It’s hard to imagine a more idyllic setting for golf than the Hilton Head Island area of South Carolina, with its Lowcountry terrain and seaside backdrop that combine to create the serene and the bucolic that – at times of the year – can become bustling and vibrant.
Hilton Head and its surrounding mainland and fellow islands have dozens of courses, with tracks designed by the likes of Pete Dye, Robert Trent Jones Sr., Jack Nicklaus, Gary Player, Arthur Hills, Davis Love III, Bob Cupp, Arnold Palmer, and George Cobb.
There are traditional parkland courses and oceanfront links and some combination of those styles all served up in Hilton Head with a side of Southern hospitality. There’s also an average of 215 days of sunny weather per year to be able to play in all four seasons so it’s all but a given that Hilton Head Island has been voted the No. 10 golf destination in the world by Golf Digest readers.
It seems like almost everyone here plays golf and has an opinion about the best courses and the ins and outs of making the most of your time on the island and in the region.
So, we asked around and came up with this primer – the most important thing to remember is that every course on this list offers golfers something that’s great about golf in Hilton Head and each allows at least some amount of public play.
These three resorts and communities boast 10 courses, and that’s not even half the facilities in the region. It’s not inclusive, but these snapshots will certainly give you a great start at building your golf stay-and-play here.
(top) Atlantic Dunes; (above) Harbour Town
Three times the fun at Sea Pines Resort
Any list of great courses in Hilton Head must begin with the three tracks at the Sea Pines Resort, the home of the incomparable Harbour Town Golf Links as well as Atlantic Dunes GC and Heron Point.
Harbour Town GL is the home of the RBC Heritage on the PGA Tour and is one of America’s greatest courses, a demanding test on every shot and putt designed to be tough by Dye. It’s a challenge to the mind as well as the golf swing and ends with its green in the show of the iconic red- and white-striped lighthouse that’s come to symbolize golf on Hilton Head Island. 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.
Heron Point, reworked by Dye on the bones of the Sea March Course routed by Cobb and opened in 1963 as one of the area’s first tracks, now has a layout that encourages strategic shot selections on dramatic fairways and into tight targets and small greens. Heron Point is cleverly set up to welcome all golfers with seven sets of tees on each hole (including orange tees for juniors).
Love III’s design at Atlantic Dunes is a worthy runner-up at Sea Pines and 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. Atlantic Dunes is more spacious than the original with wider, more scenic corridors, smaller water hazards, and larger, more welcoming greens and 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.
Heron Point
Incredible variety with the Heritage Golf Group
The Heritage Golf Group in Hilton Head Island features a trio of golf course collections that offer a wonderful mix of golf courses at high-value level pricing that can cater to any golf trip to this golf mecca.
Heritage Golf Group does not feature one main lodging option, but that tends to work as a positive for golf groups booking in this area as their team can book at a multitude of hotels and vacation home rentals giving golfers who book with them a myriad of options that can fit any budget.
The group’s golf collection includes Port Royal Golf & Racquet Club’s Barony Course (designed by Cobb) and Robber’s Row (fashioned by Cobb and Willard Byrd, redesigned by Dye in 1994); the 27-hole Shipyard Golf Club (with the Galleon and Clipper nines both designed by Cobb, and the Brigantine nine routed by Cobb and Byrd); and Oyster Reef Golf Club, a Rees Jones design with incredible views and an unforgettable design. Oyster Reef GC opened in 1982 and was immediately recognized as one of the “Top 25 new courses in America.” It’s been carved out of 190 acres of wonderful and varied terrain and winds around lagoons, lush vegetation, and scenic views of the inlet to Port Royal Sound.
Oyster Reef
Palmetto Dunes Oceanfront Resort has the beach
Palmetto Dunes Oceanfront Resort is located at the heart of Hilton Head Island on its eastern shore and offers guests three miles of Atlantic Ocean beachfront that provide the perfect venue for a trio of world-class golf courses, each of which have been ranked in the top-10 in the area.
An oceanfront classic, the Robert Trent Jones Sr. Course was the first in Palmetto Dunes, and it remains one of the resort’s most popular courses with visitors and residents alike. The track offers mostly friendly fairways through a routing that brings a unique winding lagoon system into play on 11 of the 18 holes. The Jones Course has large putting surfaces that ask for accurate approach shots, and its signature hole is the par-5 10th, which plays into the ocean breezes and provides a breathtaking view of the Atlantic.
Palmetto Dunes’ second course was designed by George Fazio and is considered one of the most difficult on the Island and a challenge to even accomplished golfers. It plays as a par-70 and features a series of long par-4s guarded by bunkers and water hazards. At just under 7,000 yards from the tips, the tight fairways and relatively small greens help to protect the course from low scores.
The Arthur Hills Course at Palmetto Dunes is a splendid combination of the resort’s other two tracks. Arthur Hills Course at Palmetto Dunes Resort is one of the most distinctive layouts in the area. The site features lines of natural dunes and stands of Palmettos, allowing for a constantly rolling layout with some of the most noted elevation changes in the area. The course also has a unique seaside character, with scarcely any rough and fairway bunkers notably absent. Uneven lies and the ever-present ocean breezes add to the challenge, as do the lagoons that come into play on many holes.
Palmetto Dunes: Robert Trent Jones Course
So many more courses and memories to be made
As explained above, there are many more courses to play on Hilton Head Island and the surrounding area, and some of those will be featured here in the future.
Hilton Head Plantation features a huge residential community on the north end of the Island and includes a mixture of semi-private golf courses: Dolphin Head Golf Club (designed by Player), and Bear Creek Golf Club, and The Country Club of Hilton Head, all routed by Rees Jones.
Dolphin Head GC was the first course constructed in Hilton Head Plantation in 1974. It boasts two very distinctive nine holes; the front nine, meandering through tall trees with Player’s signature bunkers and marshland coming into play, is shorter and puts a premium on hitting fairways and greens. The back nine sports a much different look with open spaces and tall, old growth trees, making the course one of the most unique tests of golf in the Lowcountry.
In 1980, Bear Creek GC debuted as an exclusive private club that has since morphed into a member-for-a-day facility, but still offers the perks of exclusivity. It was Rees Jones’ first solo design and has tight, bunkered fairways that weave through Hilton Head Plantation’s pines and lagoons on the west side of the Island. Unlike many modern courses, it was designed with walking in mind and is a great place to get a little pampering and personalized attention.
The Country Club of Hilton Head opened in 1985 and features some of the highest elevations on the Island. Each hole here is distinct and the track provides many opportunities for players to test their gamut of skill. The tests include 13 holes with doglegs and water on virtually every hole as well as boldly contoured fairways, pot bunkers and grass hollows.
Barony Course at Port Royal