trees surrounding the course is exciting especially in a time where so few courses are opening with that benefit." He added: "As a native of Charleston, the ability to be a small part of bringing this much needed facility to kids of our City is a tremendous honor."

Learning Center

The course is one half of what First Tee calls its Youth Leadership Campus. The other half is an 11,007-square-foot learning center named for Cartter Lupton, the chapter's longest-standing donor. According to the project specifications, it holds classrooms, meeting rooms, a nutrition center, an indoor putting and chipping green, and hitting bays with GOLFZON simulators. There is parking for the chapter's buses. An outdoor practice area and an event lawn sit beside the course. Of the 13.8 acres, 5.8 are set aside as preserved wetland.

Reasons for the Course

First Tee – Greater Charleston began in 2008 and teaches golf and life skills to young people across Berkeley, Charleston and Dorchester counties. Dudley told Golf Digest the chapter grew from "eight kids in 2008, to over 25,000 kids this past year."

First Tee has no course of its own and runs its classes at partner golf courses, schools and community centers. The campaign's case for support lists what that costs: more than 300 families a year on the waitlist, classes held to partner schedules, and underserved families living furthest from those courses. The new campus adds a site of its own. The FAQ says classes at partner courses will carry on after it opens.

Funding and Timeline

The campus is paid for by a $14 million campaign called Fore the Kids. The nonprofit bought the land for $2.1 million, the Post and Courier reported from property records. Lupton gave $1 million to start the campaign. The public phase began in September 2026, with more than 70 percent of the money already pledged. The real estate company Greystar is matching gifts dollar for dollar up to $250,000 through December 31. Donations go through forethekids.org.

First Tee – Greater Charleston will run the course and the learning center itself.

Junior Golf Before 2028

A child who wants to start now has three things to sort out: lessons, somewhere to play, and clubs that fit.

Lessons. First Tee's on-course classes cost $60 for an eight-week season, and financial aid is available. Places are drawn by lottery three times a year, for spring, summer and fall. The fall 2026 lottery has closed, and details of the spring 2027 lottery go up in January at firstteegreatercharleston.org. The City of Charleston also runs junior programs at the City of Charleston Municipal Golf Course on Maybank Highway: US Kids Golf classes in five-week sessions, Operation 36 classes for players 13 and up, a fall league and a parent-and-child championship. More coaches and golf schools are in the kids' activities directory.

Rounds. A Youth on Course membership costs $25 a year in the Carolinas and lets a junior walk a round for $5 at participating courses. The program's course directory lists which ones take it. Green fees and booking links for every public course on the coast are in the golf course directory.

Clubs. Junior clubs are sold in sets sized by a child's height. The city's classes lend clubs fitted to each child, and a child can bring their own set if it fits properly.

By January 2028 those juniors should have nine holes of their own in West Ashley, where the kids are the members and any parent who wants to play goes as their guest.