A historic and affordable island golf getaway destination in coastal Georgia is about to embark on its newest chapter: a multi-year renovation of its golf courses, including the revival of a Golden-Age stunner.

Jekyll Island, located just south of St. Simons Island, is currently home to 63 holes of golf that have attracted legions of budget-conscious golfers over decades. Golf was played on the island as early as 1898, with Donald Ross designing an 18-hole course in 1910 that was later abandoned. Golden Age master architect Walter Travis laid out the Great Dunes in 1928 at the pre-Depression height of Jekyll's heyday as a winter playground for some of America's most prominent families, including the Vanderbilts, Rockefellers and Morgans.

Over time, the courses on Jekyll Island have come to be overshadowed by those on neighboring St. Simons Island, particularly Sea Island Resort. Jekyll Island is owned by the State of Georgia, and as such, its golf courses have tended to have a public-park feel. I played a college tournament there in 2010 and remember it being a low-frills operation - not bad at all, but there was the sense that there was plenty of untapped potential.

Once Jekyll's ambitious renovation plans come to fruition, it should emerge as an attractive golf vacation option along the East Coast once again.

The first step of the renovation project is already underway. At Jekyll Island Golf Club's Pine Lakes course, a Joe Lee design that dates to the 1970s, architect Clyde Johnston is overseeing a project focused on re-turfing the golf course and updating its irrigation system. Pine Lakes is expected to reopen to golfers in the fall of 2024.

Then, the real fun begins. With Pine Lakes back open, architects Brian Ross and Jeff Stein will set about restoring Walter Travis' Great Dunes nine-holer while also adding nine new holes inspired by Travis' work elsewhere, ultimately forming a coherent showpiece 18 that brings golfers from forest to ocean and back again. To accomplish this, Ross and Stein will repurpose nine holes of Jekyll Island's Oleander Course, while seven of Oleander's other golf holes will revert to conservation land. The other two will become a new practice facility that includes a putting course.

Ross and Stein's work on the new Great Dunes course is also conservation-minded. They will convert existing Bermuda grass surfaces and turf new ones with Seashore Paspalum, a salt-tolerant grass that can be maintained using brackish water. This means Great Dunes will not need to draw water from a nearby aquifer, as it and the Oleander course have for years.

"The newly restored Great Dunes will be one of a rare few municipal golf courses on the east coast which will offer ocean views, affordable prices to locals and engaging architecture for all skill levels," said Stein. "Our routing restores a genuine test of Golden Age golf, utilizing nine original Travis holes while also recreating Travis’ unsurpassed ingenuity on the greens throughout the 18."

Current estimates have the new Great Dunes course at Jekyll Island being ready for play in late 2025.

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GolfPass News

July 27, 2018

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