If you are like most golfers, seeing photos and broadcasts of the red and white-striped lighthouse that lords over the 18th green at the Harbour Town Golf Links at The Sea Pines Resort in South Carolina is a harbinger of spring.
That lighthouse is one of the most photographed sights at The Sea Pines Resort and an iconic symbol of Hilton Head Island. It also serves as the backdrop for the signature par-4 closing hole for the venerable golf course that each year since 1969 has hosted the RBC Classic on the PGA Tour the week after The Masters tournament.
Golfers, tour pros and high handicappers alike, find the best strategy for success on the demanding hole is to aim their tee shot directly at the lighthouse in the background.
Spanning the southern third of Hilton Head Island, and located along 5,000 oceanfront acres, The Sea Pines Resort has been a quiet retreat for more than 60 years.
While Harbour Town Golf Links is the alpha course of the resort, it’s actually one of the three award-winning tracks at Sea Pines Resort, along with Heron Point and Atlantic Dunes, both of which are challenging and a joy to play in their own right.
The courses are currently ranked as the top three “Best Courses You Can Play” on Hilton Head Island by Golfweek magazine. All three courses have achieved designation as Certified Audubon Cooperative Sanctuaries.
Let’s take a look at the trio at The Sea Pines Resort, one of the country’s best places to play golf and to get away from it all for a few days.
Harbour Town Golf Links entices with demanding routing and small, devilish greens
Established in 1969, the resort’s most famous course remains the hands-down No. 1 golf attraction on Hilton Head Island.
As the traditional venue for South Carolina’s only PGA Tour event, Harbour Town Golf Links has an illustrious history that is largely responsible for Hilton Head’s golf reputation. Since Arnold Palmer’s triumph in the inaugural event in 1969, the greatest names in the game have walked the fairways of this one-of-a-kind layout.
Created by course architect Pete Dye, with consulting support from Jack Nicklaus, Harbour Town Golf Links places a premium on finesse, imagination, and shotmaking. Its diverse collection of par-3s is among the finest in the world, while the 18th hole that runs adjacent to the Calibogue Sound all the way down its left side, is one of golf’s most recognizable finishes.
Still challenging the world’s best, as well as everyone else with five sets of tees, Harbour Town Golf Links plays as a par-71 and 7,099 yards from the back tees. The course has continued to evolve and stay up to date as the game has changed over the years. It is always demanding because of the need to shape shots with the occasional intrusion of trees into play. Success here is determined by controlling your shot’s trajectory, by moving the ball both ways as required and keen approach shots into small, demanding putting surfaces.
Recent enhancements include the planting of new turfgrasses – Celebration Bermuda for the fairways, TifEagle Bermuda for the greens – and a modernized irrigation system so the course is always in superb condition.
The course is tight and a true test of your skill, and it is one of the most demanding courses you’ll play in terms of accuracy and needing to shape the ball.
Harbour Town’s final six holes elevate the course and finish things on an impressive note. Walking off the course the first thing that’s liable to hit you is a feeling that you left a few strokes out there because of the little things. That is the hallmark of a great and fun round, and you’ll be chomping at the bit to get back out and play it again.
Heron Point is a happy marriage of charm and challenge
Dye also redesigned Heron Point, which originally opened in 1963 as the Sea Marsh Course as routed by George Cobb but was later refashioned by Dye to encourage strategic shot selections on dramatic fairways and into tight targets and small greens.
The putting surfaces here, while larger on the whole than at Harbour Town, are still small by resort course standards and are protected by Dye’s signature mounds and swales. The fairways place a premium on your tee shot while being much more open and generally wider than what you face at Harbour Town.
Like many of Dye’s courses, the visual intimidation experienced on the tee is quickly replaced with a strategic analysis and decision on the approach shot. The sight lines and intrigue that Dye created with angles and hazards are all the more impressive given that the course is on perhaps the flattest piece of dry land on Hilton Head Island.
