The percussion is heard 75 miles away, near Greensboro midway between
Atlanta and
Augusta.
Here, off I-20 in the state's central farm belt, is Reynolds Plantation, a 7,000-acre lakeside
residential and resort community that is zooming to the top of golfers' travel lists.
The plantation lies on rolling hills covered with magnificent mature pine forests bordering beautiful
Lake Oconee. Oconee means "great waters" in the language of the Creek Indians who settled
here 250 years ago. Treaties in the late 1770s ceded Indian lands to Colonial Georgia which honored
discharged soldiers with gifts of land parcels. Mercer Reynolds was one beneficiary.
Since then, generations of Reynolds have kept ownership of parcels that made up the original
Reynolds Plantation. First opened in the early 1980s, the community and resort are being developed
by the family-owned Linger Longer Development Company, chaired by Mercer Reynolds of Cincinnati.
Reynolds Plantation is for active visitors and residents seeking tranquility in a breathtaking natural
setting. Human night owls will find good hunting elsewhere, as life after sundown is fairly tame.
But during the day, recreationists can feast on three superb golf courses, miles of biking and
hiking trails, tennis, a fitness center, and water sports serviced by a marina. The complex
also has business facilities and two excellent dining rooms at the clubhouses. Resort guests
stay in cozy two-bedroom cottages with high-ceilinged living rooms, decks and sleeping lofts.
Growing numbers of homeowners, including Sam Nunn and Newt Gingrich, are making
Reynolds Plantation either their primary or secondary place of residence. Some residents
commute to Atlanta. Here, sensitive planning assures that the rich natural endowment will
not be spoiled. The site's abundant wildlife includes deer, red fox, bald eagles, wading birds and otters.
The biggest event in the area's recent history was the damming of the Oconee River in
1979 by Georgia Power to create Oconee, Georgia's second largest lake. Oconee,
a sprawling, jigsaw-puzzle-piece-shaped lake, has transformed the character of the area
from a sleepy community of farms and small rural houses to an upscale settlement.
The plantation includes 50 miles of shoreline. The lake separates the primary complex that
encompasses two courses,
Plantation
and Reynolds National, from
Great Waters,
the 680-acre residential community of private homes, golf cottages and Great Waters, a Jack Nicklaus signature course.
Great Waters, which hosted the Anderson Consulting World Match Play quarter finals in 1995 - 1997,
is a 7,015-yard par 72 test from the back tees. The outward eight holes in the uplands is
undistinguished, but the layout comes alive at No. 9, a 376-yard downhiller to a green perched
tightly against a thumb of the lake. From there, the course winds around a forested peninsula
that features eight Kodak-moment lakeside holes, the best of which is No. 12, a 521-yard dogleg
left requiring a drive over a cove of the lake to a narrow landing area from where the fairway slopes
sharply upward to a bunkered green. Great Waters, which opened in 1992, is among the better tracks in the Nicklaus portfolio.
Even more stunning is Reynolds National by Tom Fazio, who has worked holes of
panoramic dimensions over ridges and valleys framed by towering pines. Following a forested front
nine showcased by the terrific 554-yard 6th to a huge, peninsular green that juts into a man-made
lake, the back meanders down to Oconee (with three holes on the lake) and back up through upland
forests and over lakes and streams. A third nine, sure to please Faziophiles, is scheduled to open soon.
Reynolds' third and oldest course is
Plantation,
co-designed by Robert Cupp, Fuzzy Zoeller and Hubert Green. Adjacent to Reynolds National and
opened in the mid-1980s, it is a pleasant hilly jaunt with four fine finishing holes.
In 2001, Reynolds Plantation will expand with the opening of a Ritz-Carlton 250-room hotel and complex
and a Reese Jones' layout that is already drawing comparisons with the architect's best designs.
The course will be available exclusively to hotel guests. 
Atlanta Golf
