HILTON HEAD ISLAND

Perhaps no golf destination in the United States has continually reinvented itself, and subsequently solidified its utopian reputation, more effectively than Hilton Head.

Infantile in historical perspective to its neighboring coastal communities, Hilton Head’s legacy as a world-renowned vacation spot was secured by two momentous events that occurred in the mid-1950s. One was the opening of a set of two bridges connecting the 41-square-mile barrier island with the South Carolina mainland. The other was the creation of Sea Pines Plantation, a groundbreaking residential/resort community by a young Georgia businessman named Charles Fraser.

A little more than 50 years ago, Fraser crafted a model for responsible land development at Sea Pines, the sprawling resort community on Hilton Head’s southern tip that flew in the face of convention. Fraser’s stringent land-use restrictions and covenants—a “reverse bill of rights” someone once wrote—dictated that the Lowcountry’s extraordinary natural features be carefully accommodated by planned development and not vice-versa. It’s not surprising that Fraser’s work at Sea Pines became a benchmark for master-planned development around the world.

This high level of environmental integrity also prevailed on the island’s earliest golf courses, which were noteworthy for their pristine ambiance and myriad natural hazards, from tidal marshes and lagoons teeming with alligators to massive oaks draped in Spanish moss. Golfers continue to flock the area by the millions, drawn by the bounty of world-class courses found within the Lowcountry’s resorts and residential communities. 

George Cobb designed the island’s first course, the Ocean Course at Sea Pines, in 1961. But Hilton Head truly began its ascent into golf lore with the 1969 opening of Harbour Town Golf Links—the host site of the PGA Tour’s Verizon Heritage for more than three decades. Also opening in 1969, amid far less fanfare than Harbour Town, was the Robert Trent Jones Course in Palmetto Dunes.

In his autobiography, Bury Me in a Pot Bunker, Harbour Town designer Pete Dye admitted to being influenced by Jones’ work at Palmetto Dunes, albeit somewhat differently. “As I watched [them] carve out long tees, huge bunkers and large greens, I wondered how I could design something that could separate my identity from his,” wrote Dye. “It was intended to show no disrespect to [Jones] or his great collection of designs. I simply wanted to establish my individual identity.”

Dye achieved his goal with overwhelming success at Harbour Town; its tight corridors, small greens and dramatic bunkering ushered in a new era of golf course design. The country’s top golf writers were beside themselves with praise. In a Sports Illustrated story entitled, “What A Little Instant Character Can Do,” the great Dan Jenkins wrote, “Harbour Town is sort of a Pine Valley in a swamp, a St. Andrews with Spanish moss, and a Pebble Beach with chitlins.” It didn’t hurt that Arnold Palmer broke out of a 14-month winless slump to capture the first Heritage Classic. Hilton Head Island was firmly embedded on golf’s radar screen. 

The island evolved into an extraordinary golf destination through the 1970s and ’80s, thanks to a proliferation of quality courses from George Fazio, Jack Nicklaus, Rees Jones, Arthur Hills, Tom Weiskopf and Bob Cupp. Yet it’s the venerable Jones Course at Palmetto Dunes that remains one of the island’s signature layouts. The stature of this oceanfront classic was greatly enhanced with a major restoration supervised by former Jones protégé Roger Rulewich in 2002. Today the Jones Course and its oceanfront signature hole, the par-five 10th, remain an indelible image for millions of Hilton Head Island visitors.