Top 50 courses in South Carolina offer a wide variety of stunning holes
The football coach called his team’s strength “deep depth,” his way of explaining that quality players filled back-up roles and injuries could be absorbed without losing production.
The same description — deep depth — fits perfectly in considering golf courses in the Palmetto State, a fact emphasized again by the release of the South Carolina Golf Course Rating Panel’s Top 50 courses — public and private — in the state.
“There are so many wonderful courses that you’re often splitting hairs in ranking them,” said Mike Whitaker, the rating panel’s executive director. “There are so many that some outstanding courses do not make our Top 50 list.”
A couple of courses familiar to golfers around the world — Kiawah Island Resort’s Ocean Course and Sea Pines Resort’s Harbour Town Golf Links on Hilton Head Island — again head the list of the Palmetto State’s finest. The Ocean Course has provided the stage for the Ryder Cup and PGA Championship, and Harbour Town will welcome the pros for the PGA Tour’s RBC Heritage for the 50th straight year next month.
Those jewels merely represent the tip of the iceberg. The state offers the old — Palmetto Golf Club in Aiken dates to 1892 — to the recently refurbished Sea Pines’ layout now dubbed Atlantic Dunes by Davis Love.
Architects include most of the game’s finest — Alister MacKenzie, Donald Ross, Seth Raynor and Walter Travis from older days to a more modern roster that includes Robert Trent Jones Sr., Pete Dye, Tom Fazio, Jack Nicklaus, Arnold Palmer, George Cobb, Mike Strantz and Rees Jones.
The courses come in all sizes. The Ocean Course (Pete Dye) could be stretched to almost 8,000 yards and the Walter Travis-Donald Ross creation that became Camden Country Club tops out at about 6,400 yards, yet both provide worthy — although different — tests.
Restorations to regain the designer’s original are more the rule than the exception. For example, Kris Spence brought Ross’ work to life by reworking Camden CC in 2012, and pro Matt McCarley says, “The result is excellent; we have Ross’ features with today’s technology.” Or, as Happ Lathrop, executive director emeritus of the South Carolina Golf Association, likes to say, “Camden is the longest 6,400 yards golfers will ever play.”
Ben Hogan used Palmetto to tune up for the Masters each year and once called Palmetto’s third through fifth holes the toughest consecutive par-4s he had played. Bobby Jones lauded Palmetto’s par-3 seventh. Gene Sarazen labeled Camden’s fifth at 320 yards one of the best par-4s in the world. Carolinas Golf Association official Ray Novicki once joked that Camden’s fifth is “the world’s shortest par-5,” referring to the most common score on the hole.
Robert Trent Jones Sr. gave the golf world Waterloo, the par-5 13th around a lake at the Dunes Golf and Beach Club in Myrtle Beach, and Dye provided a spectacular finishing hole at Harbour Town along Calibogue Sound. Then, there is Tom Fazio’s challenging 18th at Wachsaw Plantation, Dye’s devilish 17th at the Ocean Course and . . . the list goes on and on.
And, can any course anywhere match this rarity: Camden CC, built in 1922, has a live railroad line running through the course. Sixteen holes are on one side of the track and two on the other. The oddity resulted from the course’s being built adjacent to a hotel and guests arrived by train.
That shows that just about anything can be found on the state’s golf courses. The depth is deep.
Chip shots
The annual Columbia Golf Ball, a fund-raiser to support the South Carolina Junior Golf Foundation, is set for Thursday at the State Fairgrounds. Go online to www.scgolf.org for details and ticket information. . . . Bronson Myers (Columbia) won the boys’ title for the second straight year, and Savannah Hylton (Hilton Head Island) led the girls in the Papa Ed Caddie Classic at the Members Club’s WildeWood Course. . . . Justin Moore won the World Long Drive’s East Coast Classic at Par Tee Golf Center in West Columbia. His winning blast covered 419 yards and edged Eddie Hernandes by nine yards. . . . Former Spring Valley High and Clemson University star Jonathan Byrd received a sponsor’s exemption to play in the RBC Heritage.
Top 50 courses
The South Carolina Golf Course Rating Panel's top courses. More information can be found on the organization’s website www.scgolfpanel.org.
1. Ocean Course, Kiawah Island
2. Harbour Town GL, Hilton Head Island
3. May River GC, Palmetto Bluff
4. Sage Valley GC, Graniteville
5. Greenville CC Chanticleer Course
6. Yeamans Hall Club, Hanahan
7. Secession GC, Beaufort
8. Cassique, Kiawah Island
9. Dunes Golf and Beach Club, Myrtle Beach
10. Long Cove Club. Hilton Head Island
11. Palmetto GC, Aiken
12. Caledonia Golf and Fish Club, Pawleys Island
13. Cherokee Plantation GC, Yamasee
14. Cliffs at Keowee Vineyards, Sunset
15. Colleton River Nicklaus Course, Bluffton
16. River Course, Kiawah Island
17. Chechessee Creek Club, Okatie
18. CC of Charleston
19. Bulls Bay GC, Awendaw
20. Old Tabby Links, Spring Island
21. Colleton River Dye Course, Bluffton
22. Cliffs at Mountain Park, Travelers Rest
23. Musgrove Mill GC, Clinton
24. GC at Briar’s Creek, Johns Island
25. Reserve at Lake Keowee, Sunset
26. Haig Point Club, Daufauskie Island
27. Tidewater GC, Little River
28. Wachesaw Plantation, Murrells Inlet
29. Belfair GC East Course, Bluffton
30. Debordieu Club, Georgetown
31. Atlantic Dunes, Hilton Head Island
32. Belfair GC West Course, Bluffton
33. Thornblade Club, Greer
34. Camden CC
35. Wild Dunes Links Course, Isle of Palms
36. Cliffs at Keowee Falls, Salem
37. Reserve Club of Pawleys Island
38. Daniel Island Club Ralston Creek Course
39. Surf Golf and Beach Club, North Myrtle Beach
40. True Blue Plantation, Pawleys Island
41. Cliffs at Glassy, Landrum
42. CC of Spartanburg
43. Orangeburg CC
44. Grande Dunes Resort Course, Myrtle Beach
45. Florence CC
46. Barefoot Resort Dye Course, North Myrtle Beach
47. TPC of Myrtle Beach, Murrells Inlet
48. Berkeley Hall North Course, Bluffton
49. Callawassie Island Club, Okatie
50. Turtle Point, Kiawah Island
TOP 10 MIDLANDS REGION
1. Sage Valley GC, Graniteville
2. Palmetto GC, Aiken
3. Camden CC
4. Orangeburg CC
5. Florence CC
6. Columbia CC
7. Reserve at Woodside Plantation, Aiken
8. Forest Lake Club
9. Aiken GC
10. Mount Vintage Plantation and GC, North Augusta
This story was originally published March 31, 2018 at 9:16 PM with the headline "Top 50 courses in South Carolina offer a wide variety of stunning holes."