Cuscowilla on Lake Oconee | Private Golf Community Guide, Eatonton GA
Cuscowilla on Lake Oconee is a private, gated golf community of roughly 700 acres on the Putnam County side of the lake, just outside Eatonton, Georgia. It is built around the only Coore & Crenshaw golf course in Georgia, which opened in 1997, and it looks and feels like no other gated golf community on this lake.
Cuscowilla is a place I love. If it sat across the county line in Greene County, we would live there.
Gated, but Not Pretentious
Drive through the gate and the first thing you notice is how much of the land was left alone. Pines everywhere. Long fields of native grass running beside the golf holes, kept unmown on purpose and turning gold and rust by fall. Houses set back in the trees instead of lined up shoulder to shoulder down the fairways. It feels relaxed, a little wild, and very Georgia.
That is what sets Cuscowilla apart. Most gated golf communities in the South follow a formula: manicured from the curb to the clubhouse, with the biggest houses lined up along the most visible holes. Cuscowilla went the other way from the start, and it still does.
Then there are the fox squirrels. They are all over Cuscowilla, noticeably bigger than an ordinary gray squirrel, in coats that run from silver-gray to almost black. Fox squirrels like open pine woods with grass underneath, which is exactly what this place kept.
Come at Christmas if you can. The entrance is dressed for the season, and it is one of the most beautiful sights on the lake in December.
I’ll be honest about why we do not live here. Cuscowilla is in Putnam County, and our family needs to be in Greene County to stay eligible for Lake Oconee Academy. If not for that, this is the community I would choose for my family.
Where Cuscowilla Is Located on Lake Oconee
Cuscowilla sits on a broad peninsula on the Putnam County side of Lake Oconee, near the middle of the lake. The gated entrance is on Old Phoenix Road, a short drive off Highway 44 (Lake Oconee Parkway), which puts it minutes from the new Lake Oconee Publix and Ace Hardware, and a short drive over the Hwy 44 bridge to Lake Oconee Village. Atlanta and Augusta are each roughly 80 miles away.
Bill Coore once said the property sits on the lake “like a hand with its fingers sticking into the lake,” and from the water that is how it reads: one long shoreline broken into points and coves. On land, its neighbors are Martin Oaks, which backs onto the Eagle’s Rest section, and Misty River Landing, under a mile down Old Phoenix Road. By boat, the run along the shore from Chapel Springs and Lake Oconee Plantation toward Cuscowilla is one of the prettiest on this part of the lake.
Quick Facts
| County / city | Putnam County — Eatonton, GA 31024 |
| Streets | Ahaya Drive, Arbors Lane, Black Hawk Drive, Cape View Lane, Chehaw Court, Covey Drive, Currituck Lane, Cusata Trail, Cuscowilla Drive, Eagles Way, Echo Lane, Evergreen Way, Hawks Ridge, Indian Summer Path, Indian Trail, Iron Horse Drive, Iron Horse Lane, Island View Lane, Lanatchi Lane, Long Leaf Lane, McGehees Trail, McGillivray Lane, Meadow Woods Lane, Okoni Lane, Parkside Lane, Sapelo Pointe, Secoffee Drive, Spirit Run, Whitebird Place, Wildwood Drive and Wingspan Way |
| Getting there | Old Phoenix Road, a short drive off Highway 44 on the Putnam side |
| Gated | Yes |
| Size | Roughly 700 acres |
| Golf | 18 holes by Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw, opened 1997. Private |
| Club | Every owner belongs at least at the Lake Club level. Golf membership is the step up |
| Water access | Private frontage on some lots. Most owners use common docks or assigned boat slips |
| HOA | Property owners association, with dues on recent records mostly around $2,600 to $3,000 a year, separate from club dues |
| Schools | Putnam County School System |
The Cuscowilla Golf Course: Coore & Crenshaw’s Only Georgia Design
The course started with a chance meeting on an airplane. Pete Bailey Jr. had just bought the land when he met Ben Crenshaw on a flight, and that conversation became the Cuscowilla commission. Crenshaw and Bill Coore took it on as one of their first jobs after Sand Hills in Nebraska, the course that made their names, and Cuscowilla opened in 1997.
Their first piece of advice was about real estate, not golf: put most of the shoreline into homesites and run the course through the rolling high ground. So only two holes play along Lake Oconee. The 10th is a Cape-style hole with a downhill drive across an inlet, and the 11th is a short par 3 up to an elevated green. Everything else winds through the pines, past ponds and long native bluestem.
