Provided by Reynolds Lake Oconee
Once you’ve experienced all six (soon to be seven) golf courses at Reynolds Lake Oconee in Greensboro, Georgia, you might be ready to enjoy a variety of shots. And there’s no better place to find it. Sandy Creek Sports Grounds is an 800-acre facility offering hiking, fishing, kayaking, canoeing, off-roading, and shooting to your heart’s content.
The crown jewel of the Sporting Grounds is a 20-station sporting clays course located along a mile-long trail circuit. This course was designed by facility director Justin Jones in his 2017 year. Justin Jones has a deep pedigree in the shooting sports. Jones’ grandfather and father captained the British Olympic trap shooting team, and his family’s farm in Wales is home to one of Britain’s best trap shooting ranges.
Jones himself is an international shooting champion, and the Sandy Creek Sports Ground he designed aims to bring British tradition and authenticity to the heart of Georgia.
“I designed [the shooting course] It’s a lot like a golf course,” Jones says. “The difficulty of each hole or each station is par 3, par 4, par 5. Just like on a golf course, the distances vary. Each month, we move , moving around a machine that is actually a trap that launches the clay.”
No shooting experience is necessary, so anyone interested is welcome to come. Jones estimates that 70% of his guests are new to shooting. Each group of guests will be accompanied by a certified guide who can set courses to fire clay targets at a variety of speeds, trajectories, angles, altitudes, and distances to accommodate shooters of all levels. Jones says golfers may be surprised to find out they have a natural predisposition to success because it requires hand-eye coordination. In fact, spending a day on the field might even improve his golf game.
“We had a golfer come in and he was having a hard time shooting,” Jones said. “He was left eye dominant. When I closed his left eye, he started hitting everything down the middle. So he started doing the same thing with his putting, and that improved dramatically as well.”
yes. To us, it seems like a course worth taking.