Bryan Park Golf Course: Players Course

The older of Bryan Park's two eighteens, the Players Course was originally designed by George Cobb in 1974 and then reimagined by Rees Jones in 1988 on the shores of Lake Townsend in Brown Summit, North Carolina. The Rees Jones update gave the public layout its current bunkering, several ponds and lakes, and the championship character that complements the facility's younger Champions Course.

The Players Course is the original eighteen at Bryan Park Golf Course, a public facility operated by the City of Greensboro on the shores of Lake Townsend in Brown Summit, North Carolina, roughly fifteen minutes northeast of Greensboro. The course was first designed by South Carolina-based architect George Cobb and opened for play in 1974, debuting as the golf anchor of a broader municipal park and recreation area along the lake. Cobb's original routing was substantially revised fourteen years later by Rees Jones, ASGCA, who undertook a complete redesign of the Players Course in 1988.

The Jones renovation refreshed the bunkering, introduced or enlarged several ponds and lakes across the property, and reshaped the greens and surrounds to produce a layout with the feel of a modern championship course. The scale of Jones's work was significant enough that Bryan Park today credits the Players Course to his 1988 redesign rather than treating it as a simple renovation of the Cobb original. The Players Course is the older half of Bryan Park's 36-hole facility.

Rees Jones returned to the property in 1990 to design the facility's second course, the Champions Course, which finished as runner-up in Golf Digest's Best New Course survey on its opening and has since become the more celebrated of the two layouts. The Players Course plays to 7,018 yards from the back tees at par 72. Bryan Park has remained municipally owned and publicly accessible throughout its history, offering daily-fee golf on both the Players and Champions Courses.

The Lake Townsend setting — with water in play on several holes and natural forest corridors framing the fairways — distinguishes the Players Course from many other municipal options in the Triad region and has helped sustain its reputation as one of the stronger public-access layouts in the Greensboro area.