Golf in South Carolina is a way of life, rather than a pastime. There are, today, is South Carolina, more than 456 golf courses to choose from. Some of the world’s most famous courses are located within the state’s boundaries, including the famed Harbour Town Golf Links at the Sea Pines Resort on Hilton Head Island. I have really only just began my odyssey into South Carolina but, as the months turn into years, and if you’ll bear with me, I will get around as many of them as I can. It will be a Long and arduous task, a labor of Hercules, a down and dirty job that some has to do. That being so, I’ll try not to suffer too much in the pursuit of South Carolina’s best golf courses and resorts. Where to start was, of course, a bit of a problem. I decided to opt for the obvious:
Hilton Head Island:
Hilton Head Island is, perhaps, the ultimate golf destination for golfers living west of the Mississippi. For sure, it’s one of the country's foremost golf destinations. Golf Digest named Hilton Head Island Number 10 on its list of the world's best golf resorts.
I read somewhere that “Hilton Head has never been about the number of courses found there, but about the quality of those courses.” I couldn’t agree more, even though I know there are more than 40.
Hilton Head Island is blessed with breathtaking oceanfront courses, sea island golf courses, river courses, wetland golf courses that wind through groves of old-growth live oak, golf course courses along tidal marshes of the Inland Waterway, and golf courses on the shores of pristine lakes and lagoons. Many of those courses have been laid out by some of the greatest names in golf course design, names such as Nicklaus, Fazio, and Dye. My list is still rather short, but it will grow, I promise.
- Sea Pines Resort at Hilton Head Island
- Daufuskie Island Resort and Breathe Spa
- The Westin Hilton Head Island Resort and Spa
Myrtle Beach
Golf at Myrtle Beach actually means golf on the "Grand Strand," a strip of Atlantic coastline that runs from Brunswick County in North Carolina to Georgetown to the south, a stretch of more than 70 miles and 110 golf courses, which makes Myrtle Beach of the most golf-centric regions in the world. The courses at Myrtle Beach vary in rank and condition from the mediocre to the grand with a plethora of choices in between. Fees often leap into the stratosphere, especially in high season. Even so, Myrtle Beach should be a part of every golfer’s Top 10 destinations.
