Abilene Country Club: South Course

The South Course opened in 1978 as a Ron Garl design, set across rolling West Texas terrain with water features in play on several holes. At roughly 7,000 yards from the back tees it is the longer and more championship-caliber of the club's two layouts and has been recognized by the Dallas Morning News among the state's notable private courses.

Abilene Country Club traces its roots to 1923, when William Gill designed the original North Course on land that has remained the club's home for over a century. The club's founding coincided with the rapid growth of Abilene as a regional agricultural and commercial center, and a nucleus of civic leaders determined to build a golf facility worthy of the community's ambitions. Gill's layout made intelligent use of the relatively flat West Texas terrain, relying on strategic bunkering and careful hole routing to provide a test that rewarded shot-making over raw power. The North Course established itself as one of the region's finest tests of golf and became an important stop on the Texas amateur circuit. Among the notable players who shaped the club's legacy is Charles Coody, the 1971 Masters champion, who developed his game at Abilene and maintained deep ties to the club throughout his professional career.

Tommy Bolt, the 1958 U.S. Open champion and a standout colorful personalities in postwar American golf, also spent time at Abilene, as did Tour players Don Cherry, Mike Standly, and Bob Estes. The club's role as an incubator for competitive talent became a defining characteristic of its identity. The grounds expanded considerably over the decades. In the late 1970s and early 1980s, the club added a second 18-hole layout — later known as the Fairway Oaks Course, or South Course — designed by Ron Garl in collaboration with Charles Coody.

That course opened in the early 1980s and immediately built a reputation for demanding championship conditions. It hosted the Southwest Classic on the PGA Tour from 1981 through 1991, and also hosted both PGA Tour and Senior PGA Tour events between 1979 and 1990, giving the club a decade-long stretch as a venue for professional competition. The South Course's most challenging stretch centers on the 17th hole, a 448-yard par four requiring a tee shot that must carry at least 200 yards over water to find the fairway. By operating two full 18-hole layouts, the club gave its membership extraordinary variety. The North Course, with its history and maturity, plays differently from the more modern South Course — the two routing philosophies complement rather than duplicate each other, rewarding members who take the time to learn both.

The club has invested steadily in agronomy and infrastructure across both layouts, maintaining standards consistent with a facility that has hosted professional Tour events. The club's social fabric has been equally rich. Generation after generation of Abilene families have used the club as a gathering place, and the membership roster has reflected the broad commercial and professional life of the city. Golf instruction at Abilene Country Club has produced competitive players at the junior, collegiate, and professional levels — an achievement that speaks to the quality of both the facilities and the teaching staff the club has attracted over the years. Today, Abilene Country Club remains one of West Texas's most complete private club experiences, offering 36 holes of golf that span more than a century of course design philosophy, from Gill's early traditional layout to the strategically demanding parkland architecture of the later Garl-Coody collaboration.