Columbus State starts $3.2 million fundraising campaign for new golf clubhouse

Columbus State University hosted a ceremonial groundbreaking Thursday to publicly launch a $3.2 million fundraising campaign for a new clubhouse at CSU’s Key Golf Studio.

The initiative, led by alumni golfers and community leaders, aims to give CSU student athletes “an experience unrivaled by any other golf program in our conference and beyond,” the news release says.

“We’re really looking forward to what it will do for not only the department but for the community, for the campus as a whole, as we look to retain the best and brightest and recruit the best and brightest here to CSU,” CSU athletics director Justin Hay told the gathering.

Hay said this is the first major facility project for CSU athletics since 2016 — but it won’t be the last.

“They say, if you don’t have cranes on campus, you’re falling behind in athletics,” he said, “so we look forward to doing a lot of this in the next few years.”

The 6,447-square-foot clubhouse addition will serve the men’s and women’s golf programs. It will feature a putting lab, a team room, a covered terrace, a club repair room with tools for players to monitor and adjust club specifications, and two hitting bays. One bay will have a Foresight Golf Simulator to provide ball and club data, plus dozens of virtual golf courses to play.

The current clubhouse will be retrofitted and become a new gym.

Lee McCoy, CSU’s golf director and men’s golf head coach, said the new clubhouse will improve players’ skills and build a stronger sense of community.

“I’ve seen kids come and chip and putt and hit balls and then leave to go back to their apartments and study,” McCoy said, “and this is going to give them a home away from home.”

CSU women’s golf head coach Kristin Culpepper, who played for the Cougars, said this project represents the standards expected of student athletes and the bond between CSU and the Columbus community.

“The Key Golf Studio expansion is a symbol of that connection,” Culpepper said, “It brings our teams and our community even closer together. It tells our student athletes that they are supported, they’re valued and believed in — and not just by coaches and teammates but by an entire community invested in their success.”

A CSU brochure detailing the project says it “will enhance the studio while preserving the Key family’s legacy of support.” Potential donors have several levels of donations available, including naming rights for the areas of the clubhouse. Donations for the new clubhouse can be made through the CSU Foundation.

The 13-acre Key Golf Studio, 3434 University Ave., opened in 2015. It’s named for the late James W. “Billy” Key, a 2001 CSU Athletics Hall of Fame inductee and founding member of the CSU Athletic Fund.

Will White, chairman of the CSU Foundation Board of Trustees, said Key and other well-known golfers from Columbus have brought positive attention to the city and made fundraising easier.

“I just think the ability for us to pull this together and to be able to raise the necessary funds for this is part of that tradition,” White said. “People want to be part of it. They know about golf. They know Columbus all around the state, even the South, and know the good golfers that we've produced.”

During the past 50 years, the CSU golf program has won seven Peach Belt Conference men’s tournament championships, one Peach Belt Conference women’s tournament championship, 34 NCAA Division II men’s national championship appearances, one NCAA Division II women’s national championship appearance, six NCAA Division II men’s national championships and 67 men’s individual All-America honors.

“This new golf studio was not the number one priority for me when it came to facilities when I first got here, but it became a number one priority because of the engagement of this project and what’s going on in our golf program, how it got this community excited,” said CSU president Stuart Rayfield.

Rayfield said Thursday’s ceremony also is a celebration of the strong relationships McCoy and Culpepper have built with the community.

“Many of you wouldn’t be sitting here today if it wasn’t for just our golf program,” she said, “You are donating your time, your efforts, your energy, giving your support to our golf teams in ways that we have not seen in a very long time.”

This story was originally published January 9, 2026 at 9:25 AM.