Golfers who want to avoid the traffic and other hassles of Hilton Head Island can stay and play in Bluffton, South Carolina, a growing retirement community that is home to more than a dozen golf courses stacked up one after another along Fording Island Road. There are enough public-access courses in Bluffton to keep snowbird, retirees and vacationers busy for a week or more. Here are five of the best.
The Lowcountry around Hilton Head, S.C. might as well be called the "low key country," too. That natural feel is probably the major difference between this area and the Grand Strand to the north. In the Lowcountry, the golf courses and residential and commercial developments tend to be more thoughtful and less intrusive. If you want a relaxing vacation, come to the Lowcountry.
The front nine on Pete Dye's course at Colleton River Plantation is a mostly traditional-looking lowcountry layout, set in deep forest and weaving throughout the residential community with subtle doglegs. But it's the second half of the course that makes Colleton River among Dye's most remarkable. From the ninth hole through the finish, you're on open, coastal land nudged up to the Port Royal Sound, which filters out toward the Atlantic Ocean.
A spectacular piece of land has helped make Colleton River Plantation's Nicklaus Course one of the top golf courses in South Carolina. It's a piece of property particularly inspiring to Nicklaus: "Colleton River reminds me of Cypress Point. It has as many elements as any golf course on the East Coast.
While Eagle's Pointe Golf Club is among the most player-friendly golf courses in the Hilton Head area, don't call it easy. But feel free to swing away on this Davis Love III design that serves as the perfect complement to its sister course, Arnold Palmer's Crescent Pointe G.C.
Playing Crescent Pointe Golf Club in Bluffton, S.C. never gets old. With three holes flirting with the scenic Colleton River, this 6,773-yard par-71 Arnold Palmer design both delights the senses and creates thrilling theater. Water lurks around every twist of the fairway, adding strategy and drama on nearly every shot.
Though it's the Nicklaus Course that receives a little more national ink in magazines, the newer Dye Course at Colleton River Plantation is arguably a more-stunning piece of land. It sits on an arguably a more-stunning piece of land, featuring more holes overlooking the beautiful Port Royal Sound on the cusp of the Atlantic Ocean.
Sanctuary Golf Club at Cat Island is what its name implies: a peaceful, serene layout where only a few houses spoil the beauty of the South Carolina Lowcountry. A renovation in 2009 by Jeff Brauer made the course more playable, improving all the bunkers (while removing some and adding others) and increasing the size of most greens by 20 percent.