Copper Mill

Location: Zachary, LA
Scope: New Course/Residential Land Planning

After being named by Golf Digest as the “Best New Affordable Public Course in America” in the January 2005 issue, Copper Mill was also named by Golf Digest as “Louisiana’s #2 Course Overall” in Golf Digest’s Bi-Annual rankings of best courses in America!  As recently as January of 2025, the course was named #11 in Golf Pass’s list of “Top 25 Public Course Layouts in America.”

Nathan designed Copper Mill Golf Club while he was the Senior Design Associate at another firm. Copper Mill is a championship caliber course located in the City of Zachary, a rapidly growing community just 15 minutes north of downtown Baton Rouge. It would prove to be Nathan’s final collaboration with his previous employer before “going solo” and co-founding Watermark Golf. The combination of links-like shot making design features and contemporary golf course conditioning at Copper Mill makes this course unlike any other in Louisiana. Multiple tees on each hole make the course fair and challenging for a wide range of players from high handicappers to those brave enough to test the par-5 12th hole from the championship tees–where it measures 650+ yards!

The inclusion of native areas and a number of holes that play around and over pockets of protected wetlands within the property add to the overall theme of the course–including the “ruins” Nathan designed that were built on the par-4 17th hole. The unique combination of three par-3’s, three par-4’s and three par-5’s on both nines makes Copper Mill a memorable golfing experience, as evidenced by Golf Digest’s selection of the course as the “Best New Affordable Public Course in America!”

In 2023, Nathan returned to Copper Mill to oversee the renovation and restoration of the greens and will oversee a bunker renovation in 2025. “When we originally designed the course,” Crace says. “We had large, bold bunkers to fit the scale of the property.  But has time has passed, we are seeing Copper Mill trend–as so many other courses have–to smaller, more thoughful bunkering in a style that feels intimate and connected to the golfers where strategy and fun are the watchwords of the day.”

Nathan has used the Copper Mill project as a case study for the “Design of the Golf Environment” class at Mississippi State University, where he serves as a guest lecturer to students from the Professional Golf Management, Turfgrass and Agronomy, and Landscape Architecture programs.

In addition to the design of the course, Nathan also provided residential land planning services for the developer at Copper Mill–developing the plan for the establishment of home sites and other ancillary areas within the development. His administration of the land planning ensured quality home sites without jeopardizing the integrity of the golf course.