The Golf Club at Hilton Head Lakes

WEATHER WAS GOOD, THE COURSE WAS IN EXCELLENT SHAPE.

I want to start by saying my family and I have played this course multple times in the past, and have liked it. It's a good bang for your buck and usually in decent shape. But I cannot recommend coming here with how we were treated and how my mother was discriminated against.

It had rained the previous day and was cart path only. Conditions were wet, but not unplayable or dangerous. That is not a problem for me and my father, we were more than willing to comply with that. My mother, however, is ADA protected, and she would need assistance. Golf courses are still required to be ADA compliant under Title III and are required to make reasonable accommodations, even when it is cart path only. The DOJ has stated as such as well, allowing those under ADA protection to use carts even if cart path only, as it would not fundamentally alter the service and it qualifies as a reasonable accommodation. And again, we were only asking for her, as she was only playing 9, while me and my father would abide by cart path only rules.

When I spoke to the women at the desk, she flat out said no, they would not allow that. And if that was going to be a problem with us, then she would not be able to play. This being a weekend, the superintendent was not present for me to speak to.

When we spoke with the marshall at the start, we explained that she would need help, and at first, he was very accommodating. He understood, he gave her permission, and that was that we thought. We tee off and are halfway through the 1st hole when the same marshall comes back. This time, he comes with an immediate attitude, visibly angry and a macho, tough guy tone. He comes over, and now tells us that the course will not allow her to take the cart out, and forces her to either be on the cart path, or to leave the course. Mind you, all we had done up to then, was bring the cart into the rough, we weren't even going to drive it on the fairway or up to the green, and we were doing so with his initial permission. When we had asked for the handicap flag she could put on her cart, he insisted they didn't have any, and basically told her to get off the course. I don't even understand why he came back so heated, considering the last time we spoke with him he was going to allow it and we were just doing what he initially gave us the green light for. Yet he acted like we just spat in his cereal.

But here's the kicker. My mother insists we keep playing for the 18 we paid for, and she goes to the clubhouse to get her money back for the round. As soon as the women at the desk (same one I had spoken to) refunds her, THEN she drops the fact that she messaged the superintendent, and he said that he would allow her to drive the cart onto the course. At that point, my mother wanted nothing to do with them. She left the course, and she ended up crying on her way home because of the callousness of the staff and the discriminatory behavior she faced. She was berated and embarrassed, and only after giving back her money and cancelling her round, did they say "Oh yeah, turns out you can play after all." It was like finding out just when you paid that they aerated the greens. They withheld that bit of info with intent.

And then, after the round, when we spoke to a different marshall, not only did he confirm that she should have been allowed to play, but that they HAD handicap flags for the cart that she could have put on.

It was unfortunate to have the staff treat her this way, and I would please encourage the management of this course do better when it comes to training their staff on proper ADA compliance going forward.

Signed, a longtime and now former customer. Apologies, but with the way I saw my mother get treated, I don't think any of us will be back anytime soon, if ever. Far too many courses around here to play.

Took my grandkids for their first time on a championship course. This was ideal for that sort of activity as the pace of play was good and of course was not crowded. This course was in good shape compared to earlier times I played it. Greens real good. Staff was friendly and accommodating. Fun round of golf!

I always enjoy HH Lakes.It has some really good par 4's and is fun to play. Greens were a little slower than I remembered but they were in good shape and putted true.

The course itself was in great shape. But when it comes to pace there was zero enforcement by the Marshall for making sure the slow groups were letting people through. From holes 8 through 18 I waited a solid 15-20 minutes each hole to tee off. My round took almost 6 hours to complete. Not the first time I’ve had this problem at this course. I saw the Marshall cruising around the course 3 times during my round and not once did he care to get the slow group in front of me to let me play through. Might not be playing here anymore since the staff does not seem to care about your experience once you’ve paid and they have your money.

We throughly enjoyed this course, however it was very wet from a previous day rain fall. Although wet, we enjoyed our time at the course. The fairways were wide with beautiful ponds and shade trees all along the way.

The drinks at the clubhouse were a nice reprieve from the hot and humid day!

We will definitely be back on a cooler, dryer day!

We were in Hilton Head for a week and hit several courses in the area including The Golf Club at Hilton Head Lakes. We would like to give this a better rating since it had some favorable points but the course conditions were the worst we played on in our week there. Fairway grass was very thin in a majority of areas. The greens were especially poor. They were very thin in spots but even with that probably the slowest greens we have ever putted on. The staff were great, the pace of play was the best by far of all the courses we played, and the price was decent so those things brought our opinion back up a bit.