Best golf courses near Bluffton, SC

The Jack Nicklaus course at Colleton River Club in Bluffton is one of the best courses in South Carolina. Discover our experts' reviews and where Colleton River Club ranks in our rankings

Built some 35 years after nearby Harbour Town Golf Links, May River is an interesting contrast in Jack Nicklaus's portfolio (Nicklaus was co-designer of Harbour Town with Pete Dye). It's an equally low-profile layout with a number of bump-and-run approach shots, but with several Pine Valley-like waste areas and with larger, bolder greens. The classic routing has the front nine turning clockwise through the forest while the back nine circles counter-clockwise, and each touch repeatedly on the wetlands of the namesake May River. Gorgeous and mysterious at every turn, the course is at its best when it gets players thinking, like at the short par-4 seventh where they must decide to either lay up to an island of fairway or take a swipe at a shallow green situated on another small isthmus of land along the marsh, and the par-5 10th where a wetland crossing the fairway and several small centrally arranged pot bunkers put indecision into the second and third shots toward a green backed up against the river.

Belfair's West course in Bluffton is one of the best courses in South Carolina. Discover our experts' reviews and where Belfair ranks in our rankings

The Pete Dye course at Colleton River Club in Bluffton is one of the best courses in South Carolina. Discover our experts' reviews and where Colleton River Club ranks in our rankings

Berkeley Hall's North Course is one of the best golf courses in South Carolina. Discover our experts' reviews and where Berkeley Hall ranks in our latest rankings.

Belfair's East course in Georgetown is one of the best courses in South Carolina. Discover our experts' reviews and where Belfair ranks in our rankings

Berkeley Hall: South Course is one of the best golf courses in South Carolina. Discover our experts' reviews and course information.

Located just down the road from Hilton Head National in Bluffton, Old South has few homes on the course (much like its neighbor), which helps immerse golfers in the lowcountry setting. Though the course is not overly challenging, water or marshes come into play on nearly every hole, often set well back from the line of play. There is a nice mix of holes—some play inland with trees lining the fairways, while there are stretches that run along a large marshland area. There are some forced carries over water, notably at the seventh and 16th, where the tees, fairways and greens are all separated by marshlands. With rates routinely under $100, Old South provides nice value in a region of generally pricey green fees.

Hilton Head National is a Gary Player and Bobby Weed design located in Bluffton, a few miles from the bridge to Hilton Head Island. Unlike some nearby courses situated in residential areas, Hilton Head National has no houses on the course, giving it a secluded feel. The fairways are generally forgiving, though there are some tighter tee shots on the back nine. The sixth is a strong drivable par 4 for longer hitters, with a lagoon guarding the entire right side and bunkers on the left for those who bail out.

Located just off Hilton Head Island near Bluffton, Hampton Hall is an early 2000s Pete Dye design that winds out through a residential development with holes that border lagoons, wetlands and tracts of Lowcountry woods, the first nine circling clockwise and the second turning outward and back in the opposite rotation. It differs from most courses in the region in that the fairways are wide rather than constricted and the greens are prodigious and heavily contoured. Dye was reportedly ill during much of the construction process and wasn’t able to provide his usual detail and shaping oversight. When designer Nathan Crace was hired in 2022 to work on the course drainage, resurface the greens and renovate the bunkers, he discovered Dye’s forgotten hand-drawn sketches for each hole in the two relief stations. He used these to, in effect, complete the detailing Dye couldn’t originally get in the ground. These restorations included adjusting green dimensions and bunker depths, adding a fairway bunker on the third hole that Dye regretted not building and remodeling a long waste bunker on 18 to make it more visible from the tee.

Pete Dye and his son P.B. did the early routing of Secession, but when they left in a dispute with the developer, Bruce Devlin, a PGA Tour veteran who’d previously designed courses with Robert von Hagge, stepped in and finished something much in keeping with the then-prevailing Dye philosophy of low-profile architecture. Greens were set at ground grade, protected by low humps and pot bunkers with vertical stacked-sod faces. True to his Australian (New South Wales) roots, Devlin also left open the front of the greens for running approach shots. The site itself is a peninsula in a marsh, with several holes on individual islands. Secession demands a complete game, both aerial and ground, particularly in steady ocean breezes.

Long Cove was originally routed by Frank Duane and his then-partner Arnold Palmer in the early 1970s. Then Pete Dye was offered the job, but turned it down in order to concentrate on the construction of No. 41 TPC Sawgrass. Once TPC was finished, Dye was persuaded to build Long Cove. Having previously done No. 170 Harbour Town just down the road, Dye wanted to do something different, so he installed knobs and mounds and framing berms, shaped some remarkably large greens and built two holes skirting the Colleton River. His construction crew contained half a dozen youngsters who would ultimately become golf architects, including construction supervisor Bobby Weed, Tom Doak, David Savic, Ron Farris, Scott Pool and Pete’s younger son, P.B. In 2018, Weed, author of No. 103 Olde Farm, was picked to restore Pete’s original design, which had grown shaggy around the edges. Now golfers can again run the ball onto 16 of the 18 greens.

Old Tabby Links in Okatie is one of the best courses in South Carolina. Discover our experts' reviews and where Old Tabby Links ranks in our rankings

In the late 1960s, Jack Nicklaus landed the design contract for Harbour Town, then turned it over to his new partner, Pete Dye, who was determined to distinguish his work from that of rival Robert Trent Jones. Soon after Harbour Town opened in late November 1969 (with a victory by Arnold Palmer in the Heritage Classic), the course debuted on America’s 100 Greatest as one of the Top 10. It was a total departure for golf at the time. No mounds, no elevated tees, no elevated greens—just low-profile and abrupt change. Tiny greens hung atop railroad ties directly over water hazards. Trees blocked direct shots. Harbour Town gave Pete Dye national attention and put Jack Nicklaus, who made more than 100 inspection trips collaborating with Dye, in the design business. Pete’s wife, Alice, also contributed, instructing workers on the size and shape of the unique 13th green, a sinister one edged by cypress planks. Following the 2025 RBC Heritage, Harbour Town underwent an extensive restoration overseen by Davis Love III and his design company, working to restore and preserve Dye's original strategic intent. The project is completed, and the course reopened in November 2025.

Chechessee Creek Club in Okatie is one of the best courses in South Carolina. Discover our experts' reviews and where Chechessee Creek Club ranks in our rankings

Callawassie Island, formerly the Country Club of Callawassie and located northwest of Hilton Head Island, was among the first generation of courses Tom Fazio designed in the mid-1980s following his longtime partnership with George Fazio, his uncle. The club is set on a ubiquitously named island and features two nines that comprise the main course that our panelists evaluate for the Golf Digest rankings. Both circle out through the Lowcountry development with the last hole of the Magnolia nine running along the tidal marshes of the Colleton River and Callawassie Creek, and the last four holes of the Dogwood nine skirting tight along the marshes from the opposite direction. Both nines have undergone extensive renovations over the previous few years.

Haig Point's Signature course is one of the best courses in South Carolina. Read our experts' reviews and discover how you can book a tee time