The bunkers were shaped by Jeff Bradley early in his career, with ragged, grassy edges and Georgia’s red clay sand in place of white. The greens have false fronts and steep slopes. From the back tees it plays 6,947 yards with a slope of 130. Around 2019 the greens were converted to Champion Bermuda and the greenside bunkers were renovated. It is a walker’s course, and members still walk it.
The honors have followed it for nearly thirty years. Golf Digest kept Cuscowilla on its list of America’s 100 Greatest Public Courses from 2003 through 2018, Golfweek named it the No. 1 residential course in Georgia in 2017 and 2018, and Golf Digest’s 2025–26 Best in State ranking puts it 14th in Georgia.
The History of Cuscowilla on Lake Oconee
Cuscowilla was announced in 1996 by William M. Harrington, Pete Bailey Jr. and Heinz Wilhelm-Nathe, on about 600 acres that later grew to roughly 700. Bailey already had a history on this lake. He developed Port Armor Golf Club, the first golf course on Lake Oconee, which is now The Landing course at Reynolds. After Cuscowilla he took his Coore & Crenshaw connection to Massachusetts and built Old Sandwich Golf Club. He died at his home on Lake Oconee in July 2025.
For its first twenty years Cuscowilla ran as much like a resort as a neighborhood. Guests stayed in golf cottages and lodge villas, there was a conference center for small meetings and weddings, and outside golfers could play the course with a caddie. In 2006 about a quarter of its 18,000 rounds a year came from resort guests, and the two weeks before the Masters alone brought in around one round in ten.
The owners were careful about what they built near the golf. When the first cluster of golf cottages was staked out, Bailey, Nathe and their partner Rolf Witt cut it from 22 units to 18 and gave up about $500,000 a year in revenue to keep the holes open. The original clubhouse was a low, earth-toned building in the spirit of Frank Lloyd Wright.
Prices back then give you a sense of how far the lake has come. In 2006 lake homes here were selling for around $2 million, some lots had climbed from $75,000 to $750,000, and a golf membership had gone from $12,000 to $20,000. The golf initiation today is $80,000.
From resort to private club
Cuscowilla is fully private today. A good many golf directories still call it semi-private, which has not been true for years. Tee times go through members, and a guest playing without a member needs the Director of Golf’s approval first. The Lake Oconee community living FAQs compare how the lake’s golf clubs handle outside play.
How Cuscowilla Got Its Name
Cuscowilla was the name of an 18th-century Seminole town in north Florida, near Paynes Prairie outside present-day Gainesville. Its leader was Ahaya, known to the English as Cowkeeper, who was born around 1710 on the Oconee River in central Georgia. That is the same river the Wallace Dam later turned into Lake Oconee.
His people, the Oconee, moved west to the Chattahoochee in the late 1720s, and around 1750 Ahaya led them south into Florida. The naturalist William Bartram visited their town of Cuscowilla in 1774 and wrote about it in his Travels.
The streets carry the same story. Ahaya Drive is named for him, Okoni Lane uses an old spelling of Oconee, and Secoffee Drive carries the name some early accounts gave the chief who led the move to Florida. The carved medallion on the entrance wall belongs to the same theme.
The Clubhouse and Restaurant at Cuscowilla
The clubhouse was completely redone in a multi-million-dollar project that wrapped up around 2020. Inside is a pub-style restaurant built around a horseshoe bar that seats 25, with booths and long community tables, and a covered patio looking out over the lake. New locker rooms were part of the same work.
The reviews since it reopened have been spectacular, and I can tell you firsthand why. Our office, Coldwell Banker Lake Oconee, has held its Christmas party in the Cuscowilla clubhouse several years running, and the food, the service and the room itself have been fantastic every time.
