Construction Begins at Orange Hill, the Kiawah Island Club’s Third Golf Course, on Johns Island, South Carolina
Construction is under way at Orange Hill on Johns Island, South Carolina, where Beau Welling is building the Kiawah Island Club's third course and a 9-hole short course. Both could open in fall 2027, with up to 120 residential units held off the core golf routing.
Construction is under way at Orange Hill, the golf and residential community on Johns Island, South Carolina, that will give the Kiawah Island Club its third course. Architect Beau Welling is building an 18-hole championship course and a 9-hole short course on the 933-acre property, which sits between River Road and Bohicket Road on southern Johns Island, just inland of Kiawah Island and outside Charleston.
Welling is a South Carolina native who has a family house on Kiawah. He worked under Tom Fazio before founding Beau Welling Design and has collaborated with Tiger Woods in recent years. At Orange Hill, he is drawing from the site’s grand live oaks and wetlands to shape an Old World character, with strategic contours and options to play the ball along the ground. Of routing golf through the property’s live oak hammocks, Welling told Forbes, “we want the golfer to feel transported back in time.” He has described the aim as a contemporary take on the early golf played in and around Charleston.
About 300 acres of the tract are set aside for golf, and the two courses are being built at the same time. The plan also includes a double-sided range, a large practice area with a golf performance center that the club says will be its biggest practice facility yet, and a members’ clubhouse. Welling said both courses are on track to be grassed by summer 2027, weather permitting, which could allow an opening in fall 2027.
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Orange Hill is being developed by Kiawah Partners, which is owned by South Street Partners, the firm that also owns The King & Prince Golf and Beach Club on St. Simons Island, Georgia. The community is planned for up to 120 residential units, a mix of cottages, homes, and homesites, on less than 110 acres. Jordan Phillips, managing partner of South Street Partners, said there will be no residential development along the core golf routing, so that the golf can stay centered on the site’s trees and native landscape.
The current plan is lighter than the one that preceded it. According to Kiawah Island Club, the revision cut homesites from 181 to 120, removed 2.8 miles of planned roads, and increased conserved natural areas to 365 acres. A survey of the site identified more than 3,100 protected or grand trees, and 88 percent of the highest-graded trees will remain. The main entrance is planned on River Road, where a dedicated left-turn lane will be built.
The case for a third course rests on the first two. Forbes reports that member play at Cassique, the Tom Watson design, and the River Course has risen 22 percent since 2022, and Phillips has tied that growth to members spending more of the year on Kiawah. Island real estate has followed. Kiawah Island recorded $851 million in sales across 335 transactions in 2025, its third-highest year on record, and 178 closings totaling $511 million in the first half of 2026. The median single-family price is near $4 million, and only 11 homesites were available at midyear, the fewest on record.
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For buyers and members, that scarcity is central. With homesites on Kiawah at a record low, the club is growing inland onto Johns Island, and doing so with fewer homes, fewer roads, and more conserved land than the earlier plan called for, while keeping houses off the core routing. Orange Hill joins other private golf taking shape in the Carolinas, including The Trail, the Gil Hanse club planned in Union County, North Carolina. Prices for Orange Hill’s cottages, homes, and homesites have not been published, nor have membership terms.
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