When Bobby Jones Links earlier month signed on to manage the golf and food and beverage operations at Mount Vintage Golf Club in North Augusta, S.C., the agreement was met with great fanfare from the Club’s board of directors and the community at large. That’s something that isn’t particularly new to BJL, but it’s always a point of pride and brand equity.
“It’s ‘Bobby Jones’ Links,’’ Steve Willy, the company’s founding partner and COO, told me. “It’s that name. It does add credibility. We have to live up to that credibility.’’
Doing business as Bobby Jones Links since December of 2018 – and previous to that as Affinity Golf Partners and Mosaic Clubs and Resorts – the company has spent the past 26 years gaining the credibility that has made it one of the golf industry’s top management companies. Bobby Jones Links supports 34 properties across 13 states and is currently assisting with $60 million in new golf course and clubhouse construction.
The company manages the Bobby Jones Golf Course in Atlanta, which won the National Golf Course Owners Association’s 2025 Jemsek National Golf Course of the Year Award. In addition, it recently helped redevelop and now manages The Patch Golf Course in Augusta, GA., which was redesigned by Tom Fazio, Beau Welling, and Tiger Woods and serves as Augusta’s home for growing the game and providing affordable golf.
BJL will reopen the Delray Beach (FL) Golf Club, a Sanford Ferris Golf Course Design renovation of an 18-hole layout that includes nine holes originally designed by Donald Ross in 1926. Dick Wilson added an additional nine in 1950.
“It’s going to be beautiful,’’ Willy said.
Just as the renovated Delray Beach Golf Club will be a game-changer for public golf in Palm Beach County, licensing the Bobby Jones name, Willy said, was a game-changer for the Alpharetta, GA.-based company.
“The Bobby Jones name means a lot. It was an opportunity for us to reset – almost reimagine – what we could be. We knew there was a great opportunity to potentially grow. And that did happen. We went from 14 clubs in 2000 to now the mid-30s.
“We’ve had a lot of growth the past eight years, but it’s been important for us to not grow just for growth’s sake. We want to grow the right way.’’
For Willy, a key to growing the “right way’’ means taking in the clubs that fit the BJL culture and taking care of the clubs already in the fold.
“Never lose sight of the clubs and the relationships you have,’’ Willy said. “What we try to bring (to a property) is financial sustainability -with strong budgets -making sure we are providing some purchasing power. And it’s our job to staff the clubs. If someone leaves, we have to find the right people to work in those positions.
“Maybe 20 years ago or more, when you heard about a management company, you might think it is just going to slash everything and the course is going to go down. It’s really just the opposite. We want that asset – or that facility – to be strong and be very good. Being invested in the club is so important.’’
