Harbour Town Golf Links (Hilton Head, SC)

Golf writer Dan Jenkins called it "Pine Valley in the swamp".

I've played many good courses the past few years but architecturally Harbour Town is the best. There are so many great holes here, and several of them are excellent. The final two holes rightfully get all the credit, but I was really impressed with how good the golf was. 

Arriving at the course, it's very easy to jump into golf mode. The southern hospitality, the beautiful clubhouse, the ocean breeze, it just all adds up to a great welcome. Add in the fact this is the home of the Heritage Classic, a place where the tour has been playing for nearly fifty years, the excitement level amps up a few more notches. 

One of the things that gets overlooked is just how much Harbour Town blends into the surroundings. This is the low country, and the course winds thru the live oaks, the moss draped trees, the canals and ponds that are sprinkled throughout the property. Pete Dye designed the course to be the opposite of what Trent Jones was building at Palmetto Dunes, and the result is a very intimate golf course. 

Harbour Town starts off with a couple easy holes. The driving lanes are not as chocked full of tree branches so it's possible to get off to a good start. The smallness and firmness of the greens caught my attention on one. I also learned that anything within thirty feet of the green should be putted. If you watch the tournament, the pros putt all the time when they miss the green.  

The third hole is where the action picks up. It's a long par four whose fairway I walked off at 25 paces wide! It's also the first time sandy scrub comes into play. 

Then four follows with a beautiful yet deadly par three whose kidney shaped green is fronted by a diagonal hazard. 

The right pin locations are accessible but the back left is just brutal! Pete Dye is a master at designing par threes. 

Five is a great par five!

There's a small tree short right of the green. This makes players layup on the left for a their third, but the green actually slopes left to right, which makes it difficult to get close to the pin. The best angle is actually from the right! You can layup on the right far enough back, and take that tree right outta play. The long hitters can reach it, but it is a very narrow and small target to hit.  Six has a similar design. It doglegs right, and the left half of the fairway looks like the premium spot but the green slopes left to right. There's also a lot going on with the drive; water right, waste area left, trees on both sides. 

I felt seven was the easiest par three on the course. Visually, it had the least going on. The player has to be cognizant of the pin locations and the affect the trees have on the shot shape to those particular pins. 

 Eight is the number one handicap on the course. It's 470 from the back tees. A huge live oak is the aiming point from the tee, and the player has to hit short and a lil left of it. 

I hit a perfect drive here down the left and had a great view into the green. There's water and sand guarding the green on the left but there's just beautiful green grass to play with on the right. If you watch the pros during the tournament, they don't even challenge the shot. They just hit a nice draw and are happy to take a four. Not me! I went right at the hole and promptly took double bogey. Then nine ends with a short par four that has one of the coolest greens anywhere! It's heart-shaped! Basically there's a right green, and a left green. In between both are three pot bunkers. It's so easy to mis-club and hit it into one of them. The pin can also go in the front, which leaves very little depth to that hole location. Watching the tournament, I'm very impressed how well the players control their distance and stop the ball quickly. Two really great holes to end the front!!

The back nine starts off with a difficult par four whose approach shot, in my opinion,  is the narrowest on the course.

Regardless of where you're at in the fairway, the second shot will have to be shaped one way or the other into the green. The miss to the right must be avoided. It's almost impossible to up n down from that side. 

The next two holes are both solid par fours. Eleven has a mossy tree short right of the green. It makes for a cute front right pin position. I can see someone calling it gimmicky. However, that's the beauty of Harbour Town. Pete Dye specifically designed it with this feature being prevalent on the holes. Twelve doglegs right and the drive must be in the left center to have unhindered approach to the green. 

Thirteen then starts a fantastic finish to the clubhouse. Its is my favorite hole. 

(I love this photo. This is from the left rough. Absolutely no shot whatsoever. The green stands out in the background, elevated by wooden planks. The approach is very intimidating!! The pros make it look so easy tho. Amazing!) 

