White Columns Country Club's Renovation Is Already Underway. Here's What's Actually Changing

If you've tried to get a tee time at White Columns Country Club recently and found the pro shop vague about availability, there's a reason, and it isn't a scheduling glitch. The course is in the middle of a renovation that started this year, and depending on how far along it is by the time you read this, it may still have holes closed well into the fall.

That's the short version. The longer version explains who's paying for it, why the greens are the target, and what it means for anyone who golfs, swims, or just lives inside the gates.

The Sale That Set This in Motion

In June 2025, White Columns changed hands. Arcis Golf, a Dallas-based operator that ranks as the second-largest owner of golf facilities in the country, bought the club from Invited, the operator most members would recognize by its older name, Club Corp. The deal wasn't a one-off. Arcis closed on White Columns the same day it acquired The Manor Golf & Country Club in Alpharetta and Country Club of the South in Johns Creek, folding all three into a single transaction and taking over operations immediately. It was Arcis's 18th club acquisition in three years, part of a buying pattern that's made it one of the more active consolidators in private club ownership nationally.

White Columns itself has changed hands before. The club opened in 1993, and ownership records tracked by PitchBook show it has passed through multiple institutional owners since, including Canongate Golf and Heritage Golf Group, before Invited and now Arcis. A new name on the ownership paperwork is not a new experience for this property.

What's Actually Happening on the Course

Here's where it stops being corporate background and starts being relevant to your Saturday. According to a detailed course review published in January 2026 by Atlanta Golf, the new ownership initiated a multi-million dollar renovation this year, and the project is expected to close the course for a considerable stretch, potentially into late 2026.

The work isn't cosmetic. The two headline items are tree clearing to open up sightlines and a rebuild of the greens back to their original size and shape. Over the years, the putting surfaces at White Columns had shrunk from their as-built dimensions, a common drift at courses that don't touch their greens for a decade or two. Rebuilding them to the original footprint is a restoration project, not a redesign.

If that sounds familiar, it should. It's close to the exact language Arcis used at The Woodlands Country Club in Houston, one of its other properties, where a renovation completed in spring 2026 focused on rebuilding greens to restore their original contours ahead of a PGA Tour Champions event that May. White Columns isn't getting a unique, improvised fix. It's getting a version of the same greens-restoration approach Arcis has already run at a much larger, more visible club.

The Same Playbook, Two Different Courses

Putting the two projects side by side makes the pattern clearer than any press release does.

Neither club got a rushed patch job. Both got a full rebuild aimed at restoring what the original design intended, not just resurfacing what had drifted over the years. The difference is that Houston's version had a hard deadline, a nationally televised PGA Tour Champions event, and White Columns doesn't. Without that kind of external pressure, "late 2026" is the most specific completion window currently on record, and it's worth treating as an estimate rather than a fixed date until the club confirms otherwise.

What Hasn't Changed

Everything off the fairways is running as it was. Fahyr, the club's restaurant, is still serving its seasonal menu with takeout available, and Turn Stand is still the poolside spot for something quick between laps. The tennis and pickleball setup is unchanged too: seven hard courts, two clay, and four dedicated pickleball courts. Arcis Golf continues to operate the club with Matt Beroth as general manager, the same person who ran it through the ownership transition.

Some of what members enjoy today also predates Arcis entirely. The pool complex with its cabanas, splash pad, and slide, the bunker reconstruction with improved drainage, and the refreshed bar and grille area with its outdoor fire pit patio were all completed under Invited, before the 2025 sale. White Columns wasn't a neglected property waiting for its first update. It arrived at this renovation already having been through one recent cycle of investment.

What This Could Mean for the Cost of Joining

One detail worth flagging carefully, because it's an observation from a member-facing review rather than anything the club has confirmed: the same January 2026 Atlanta Golf review noted that initiation fees at White Columns currently sit in the $30,000 to $35,000 range, and speculated that fees could climb toward $50,000, possibly higher, once the renovated course matures. The review also pointed out that guest fees are already priced closer to clubs like Dunwoody Country Club than to other North Fulton private courses nearby. None of that is a club-issued number, and pricing decisions this far out from a project's completion are guesses even when they come from people who play the course regularly. Anyone weighing membership timing should treat it as a signal to ask the club directly, not as a locked-in figure.

What To Actually Do This Season

If you're a member trying to plan around this, the practical move is to call the pro shop for the current hole rotation rather than relying on outdated availability online. The course has hosted real tournament pedigree over the years, including a Women's U.S. Open Qualifier and a USGA Junior Girls Qualifier, which is part of why a full greens restoration matters here and isn't just cosmetic upkeep. If you're weighing a membership decision and pricing is a factor, ask now, before the course reopens and any post-renovation adjustment takes effect.

For homeowners who aren't club members, none of this touches your HOA. The White Columns Gated Community Association, which handles the neighborhood's dues and services, is a separate entity from the country club and its ownership. A change in who runs the golf course has no bearing on your association bill.

If you're curious what daily life in a community built around a private club actually looks like, from the renovation cycles to the calendar of who's hosting what, Jackie Zacharko spends her time in Milton's amenity-driven neighborhoods and is glad to walk through what you'd actually be signing up for.