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HILTON HEAD ISLAND, S.C. - The same sentiment about Harbour Town Golf Links at Sea Pines Resort has been passed from generation to generation of PGA Tour pros.
So when word got out that Harbour Town was undergoing an extensive renovation/restoration after the 2025 RBC Heritage, a bunch of PGA Tour players made their voices heard, just like a previous generation did before a 2000 renovation, the last time the famous Pete Dye-Jack Nicklaus collaboration saw extensive work. Harbour Town has hosted the Tour since opening in 1969.
"Scottie Scheffler, Justin Thomas, Jordan Spieth, Patrick Cantlay - they came to us unsolicited and said, 'We heard you're closing'," recalled John Farrell, the PGA director of sports operations at Sea Pines Resort. "And they said, 'Please don't change the integrity of this golf course. We've got something we love'.
"Now, the interesting, most interesting part to me is that in 1999, [as] Cary Corbett, who ran the place for 40 years, knows, we told the PGA Tour we were going to close 25 years ago, and Tom Watson, Lanny Watkins, Peter Jacobsen, Mark O'Meara, a great number of them, came and said, 'Don't change it.' It was the exact same script we got 25 years later."
Even Tom Doak, the celebrated architect and Dye disciple who gave his opinion before Davis Love III's Love Golf Design was hired, echoed similar thoughts. The fully restored Harbour Town Golf Links reopened Nov. 11 after a six-month project that replaced every blade of grass and bulkhead. I've never played a cleaner-looking, more pure golf course at any grand opening in my career.
The driving force was to find the "best of Pete Dye", taking into consideration what Dye had done previously or would do if he were alive today. Love III, who has won the RBC Heritage five times in his career, joked that he didn't want to screw it up. His name won't be put on the scorecard as a designer out of respect for one of Dye's enduring masterpieces.
"We've loved Harbour Town in every era, so which era was the best?" Love III said. "Kind of our trick we ended up deciding is we need a 'best of Pete Dye' at Harbour Town."
Old photographs and Shotlink data helped guide the minor tweaks that were made on every hole. Some were as simple as a rerouted cart path on no. 1, restored bunkers on no. 12 and a slightly expanded green on the par-3 17th. The most noticeable change might be on the par-5 fifth, where a large live oak was moved 18 feet to the left so its overhanging limbs could once again protect the right third of the green.
Nearly a dozen stacked sod-walled bunkers were reintroduced, restoring what Dye built early on before they crumbled away in the 1970s and evolved into more severe slopes. The most dangerous are the two left of the par-3 14th green - one new and one existing bunker revamped - which makes bailing out away from the water more difficult.
Two bridges were removed and sandy cart paths were rerouted on the par 3s on the front nine (nos. 4 and 7) to improve the natural aesthetics of the Lowcountry. The horseshoe-shaped ninth green was raised 14 inches with two more stacked-sod pots positioned behind it.
Finding ways to help amateur golfers navigate Harbour Town's notoriously narrow holes was also a priority. Shotlink data revealed that only three tour pros hit into the back bunker behind the 18th green during the 2025 tournament. Amateurs, however, regularly pound shots over the marsh into that bunker, leaving impossible recovery shots nestled up against the back wall. The bunker was widened to give the rest of us a chance. Nobody wants to walk away from Harbour Town's candy-striped lighthouse overlooking Calibogue Sound in disgust.
Green fees range from $399 on a package up to $650+ with a forecaddie required. Walking caddies are also available.
"I just talked to a group of resort guests who loved the course. They said, 'There aren’t many other courses where you can hit it in the fairway and still have to shape it around a tree to get to the pin'," Farrell said. "You must shape your shots, hit it high, hit it low, turn it right, turn it left. You’re going to have 14 dirty clubs when you’re finished."
One of the unique changes from the Harbour Town restoration project occurred on the driving range. The practice area, situated between the ninth and 10th holes, plays to a target flag that replicates the approach to the 13th green, one of the most intimidating shots on the course. It's surrounded by a bunker below Pete Dye's Cypress tree planks.
