LOWCOUNTRY GOLF 

DIRECTOR OF GOLF

Chris Fearn is the Director of Golf at Dataw Island, where he enjoys teaching and supporting charity, particularly Veterans organizations. 

Chris came to Dataw Island as the First Assistant Pro and has worked his way up through the ranks as he has gained the PGA certifications and the love and trust o four membership. Prior to his current employment, Chris assisted members with setting up tee times, tournament results and providing lessons at Palmetto Hall Plantation Club. With his golf game showing a good deal of promise, Chris left Palmetto Hall and spent a short time on the Hooters Tour playing professionally before returning to Ohio for a short stint. His experience is diverse, as he has also served as the supervising foreman of the landscaping and mowing crews for TRU Cut Landscaping in his hometown of Fredricktown, Ohio.

Chris has considerable amount of volunteer experience serving as a coordinator for the Qualifiers Tournament, where he organized tee times, worked as a starter, rules official, player's assistant and player's caddy. He has further volunteer experience as a fire fighter, assistant instructor for children's putting clinics and as a standard bearer at the Verizon Heritage. His love of the Lowcountry has been driving him to return to the Beaufort area.

With a degree in professional golf management from the Professional Golfers Career College in Hilton Head, South Carolina, and experience with the JC Video Motion Analysis Software, Chris is an asset to our professional golfing team on Dataw. He is also experienced in re-gripping and re-shafting golf clubs. 

DIRECTOR OF GOLF MAINTENANCE

Brian Hollingsworth serves as the director of golf maintenance at the Dataw Island Club. His primary role is to direct the overall operation of the golf maintenance department through the preparation of budget and capital expenditures. Other responsibilities include facilitating member communications and public relations through articles written for club publications; actively participating in meetings, and speaking engagements for Dataw Island Golf Association (DIGA), Dataw Island Women’s Golf Association (DIWGA) and other club groups; forming long range plans for both of Dataw’s golf courses; ensuring environmental compliance with state and federal regulations; implementing the Audubon Cooperative Sanctuary Program to achieve and maintain certified status; maintaining high standards of environmental awareness and ethics; and coordinating, planning and scheduling golf course work weekly with the superintendents who are responsible for implementing those plans.

Hollingsworth is a Class A member of the Golf Course Superintendents Association of America, the Carolinas Golf Course Superintendents Association, the Lowcountry Golf Course Superintendents Association, the United States Golf Association (USGA) and a certified pesticide applicator in South Carolina. Prior to joining the staff at Dataw Island in 2005, Hollingsworth worked at The Landings Club in Savannah, Ga., as the assistant superintendent for the Palmetto Course and was promoted to golf course superintendent at the Oakridge Course in February 2002. In January 2004, he was promoted to a 36-hole superintendent and moved back to The Landings Club to oversee a $2.4 million renovation of the Plantation Course.

Hollingsworth is a graduate of Auburn University in Auburn, Ala., with a bachelor’s degree in agronomy and soils. He also holds a master's degree from Auburn in turf grass management. During college, he worked on Alabama’s Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail at Silver Lakes, learning equipment operation and basic turf grass management skills.