Cuscowilla Amenities
What comes with living inside the gate, depending on membership level:
- The 18-hole Coore & Crenshaw golf course, private and walkable, with personal golf carts allowed for a trail fee
- Driving range, practice facilities and the golf shop
- The clubhouse, with a pub-style restaurant, a 25-seat horseshoe bar and a covered patio facing the lake
- A lakeside swimming pool
- Tennis and pickleball courts
- A fitness center
- A community garden with more than 80 raised beds, kept by an active garden club
- A chapel
- A dog park
- A playground and basketball court
- Walking trails
- Common boat docks, with assigned slips in several sections
- The Pointe at Eagle’s Rest, a private lakefront park with docks, grills, fire pits and restrooms for Eagle’s Rest owners
- A full calendar of club social events
Cuscowilla Membership Costs for 2026
At Cuscowilla, owning property and belonging to the club go together. Every owner who does not join for golf is a Lake Club member, and golf is the step up. These are the club’s published figures for 2026.
| Membership | Initiation | Dues |
| Resident Golf | $80,000 | $471 a month under 29, $694 from 30 to 40, $860 at 41 and up |
| Resident Lake Club | $20,000 | $314 a month |
| Non-Resident Social | $30,000 | $240 a month |
| Non-Resident Golf | $80,000 | Waitlist only |
Lake Club and social members get the pool, tennis, pickleball, dining, the fitness center, the garden, the playground and the social calendar, plus four complimentary rounds of golf a year. Golf members pay a small walking or cart fee each round, and owners who bring their own cart pay a $2,000 trail fee.
A resident golf membership cannot be transferred to the next owner, and the club cannot recall it. When you sell, the membership does not go with the house. That is why so many Cuscowilla listings offer the buyer a credit toward the golf initiation, and those credits have run from $7,500 up to a fully paid membership on some new construction.
Non-resident golf memberships have been on a waitlist in recent years. Getting on it takes sponsorship from two current members, and the club can recall a non-resident membership. A non-resident golf member who later buys inside the gate pays $10,000 to convert to a permanent resident membership.
For comparison, the course at Harbor Club is semi-private and club membership there is optional, while Reynolds ties membership to the land in a structure of its own, laid out in the Reynolds Lake Oconee membership guide.
The Neighborhoods Inside Cuscowilla
Cuscowilla is one community made up of several distinct pockets, and they trade differently.
Eagle’s Rest, along Eagles Way, Sapelo Pointe and Wingspan Way, was being marketed in 2017 as the last new lakefront section. Unlike the pine groves in the rest of Cuscowilla, it is hardwood country, with lakefront lots carrying their own docks and interior lots with assigned slips. Its owners also have The Pointe at Eagle’s Rest, their own lakefront park.
The Woodlands at Cuscowilla on Spirit Run is one of the newer sections, fifteen golf course lots with pond and golf views and a small private park, released around 2022. Many of those lots came with a full golf membership included.
The Arbors cottages on Arbors Lane went up in the mid-2000s near the 12th fairway, built for owners who wanted the club without the upkeep. Closer to the clubhouse, the golf cottages and lodge villas along Cuscowilla Drive date from the resort years.
Parkside Lane and Long Leaf Lane hold many of the off-water homes, most of them with golf or wooded views. The private lakefront is spread along streets like Wildwood Drive, Okoni Lane, Cape View Lane, Covey Drive, Lanatchi Lane and Chehaw Court.
Sojourn at Cuscowilla, the condominium buildings on Indian Summer Path, sits inside the gate with its own association, lakeside pavilion and docks. It has its own guide.
What Homes in Cuscowilla Sell For
Cuscowilla holds every kind of lake property inside one gate, so a single average would tell you very little. Sales since 2022 break down like this:
- Private lakefront homes: about $1.4 million to the mid $4 millions
- Golf, lake-view and interior homes: mostly $600,000 to $1.6 million, with a few reaching the mid $2 millions
- Newer homes on Wingspan Way: roughly $575,000 to $925,000
- Arbors cottages and townhomes: roughly $530,000 to just over $1 million
- Sojourn condominiums on Indian Summer Path: about $425,000 to just under $1 million
- Interior and golf homesites: mostly $150,000 to $450,000, with the best of them reaching the $500,000s in 2025 and 2026
- Lakefront homesites: the mid six figures to about $1.25 million
Homes here were built from the late 1990s to today, and construction is still going on in the newer sections. Budget for club dues and the property owners association on top of the purchase price.
