Our story begins in 1940. The US Army is preparing for WWII and had to train a lot of young men to be soldiers. Spartanburg native US Senator James F. Byrnes was instrumental in getting the Army to purchase a tract of land just 5 miles south of downtown Spartanburg to construct a US Army training facility. The facility represented a $10,000,000 investment ($172,000,000 in current money) The facility named Camp Croft after Major General Edward Croft trained over 200,000 soldiers from 1940-1946 and provided a much-needed stimulus for Spartanburg, still reeling from the depression. The state of the art facility was so nice that the new Army recruits dubbed it The Country Club of the South. Interestingly, the facility also housed over 900 German POW’s during the war. The Spartanburg Little Theater that sits just behind the 18th Tee was used for entertainment during training an remains as the only structure that has survived. After the war, much of the property was given to the state to form Camp Croft State Park and ultimately the property that the club sits on was developed into a golf course in 1964 designed by noted golf course architect Russell Breeden. Artifacts can still be found around the course today.

 

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