Kelly Shumate designed the new 9-hole course at Coonskin Park in Charleston, W.Va. Shumate, the agronomist for the Greenbrier, also built the par 3 course at the Sporting Club. He worked with Dave Pope, Kanawha County Parks and Recreation Golf Chair, to honor some of the Scottish architects who came to America between the late 1800s and 1930.

A new 9-hole course at Coonskin Park in Charleston, W.Va. allows golfers to work on the short game, WCHS reported.

“It was a flat course. There wasn’t any character to it,” said Dave Pope, Kanawha County Parks and Recreation Golf Chair. “There was no challenge to it so we decided to blow it up, start over and make it a little more challenging for the better golfers and the beginners.”

The new look has a theme that golf historians can appreciate, WCHS reported.

“Late 1800s to about 1930 when all these holes were brought together and put on all the golf courses around the country by the Scottish architects,” Pope explained. “They all came over at the turn of the century.”

And for Pope, the design was a form of tipping his cap to the game’s history, WCHS reported.

“I think if we are going to put something together it ought to be unique,” he said. “It ought to be something that people appreciate, and it’s got some stories to it. You can Google all these architects which are listed on our scorecard and learn something about them.”

To make this course come to life, Pope reached out to a golf course architect who has his signature on some of the state’s best courses, WCHS reported.

“Kelly Shumate is the agronomist for the Greenbrier and he built the par 3 course at the Sporting Club,” Pope told WCHS. “I’ve known him for many, many years and I asked him if he could develop a golf course and gave him the idea. Let’s make it unusual with no real replicating. It took each architect and some of their bodies of work and put it together.”

It’s a short course but challenging and the greens stand out, WCHS reported.

“[We] try to draw everyone from beginners to professionals all the way up,” Pope said of the new design. “Six holes are under 100 yards and 75-to-80% of everyone’s golf of their score is within 100 yards of the green. These kids bomb it 300 yards now. They still have 100 yards to go and it just makes it more of a challenge.”

Coonskin Park also boasts a disc golf course, skate park, hiking and biking trails, fishing areas, picnic shelters, playgrounds, sports facilities and a swimming pool, WCHS reported.