Compare Cuscowilla with the lake’s other gated golf communities, or see more Lake Oconee homes around Eatonton. 25 listings for sale now · listed from $449K to $2.6M · average 74 days on market $2,600,000 3.58 acres · Lakefront lot Lot 9 Covey Drive, Eatonton, GA 31024 Listing courtesy of Cuscowilla Real Estate, 706-484-0055 · #69927 $2,200,000 1.59 acres · Lakefront lot Lot 7 Covey Drive, Eatonton, GA 31024 Listing courtesy of Cuscowilla Real Estate, 706-484-0055 · #69925 $1,750,000 5 bd · 4 ba · 4,114 sq ft 203 Eagles Way, Eatonton, GA 31024 Listing courtesy of Atlanta Fine Homes Sotheby's International Realty, 404-237-5000 · #71050 $1,449,000 4 bd · 5 ba · 3,576 sq ft 101 Hawks Ridge, Eatonton, GA 31024 Listing courtesy of Berkshire Hathaway HS Lake Oconee, 706-621-4090 · #70604 $1,125,000 4 bd · 4 ba · 2,403 sq ft 176 Long Leaf Lane, Eatonton, GA 31024 Listing courtesy of Cuscowilla Real Estate, 706-484-0055 · #71941 $974,900 3 bd · 3 ba · 2,400 sq ft · Lakefront 112 (#309) Indian Summer Path, Eatonton, GA 31024 Listing courtesy of Cuscowilla Real Estate, 706-484-0055 · #71525 $749,999 5 bd · 5 ba · 2,772 sq ft 108 Wingspan Way, Eatonton, GA 31024 Listing courtesy of Kim and Lin Logan Real Estate, 706-454-1621 · #70965 $669,000 3 bd · 3 ba · 1,720 sq ft · Lakefront 120 (Unit 203) Indian Summer Path, Eatonton, GA 31024 Listing courtesy of Cuscowilla Real Estate, 706-484-0055 · #71472 $449,000 1.22 acres · Lot 151 Wildwood Drive Lot 26, Eatonton, GA 31024 Listing courtesy of Cuscowilla Real Estate, 706-484-0055 · #71668 $2,500,000 3.17 acres · Lakefront lot Lot 8 Covey Drive, Eatonton, GA 31024 Listing courtesy of Cuscowilla Real Estate, 706-484-0055 · #69926 $2,290,000 5 bd · 5 ba · 5,617 sq ft · Lakefront 124 Cape View Lane, Eatonton, GA 31024 Listing courtesy of Keller Williams Realty Lake Oconee, 706-485-0088 · #70652 $2,195,000 4 bd · 5 ba · 2,750 sq ft 124 Evergreen Way, Eatonton, GA 31024 Listing courtesy of Cuscowilla Real Estate, 706-484-0055 · #71785 $2,100,000 4 bd · 5 ba · 3,324 sq ft 141 Spirit Run, Eatonton, GA 31024 Listing courtesy of Atlanta Fine Homes Sotheby's International Realty, 404-237-5000 · #71287 $1,900,000 4 bd · 5 ba · 3,300 sq ft 102 Black Hawk Drive, Eatonton, GA 31024 Listing courtesy of Lake Homes Realty, 205-985-2991 · #71908 $1,700,000 4 bd · 5 ba · 3,324 sq ft 201 Eagles Way, Eatonton, GA 31024 Listing courtesy of Atlanta Fine Homes Sotheby's International Realty, 404-237-5000 · #71295 $1,625,000 4 bd · 4 ba · 3,561 sq ft 209 Eagles Way, Eatonton, GA 31024 Listing courtesy of Atlanta Fine Homes Sotheby's International Realty, 404-237-5000 · #71506 $1,350,000 4 bd · 4 ba · 3,706 sq ft 133 Arbors Lane, Eatonton, GA 31024 Listing courtesy of Kim and Lin Logan Real Estate, 706-454-1621 · #71573 $899,000 3 bd · 3 ba · 3,541 sq ft 148 Parkside Lane, Eatonton, GA 31024 Listing courtesy of Dorsey Alston, REALTORS, 404-352-2010 · #71394 $899,000 3 bd · 3 ba · 2,257 sq ft 104 Indian Summer Path, Eatonton, GA 31024 Listing courtesy of Cuscowilla Real Estate, 706-484-0055 · #71435 $850,000 3 bd · 3 ba · 2,060 sq ft · Lakefront 120 (#302) Indian Summer Path, Eatonton, GA 31024 Listing courtesy of Cuscowilla Real Estate, 706-484-0055 · #70466 $799,000 4 bd · 4 ba · 3,250 sq ft 100 Indian Trail, Eatonton, GA 31024 Listing courtesy of Cuscowilla Real Estate, 706-484-0055 · #70503 $775,000 3 bd · 3 ba · 2,284 sq ft 126 Secoffee Drive, Eatonton, GA 31024 Listing courtesy of Luxury Lake Oconee, 706-453-9243 · #71777 $740,000 3 bd · 3 ba · 2,196 sq ft · Lakefront 116 (#311) Indian Summer Path, Eatonton, GA 31024 Listing courtesy of Cuscowilla Real Estate, 706-484-0055 · #71031 $689,000 3 bd · 3 ba · 1,849 sq ft 115 Secoffee Drive, Eatonton, GA 31024 Listing courtesy of Cuscowilla Real Estate, 706-484-0055 · #71818 $535,000 0.61 acres · Lot 101 Sapelo Pointe Lot 46, Eatonton, GA 31024 Listing courtesy of Cuscowilla Real Estate, 706-484-0055 · #70840 Non-commercial use only. Listing data © 2026 Lake Country Board of REALTORS® MLS. Deemed reliable but not guaranteed.
