For years, Savannah’s River Street has been a magnet for
locals and tourists alike. The cobblestone thoroughfare is home to more than 70
restaurants, shops, galleries and hotels—many located in converted cotton
warehouses from days gone by—and most days it’s abuzz with pedestrians strolling
along the Savannah River. The place is replete with the kind of romantic allure
that seems to come with any city situated on a body of water—think Paris’ Left
Bank with a drawl.
Far less romantic—downright disagreeable, in fact—was the
desolate expanse across the river known as Hutchinson Island. Sections of the
island’s waterfront once bustled with industry before port operations moved
upriver, leaving behind a dreary landscape of scrub and dredge spoils. Railroad
companies held much of that land; in the late 1990s one of them, CSX, finally
decided to make something useful of its portion.
The result is the Westin Savannah Harbor Golf Resort and Spa,
which brought an extreme makeover to Hutchinson Island. The partnership between
CSX, Starwood Hotels & Resorts and Troon Golf includes a 16-story luxury
hotel, a Robert Cupp/Sam Snead-designed golf course and a spa operating under
the well-known Greenbrier brand.
In a unique concept for golf vacationers, this “urban resort”
provides full-service operation with all amenities on site, yet lies within easy
reach of a well-known downtown area. River Street is a seven-minute ride via
water taxis that regularly depart the Westin’s floating dock, and both the golf
course and the AAA Four Diamond-rated Westin hotel offer delightful views of
Savannah’s spire-studded skyline, fostering a feeling of intimacy between resort
and city.
The course, which has hosted the Champions Tour’s Liberty
Mutual Legends of Golf since 2003, winds around an open, marshy tract sandwiched
between the Savannah River and the Back River on the island’s northern side,
just across the border from South Carolina. There’s ample room to spray drives,
but the openness can be deceiving: Precise play to certain spots is rewarded
with better angles and shorter approaches into greens. Most greens feature
subtle (and some not-so-subtle) undulations and falloffs; a couple—like the
17,000-square-foot putting surface at the par-4, 468-yard 12th—add sheer girth
to the challenge.