There’s also a lot of movement in the fairways, unlike Harbour Town, which is pretty well flat and right in front of you. Similarly, there’s a lot of movement around the putting surfaces, putting a real emphasis on the short game at Heron Point.
The view from the tee of the par-3 16th is pure intimidation. Although there is no water on this hole, it plays at 233 yards from the back tee and there are mounds and sand guarding just about every angle.
The par-4 18th is a familiar site on Dye-designed courses. Students of the architect note that he usually includes water down the left side of his finishing holes, and Heron Point’s closer is no different. Complicating the tee shot is a large bunker and grassy mounds to the right of the tee shot landing area. There’s nowhere safe but the fairway here.
There are four holes on Heron Point where water guards the greens, alternating wood and grass walls create bulkheads that visually dramatize the peril. A mixture of grasses, sand, mulch, and limestone surfaces offer a vivid palette of stunning colors.
A modern masterpiece from one of golf’s true geniuses, Heron Point can play as long as 7,035 yards from the back tees but is cleverly set up to welcome all golfers with seven sets of tees on each hole including a family friendly set for young junior golfers.
Heron Point is an all-around great experience. It’s a nice complement to Harbour Town Golf Links, adding another highly acclaimed Dye classic to the lineup at the resort.
Heron Point
Atlantic Dunes shows Love III’s prowess and skill as designer
The “newest” course at The Sea Pines Resort is actually its oldest. Atlantic Dunes is a complete reconstruction of the resort’s historic Ocean Course, the first layout built on Hilton Head Island in 1961 by the aforementioned Cobb.
A total makeover was marshaled by Davis Love III and his brother Mark Love that debuted in October 2016 retraces the original routing while giving it a new look, new feel, and new challenge.
Davis Love is a five-time winner of the PGA Tour event at Harbour Town, and the Love brothers decided to keep Cobb’s routing footprint but rebuilt every hole at Atlantic Dunes to accommodate modern shot values. Just as important and appealing was protecting and enhancing the course’s seaside setting, which they accomplished by incorporating coquina shells, seaside grasses, the surrounding beachfront, as well as a bounty of native pines and oaks to line the fairways.
The “new” course, which plays at 7,065 yards and is a par-72, is more spacious than the original with wider, more scenic corridors, smaller water hazards, and larger, more welcoming greens.
Atlantic Dunes also benefits both visually and strategically from the restoration of natural sand dunes, as well as the creation of new dunes that blend seamlessly into the design.
Love and his team wanted to bring an ocean feel back to the course and they’ve succeeded. You only see the Atlantic once, but the course has a style and look that lets you know you are at the beach.
On the par-3 15th, one of only two oceanside holes in all of Hilton Head, the Love brothers enhanced the challenge, raising both the tee and the green, making the hole more visually appealing for all golfers.
Atlantic Dunes is a wonderful mixture of seaside and Lowcountry forest golf. Much of the course is routed just inland in the quiet whispers of native pines.
The track has received the prestigious honor of being named the National Golf Course Owners Association “Course of the Year” in 2017. Atlantic Dunes produces a well-balanced round that’s challenging yet fun to play.
Atlantic Dunes
Recommendation
On an island where golf rules the roost, this classic yet modernized Hilton Head golf resort is a king among many princes. Play all three courses for a truly unique and unforgettable golf experience.
From an accommodation standpoint, Sea Pines Resort offers a multitude of options including the newer Inn & Club at Harbour Town which features a boutique feel with 60 rooms and is only a stone’s throw away from the newly renovated clubhouse at Harbour Town. It exudes Southern charm and exceptional service, so if there are rooms available here try and make this your home during your stay.
In addition to the luxurious Inn & Club at Harbour Town, Sea Pines Resort also has a myriad of options in all shapes and sizes with their rental homes and villas. Perfect for golf groups, there are over 400 options available for you here which is great to help you find the right stay for your budget.
There’s a reason why this resort is a stalwart on the PGA Tour, and we hope you enjoy your trip to this exceptional property.