The Long Game

An exclusive first look at Congaree, a new South Carolina golf club built by billionaires on a model of philanthropy.

- Erik Matuszewski

Jasper County, South Carolina, is only a 45-minute drive from the low-country resort town of Hilton Head, but it’s a world removed. Aging churches and family homesteads whose better days have long passed are interspersed with dilapidated trailer homes and overgrown yards strewn with junk and broken down cars. It’s not where one would expect to find the most exclusive and inspirational new golf club in America, one where philanthropy drives a visionary membership model.

Congaree, which quietly opened this spring, was founded on a former 18th-century rice plantation by 2 of the 200 richest men in America—Texas billionaires Dan Friedkin and Robert McNair—and named after a Native American tribe that once called the area home. The club’s calling is to use golf to bring together an international network of influential people passionate about changing lives, both locally and globally.

“We wanted to create a club that at the core of its mission makes meaningful differences in the lives of young people and attracts golfers who not only want to play a wonderful golf course but who also want to be actively involved in our philanthropic goals,” says the 52-year-old Friedkin, who carries a tidy 6.9 handicap and is chairman of the Friedkin Group, a privately held consortium of businesses in the automotive, luxury hospitality, golf and entertainment industries.

Despite Congaree’s forward-thinking mission, its membership process is old-fashioned: by invitation and referral only. There are technically only two members of the club: Friedkin and McNair, owner of the NFL’s Houston Texans. Everyone else affiliated with Congaree—from an NFL Hall of Famer to a Grammy Award-winning country singer—is invited to become an “ambassador” on an annual basis. All share a love for golf and a passion for helping others.