High Side Golf Club, With Two Kris Spence Nines, Is Coming to Kannapolis, North Carolina
High Side Golf Club, a semi-private short-course club just north of Charlotte in Kannapolis, North Carolina, was scheduled to break ground Tuesday on two Kris Spence nine-hole courses, with opening expected in late fall 2027.
High Side Golf Club, a semi-private short-course club in Kannapolis, North Carolina, just north of Charlotte, was scheduled to break ground Tuesday on two nine-hole courses by North Carolina architect Kris Spence, the Salisbury Post reported. The father-and-son team of Phil and Scott Hamel is planning the club with JD Downey. Besides the courses, the property will include a lighted driving range, an 18-hole putting course, and a clubhouse meant to serve as the social hub. Opening is expected in late fall 2027.
One nine is a par-32 executive course and the other a lighted par-3 course. Practice facilities run broad: a lighted driving range with covered hitting bays, expansive short-game areas, and a dedicated golf performance center. David Ross and Kennedy Ramsey will operate that center with Elevate Golf Performance Center, handling instruction, player development, and club fitting. According to the Post, the clubhouse, putting course, and surrounding outdoor spaces are being designed to create a social environment around golf rather than simply serving players before and after a tee time. “We’re building a place organized around golf,” Phil Hamel said.
Spence’s work across the Carolinas includes restorations and renovations of classic Donald Ross architecture. He is designing both courses around strategy, angles, shot-making, and green complexes rather than length. “High Side will bring an unparalleled golf experience to the Charlotte area, with visually dramatic holes that traverse rolling terrain, cross creeks, and encourage creative shotmaking,” he said. In an interview with Two Down Press, he described a nine-hole par-3 course alongside a hybrid nine with three par 4s, a par 5, and the rest par 3s. He called the result “a roller coaster ride in golf,” with hole locations beside steep falloffs, big kicker slopes, and par 3s with real verticality. “People will compare it to the Cradle, but this is a step up in excitement level,” he said.
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The membership structure is built to match that premise. The founding group, called The Originals, is limited to 50 members. Resident, Young Executive, and Weekday memberships will also be offered, alongside public access. The Hamels built the club around the idea that really good golf should fit into your life. One summer growing up, Scott and Phil played 63 rounds on the executive course at their club and saved every scorecard. “The best experiences bring together great golf, good competition, and people you enjoy being around,” Scott Hamel said. The club’s website calls High Side “a new kind of golf destination” and says it is “Not a simulator bar. Not a country club.”
Land acquisition, fundraising, planning, design, engineering, entitlement, and permitting preceded the scheduled start. The club closed on its Kannapolis land in March 2026, and in April the Kannapolis City Council approved annexation of the site, which the Charlotte Business Journal described as a short-format golf destination with two short courses and a practice ground. Construction is expected to continue through 2027. “We’re excited to welcome High Side Golf Club to Kannapolis,” Mayor Doug Wilson said.
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Short courses and putting courses have become fixtures at well-known destinations, the Post noted, from The Cradle at Pinehurst to The Hay at Pebble Beach to The Park in West Palm Beach, which pairs short-form play and practice with dining and gathering spaces. Elsewhere in North Carolina, larger private projects include The Trail, the walking-only Gil Hanse club that Ryan Hanks of Madison Capital plans in Union County on the other side of Charlotte, and Southern Land Company’s planned private Tom Fazio club and 1,271-acre community in Pittsboro, near Raleigh. High Side is a different, smaller format.
What makes the project worth watching is the premise. It is a new club being built from bare land around how often people can actually play, rather than around a full 18-hole routine. If it works, it will be because golf fit into an ordinary week near a growing city.
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