The Greenville, S.C. property, which features a par-3 course with holes designed by top architects including Pete Dye, Tom Fazio and Rees Jones, is being revived by golf-hospitality impresario Davis Sezna to be a “transitional amenity” for those who get energized by a Topgolf experience to take the next steps to playing the game. Tee-box cameras will document hole-in-one shots for standing payoffs of from $1,000 to $5,000, and a new restaurant is being built for “one of the top five chefs in the South,” to create a dining experience “as good as anything in Greenville.”

Davis Sezna was standing on a small elevation overlooking the carefully manicured swales and swells of the Crosswinds Golf Course, in Greenville, S.C. when he pointed to a distant spot, the Upstate Business Journal of Greenville reported.

“See those railroad ties? What does that say to you?” Sezna asked, waiting patiently for the answer. “Pete Dye,” he prompts. “That’s his signature.”

Dye, Hall of Fame golf course architect of some of the best-known and most-challenging courses in the world (TPC Sawgrass, Harbour Town, and Blackwolf Run, to name a few), designed the ninth hole at this unassuming par-3 course, tucked away behind the Greenville Downtown Airport, the Business Journal reported.

And that’s not the only surprise about Crosswinds, nor is it the only surprise in store for Greenville if Sezna, a golf-hospitality impresario and the course’s new owner, executes his vision, the Business Journal reported.

Crosswinds is one of a kind among U.S. courses, according to Golf Digest. Each hole was designed by a different architect, many among the most renowned in the world, including Tom Fazio, Rees Jones, Robert Cupp, and Jay Haas, in addition to Dye.

The elevations on the course are also surprising, the Business Journal reported, and a distinct improvement over the usual flat and boring layouts that most golfers expect from par-3 courses.

But Sezna, who has designed by his count “more than 50 concepts” in his career, sees so much more, the Business Journal reported, and he’s working with a Greenville architectural firm, DP3, to turn the concept to a reality.

When Crossroads GC reopens in the spring of 2019, the most obvious change will be the clubhouse, the Business Journal reported. The old white-and-green clapboard building is set to be demolished (pending permitting approval) and replaced with a new stone-and-glass, 4,500-sq.-ft. facility that will include a 100-seat restaurant and bar, a 450-sq.-ft. open patio, and a rooftop bar and seating area (observation deck), with a small hitting area where happy-hour guests can vie for a closest-to-the-pin challenge for $5 for two attempts.

Where the current clubhouse has two vending machines, the new restaurant aspires to be “as good as anything in Greenville,” according to Sezna, who describes the concept as “sophisticated” and “comfortable favorites.” He is keeping the name of the chef for this new endeavor under wraps, the Business Journal reported, but promises he’s “one of the top five in the South.”

The restaurant, with a variety of seating areas inside and out, is intended to be a destination in its own right—not just an after-round grab-and-go, the Business Journal reported. Three stone fireplaces will, Sezna promises, create a welcoming setting all year round.

The new Crosswinds GC will also have activities appealing to families, kids, couples, seniors, good golfers, and duffers, the Business Journal reported, as Sezna hopes to turn the full-spectrum golf experience into a template transportable to other cities.

Forget the traditional pro shop, for example. Instead, patrons will check in at the bar where an assistant pro will get them started or get them breakfast. A putting course will be built as an homage to The Himalayas, the family-friendly feature of Scotland’s revered St. Andrews, the birthplace of golf.

“It’s the most entertaining course,” Sezna said. “It’s moguls, humps, and bumps. And it’s so much fun. Kids and families, couples, students, all come out and play on it. It is less intimidating and people just love being a part of it.”

And for purists, there will still be a traditional, but smaller, putting green, the Business Journal reported.

Sezna is also reaching out to the architects of the original holes, the Business Journal reported, to ask if they want to be part of the course update by making some design tweaks to the holes they designed.

A scratch golfer who picked up his first club at age 3 and went on to play college golf at Georgia and win state amateurs in Delaware, Sezna wants the experience to be, above all, fun, the Business Journal reported.

And because nothing is more fun than winning money, he is setting up cameras on each tee and green, so every hole-in-one can be documented. Every tee shot, Sezna explained to the Business Journal, is insured. Those making an ace on the shortest hole will win $1,000, and on the longest, $5,000.

The entire course will also be Wi-Fi connected, to allow each player’s favorite music to go along with them throughout their rounds. Sezna is all for incorporating the music trend fully into the golf experience, the Business Journal reported.

“I like it in this environment,” he says. “I wouldn’t go swimming in my tuxedo or to a black tie dinner in my swimsuit. Life is about variety. This is a variety of golf.”

Sezna appears to be riding the wave of a new trend in golf, one that throws out old paradigms, stretches rules and norms, and embraces a more-relaxed experience that’s  also faster, less stodgy, less intimidating and more fun, the Business Journal reported.

It’s the same trend that has made Topgolf one of the premier golf-entertainment facilities in the country, and golfers in Greenville are awaiting the opening of their own new local Topgolf facility, which is currently under construction near Interstate 85.

Embracing trends that fly in the face of a sport so steeped in ancient traditions may seem a contradiction where Sezna is concerned, the Business Journal noted, because he is, after all, a member of a dozen of the most prestigious golf clubs in the country, as well as the Royal and Ancient, Europe’s equivalent to the United States Golf Association.

But Sezna sees a relaxation of those traditions as critical to the growth, and maybe even the survival, and of the game.

“Wherever we go, I love those environments, but I’m also in the hospitality business,” Sezna explained to the Business Journal. “The first thing you learn is, you have to take the intimidation aspect out of things. Valet parking is intimidating. Wine lists are intimidating, and taking a friend out to play golf is intimidating.”

Topgolf, Sezna feels, is “one of the best things that has happened to us in the game. It’s attracting nongolfers to have a good time. It’s totally good for the game.”

And he sees the new Crosswinds GC as “a transitional amenity,” that will help those who found they had a blast at Topgolf and “are curious to take it to the next level” take the next step.

“This,” says Sezna, expansively opening his arms while on the Crosswinds course, “is the obvious level before you go to a conventional golf course.”

Eventually, he hopes, Crosswinds players will find themselves ready for more serious golf. But until you get there, he asks, “why not have a little fun?”

Sezna’s vision isn’t coming together cheaply, the Business Journal reported. He’s anticipating investing more than $2 million in the renovation, but won’t say how it’s funded, except that there are private partners involved.

The project will have an economic impact on the area, the Business Journal reported, as Sezna plans to hire 65 new employees in both the golf and hospitality areas.

He expects to have 25,000 rounds played in the first year, a number he considers to be “under-projecting.” And he plans to work with both the Boys & Girls Clubs and The First Tee Upstate.

What he is really excited about is being part of “one of the most dynamic and progressive cities in the country,” the Business Journal reported.

And others, Sezna notes, are interested in developing a similar concept in other cities, the Business Journal reported. Not as a franchise, he says, but as “more of a privately owned partnership group.”