Apparently this was Alice Dye's concept. That makes two of the best Pete Dye holes Alice's. 

Fourteen follows with a beautiful par three across the water.  The corridor for this shot is very narrow. Short and right is a for sure double bogey. I did what most pros do; bailout to the left. A two putt from the collar is very acceptable. (This was actually the toughest hole at the Heritage this year) 

Fifteen is a classic three shot par five. And it's a three shotter even for the pros. It seems like the hole never stops doglegging to the left! The one huge pine tree on the left demands your second shot be hit past the 125 yard marker on the right. The green was the biggest surprise to me! It's elevated on the right, then slopes to the left. Front right pin positions are basically on a plateau. The left ones need precision to take advantage of the slope. I now understand why some call it the best par five in the country! It's an awesome hole! 

Sixteen is then like a mini-me of fifteen. It doglegs so much left, it almost buttonhooks around that large wast area. The green is somewhat a plateau, and for the first time, the wind is coming off the ocean. The drive really has to be driven past the palm tree to get a good view to the green. Funny how the announcers never really convey this fact on tv. 

Wow! I'm now even sure how to describe the feeling walking to seventeen. It's a great par three across Calibogue Sound. When I played it, the wind was howling. Obviously, being short is not an option, so you either hit a great shot, or you find a place to bailout. That's the one saving grace here, plenty of green grass to bailout. The second shot may not be easy, but the damage can be confined to a bogey. Excellent hole!!

Finally, the eighteenth!!! Yes it's one of the best finishing holes in the USA!! There's a ton of room to drive the ball. However, to make three, the player really has to challenge the penisula half of the fairway. I couldn't see the green from the fairway. The approach shot from the penisula is all carry over the marsh, so the reeds can block the view. If you just need a four, it's not difficult to recover from the short grass all to the right of the green!!! It's such an awesome hole!!

Harbour Town exceeded my expectations. Everyone talks about how narrow it is, but the angles are there. What's kinda lost in the shuffle is just how good the green complexes are. And while the actual greens are small, the collars are so tight that "putting surface" is much bigger. The trees that line each hole are trimmed so there's always a recovery shot. Harbour Town is a resort course and there's all types of handicaps playing it, so these features are vital in keeping it a playable fun golf course. Harbour Town is undoubtedly one of the top courses in the country, and I give high marks. It's a course that should be played once by anyone who loves golf. 

8 (excellent rating)! 

Oak Point Golf Course (Johns Island, SC)

Oak Point is a Clyde Johnston course on Johns Island just outside the Kiawah Island resort entrance. It was an affordable alternative to the expensive resort courses back when I played it. Then in 1997, Kiawah decided to buy their competition and Oak Point became one of theirs. This meant affordable was no longer in the vocabulary and compared to the other courses, the value was no longer there.

 In 2004, they did some renovation work by eliminating the  third hole, lengthening the first into a par five, and making a new ninth hole, a par three. This apparently gave the golf magazines an opportunity to give Kiawah a best new resort course award. Talk about ridiculous! 

Clyde Johnston is well known golf architect whose work is mostly limited to southeastern part of the country. He's designed some pretty solid golf courses, but I don't think Oak Point would be high on his list of courses to see. It's a decent course with nice views of the intercostal waterway.

Looking at my notes, the course has large greens. It does get windy here and that makes it more playable. Water is play on seventeen holes. It tends to be on the sides and in some awkward places so local knowledge is plus on where to miss it. This is especially true on the par fives. The only hole that I wrote was super was the eighteenth. 

It plays along the waterway with the water cutting into the hole twice. Off the tee, the player either lays up to it or tries to carry it. Then on the approach, it's well short of the green, but it does protect the right side, especially the rear pin locations that are squeezed by the stand traps on the left. Too bad there aren't more holes like this!! Just a 4 (above average) rating. No one drives to Kiawah to play here.