This photo provided by DeWees Real Estate Group shows the former Lake Murray Golf Center at 2032 Old Hilton Road in Chapin.
DeWees Real Estate Group/Provided
CHAPIN — Since it closed nearly four years ago, restaurateur Ben Hooker, 42, said he has driven past the shuttered Lake Murray Golf Center while visiting his mother and watched it become an “eyesore.”
He described it as an “overgrown jungle that had remnants of something that used to be a golf course.”
As of this week, though, Hooker has begun clearing the 33-acre site as its new owner, following a $1.9 million purchase of the property at 2032 Old Hilton Road, according to DeWees Real Estate Group, which represented the sellers. The Chapin native, who owns BOHO Pizza and Brew and Granny & Papaw’s Southern Kitchen & BBQ in Lexington, bought the property from a family trust that inherited it after the previous owners died, the firm said.
The sellers appreciated Hooker as a local buyer with “a very well-known, good reputation throughout this community,” said Sam DeWees, president of DeWees Real Estate Group.
Hooker said he plans to reopen the driving range and a small building, which he called “the shack,” to serve food and drinks by October. A second phase in early 2026 would include reopening a short, 9-hole par-3 course and an 18-hole miniature golf course, with the overall project wrapping up by the end of the year with a 10,000-square-foot restaurant and live music venue.
The upcoming facility will be a family-friendly destination with “something for everyone to do,” Hooker said.
“They’re going to come out here, and Mom can go play putt-putt with the kids while Dad plays par-3,” Hooker said. “And then when they’re done, they can come and enjoy food, listen to live music. There’s going to be a playground outside for the kids and there’s all kinds of different elements that kind of pleases the whole family.”