Open for use, with the ceremony still to come
The Hackler Course in Conway, South Carolina, now has a new two-storey Professional Golf Management Academic Learning Lab operated by Coastal Carolina University. Local golf reporting says the facility began operating on 14 October 2026. The university has separately scheduled a public ribbon-cutting for Thursday, 5 November, at 10 a.m. local time, at 107 Citadel Drive. The start of operations should not be confused with the forthcoming ceremonial opening.
In its 26 October announcement, Coastal Carolina confirmed a project cost of $10.8 million and a floor area of 16,000 square feet (approximately 1,490 square metres). The building combines a functioning public-course clubhouse with a university teaching facility for future golf-industry professionals.
Two floors with different purposes
The ground floor has a professional shop, the Wingman’s Grill restaurant and its kitchen, serving the course's day-to-day operations and visiting golfers. Upstairs, the main focus is the university's PGA Golf Management programme, with classrooms, swing and putting labs, offices and spaces for practical learning.
A 21 October local report details a golf simulator equipped with a TrackMan launch monitor, a practice putting green featuring PuttView technology, club-building, fitting and repair facilities, and a 65-seat classroom. These are descriptions of the equipment, not claims that any particular technology guarantees better scores.
Why the project matters
Coastal Carolina operates one of the 16 university PGA Golf Management programmes accredited by the PGA of America. Placing classrooms immediately above a working golf shop and course gives students opportunities to connect academic work to merchandising, tournament operations, club maintenance and player-facing services.
Construction began in March 2024. At the groundbreaking, the university said the building would replace a clubhouse dating from 1969. Hackler Course itself is a public 18-hole layout, but public access to the golf course does not mean that every teaching lab is open to visitors.
Next steps
Coastal Carolina says the 5 November ceremony will be open to the public and followed by facility tours. It has published arrangements for parking at the course and an overflow lot with shuttle access. The local report also identifies 9 November as the planned start date for demolition of the old clubhouse. Neither the ceremony nor the demolition had taken place as of the date of this article.
The investment is significant because it brings everyday public golf services and specialist university instruction into a shared facility, while retaining different functions and access arrangements.