Cuscowilla Homes for Sale
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Frequently Asked Questions About Cuscowilla on Lake Oconee
Where is Cuscowilla on Lake Oconee?
Cuscowilla is on the Putnam County side of Lake Oconee near Eatonton, Georgia. The gated entrance is on Old Phoenix Road, a short drive off Highway 44, minutes from the new Lake Oconee Publix and a short drive over the bridge to Lake Oconee Village.
Is Cuscowilla a private golf club?
Yes. Cuscowilla is fully private, even though many golf directories still list it as semi-private from its resort years. Tee times go through members, and guests need a member with them or the Director of Golf’s approval.
Do you have to join the club to own a home in Cuscowilla?
Yes, at some level. Every owner who does not join for golf is a Lake Club member, with a $20,000 initiation and $314 a month in 2026. Golf membership is optional on top of that.
How much does it cost to join Cuscowilla?
In 2026 a resident golf membership costs $80,000 to join, with monthly dues of $471 to $860 depending on age. The Lake Club is $20,000 to join and $314 a month. Non-resident golf memberships are currently on a waitlist.
Who designed the golf course at Cuscowilla?
Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw designed Cuscowilla, and it opened in 1997. It was one of their first courses after Sand Hills in Nebraska, and it is the only Coore & Crenshaw course in Georgia.
Is Cuscowilla part of Reynolds Lake Oconee?
No. Cuscowilla is a separate gated community with its own club, on the Putnam County side of the lake. Some golf publications have placed it at Reynolds by mistake. The two have different owners, different memberships and different gates.
What does the name Cuscowilla mean?
Cuscowilla was an 18th-century Seminole town in north Florida led by Ahaya, called Cowkeeper, who was born among the Oconee people on the Oconee River in Georgia. Several of the community’s street names come from the same history.
Does Cuscowilla have boat slips?
Yes. Several sections have common docks with assigned slips, Eagle’s Rest owners have a private lakefront park with docks, and some lakefront lots have private docks. Check exactly which applies before you buy, because listings do not always say clearly.
What school district is Cuscowilla in?
Cuscowilla is in the Putnam County School System. It is not eligible for Lake Oconee Academy, the public charter school in Greene County, because the community sits in Putnam County.
Does a golf membership transfer when you sell a Cuscowilla home?
No. Resident golf memberships at Cuscowilla are non-transferable, so the buyer joins on their own. Many sellers offer a credit toward the buyer’s initiation fee instead, and that credit belongs in any pricing conversation.
How do you figure out what a Cuscowilla home is worth?
Cuscowilla most closely comps with properties in Great Waters, its larger neighbor to the south. Minus the golf, Camp Buckhead, which is being developed on the lake on the deep south side of Morgan County, will also likely become a comparable group of homes. If you currently own or are looking to buy, contact Margie Sorrell for a valuation on any home inside Cuscowilla on Lake Oconee.
Interested in Cuscowilla on Lake Oconee?
Whether you are deciding between golf and the Lake Club, between Cuscowilla and Harbor Club, or between a cottage near the clubhouse and a lot on the water, I can help you sort it out. Write or give me a call and I will tell you what is available and what it is actually worth.
You can also read the wider Lake Oconee gated golf communities guide or browse every community in the Lake Oconee neighborhood guides.
Last updated October 2026.
Listing information on this page is provided by the Lake Country Board of REALTORS® MLS. All information in the listing data is from sources deemed to be accurate but is not warranted. Buyers and sellers are advised to personally verify all information given on this listing as some may be estimated. Neither brokers nor sellers are responsible for inaccuracies in this information. The listing broker’s offer of compensation is made only to participants of the LCBR MLS.