Upgrades at city-owned Hillandale Golf Course, Durham, feature an expanded driving range, an undulating putting green three times its former size and a new short-game area that opened July 31.
The First Call by Ward Clayton reported, “The first significant construction project at the course in more than 60 years focuses on SwingPals, a Durham-based inner-city schools initiative for middle schoolers launched in 2012 by Doug Hodges, an Englishman and former New York City commodities broker who had a passion for mentoring disadvantaged youth.”
SwingPals makes its home at Hillandale, carrying on a mission similar to the original 1997 First Tee concept: “servicing children who face adversity and have low resources, via the game of golf,” according to Hodges.
Expanding from 20 total tee stations to 50 artificial-turf bays doubles the capacity available to SwingPals daily. A $1 million standalone classroom building is planned, while Duke University is conducting a three-year study on the program’s impact, which could lead to even larger funding sources.
Motivated by the SwingPals momentum, the city appropriated nearly $1 million, and the course management company Amerazil Golf added approximately $200,000 to complete the practice-area work, which was handled by Craig Haltom Golf Design. Karl Kimball, golf director at Hillandale, said that by mid-August he had already surpassed the range traffic goal for that month.
An estimated 11,000 teenagers over 14 years have been influenced by participating in SwingPals’ in-school program and a smaller number “graduated” to visit Hillandale.
Among the most recent is Kamere Bishop, a junior at Southern Durham High School. Kamere isn’t a budding Tour pro, but a slight Black teenager whose five-year SwingPals program experience has been a life changer.
“I was able to really be able to connect to myself and with other people by just learning the simple fundamentals of being able to regulate your emotions, whether you get some bad news at home or you make a really bad shot on the golf course,” Bishop told CBS 17 in Raleigh at the grand opening. “SwingPals wasn’t meant just for golf. It was really more of just a good way to be able to find yourself.”
The course expansion aligns with a nationwide golf boom, Clayton reported. Hillandale has totaled a record 56,000-plus rounds annually in recent years. A National Golf Foundation report in July 2026 counted approximately 3,000 U.S. municipal courses —an all-time high.
The NGF also reported in June a record 7.7 million Asian, Black and Hispanic golfers nationwide, closely matching the demographics of Durham County (42% white, 33% Black and 15% Hispanic). The course also pulls students from Duke, UNC and N.C. Central, offering a younger demographic.