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    Best in State

    The best golf courses in South Carolina

    July 10, 2023

    The majority of South Carolina's ranked courses are spread throughout the cities and resort destinations along the Atlantic Ocean seaboard. That makes sense as this region—the southern half in the original Lowcountry around Charleston, Kiawah Island and Hilton Head, and north into the communities around Myrtle Beach—has some of the most distinctive ecosystems in the U.S., characterized by the constant mingling of land and wetlands and marshes, occasional ocean exposures and haunting forests of moss-draped live oaks. Elsewhere, Greenville Country Club in the central part of the state places both its courses in this year's ranking, and the brilliant Palmetto and the exclusive Tom Fazio-designed Sage Valley lead the way near Aiken, across the Savannah River from Augusta, Georgia. And Quixote Club, a new Kris Spense/Jack Nicklaus II design outside of Columbia debuts at no. 19.

    The prediction here is that this list will be upended in the coming years. South Carolina is currently a hotbed of new development with at least six courses under construction or in planning. The Tree Farm and Old Barnwell, just outside of Aiken, will open to member play in late 2023 or early 2024. New courses are also on the board for the Columbus area, near Charleston, and at Kiawah Island and outside Hilton Head. Stay tuned.

    We urge you to click through to each individual course page for bonus photography, drone footage and reviews from our course panelists. Plus, you can now leave your own ratings on the courses you’ve played … to make your case why your favorite should be ranked higher.

    1. (1) Kiawah Island Golf Resort: The Ocean Course
    Carlos Amoedo
    Often considered to be the first course designed for a specific event—the 1991 Ryder Cup—this manufactured linksland-meets-lagoons layout might well be Pete Dye’s most diabolical creation. Every hole is edged by sawgrass, every green has tricky slopes, every bunker merges into bordering sand dunes. Strung along nearly three miles of ocean coast, Dye took his wife’s advice and perched fairways and greens so golfers can actually view the Atlantic surf. That also exposes shots and putts to ever-present and sometimes fierce coastal winds. The Ocean Course will forever be linked with Phil Mickelson and his improbable victory at the 2021 PGA Championship.
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    2. (2) Congaree Golf Club
    Private
    2. (2) Congaree Golf Club
    Ridgeland, SC
    4.8
    19 Panelists
    Tom Fazio has designed countless compelling golf courses on sites that weren't. But at Congaree, 30 minutes inland from Beaufort, S.C., he at least had great material: sand, in the form of two deep sections of it separated by a lowcountry wetland area. The sand made it easy to scoop and shape long ridgelines, creating significant movement across an otherwise level property—and dozens of stately live oaks, carefully transplanted for effect—further outline the design. Finely edged Melbourne-style bunkers sweep up to the edges of fairways and into greens, catching shots that drift too far and leading to challenging hi-lo recovery situations. Congaree hosted the 2022 CJ Cup after making its debut as a tour venue for the previous year's Palmetto Championship, which replaced that year's Canadian Open.
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    3. (3) Yeamans Hall Club
    LC Lambrecht
    Private
    3. (3) Yeamans Hall Club
    Charleston, SC
    Though it contained a classic collection of Raynor favorites, including a Road Hole, a Biarritz, a Redan and even a Prize Dogleg (based on an entry from a 1914 magazine design contest), Yeamans Hall suffered from benign neglect for 50 years, with bunkers overgrown and greens both shrunk by mowing habits and mushroomed by topdressing. But in the later 1980s, the course superintendent discovered Raynor’s original plans in the clubhouse attic. Architect Tom Doak and his then-associate Jim Urbina used the plans to faithfully restore Raynor features. Urbina continues to implement restoration touches and Yeamans Hall today is one of the country's most polished and evocative examples of Raynor's architecture on a relatively flat piece of Lowcountry land.
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    4. (4) Sage Valley Golf Club
    Courtesy of the club
    Private
    4. (4) Sage Valley Golf Club
    Graniteville, SC
    Built just down I-20 from Augusta National, there's no mistaking Sage Valley's resemblance to its neighbor. The pine straw, the perfect conditioning and symmetric mowing paterns, the perfect bunker sand—it's all an ode to Augusta, where Tom Fazio, the architect at Sage Valley, served as the consulting architect for many years. Sage Valley has plenty of room off the tee, similar to its counterpart, but less drastic green complexes, characteristic of Fazio's approach—giving higher-handicappers a chance to run balls up on the ground in some spots—actually similar to how Augusta was originally designed by Dr. Mackenzie. Sage Valley fell off our Second 100 Greatest rankings in 2019 due to a lack of ballots—but it returned in 2023-'24.
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    5. (7) Secession Golf Club
    Jon Cavalier
    Private
    5. (7) Secession Golf Club
    Beaufort, SC
    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. Still, Devlin invariably left open the fronts of greens for running approach shots. The site itself is a peninsula in marsh, with several holes on individual islands. Secession demands a complete game, both aerial and ground, particularly in steady ocean breezes.
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    6. (5) Harbour Town Golf Links
    Courtesy of Rob Tipton
    Public
    6. (5) Harbour Town Golf Links
    Hilton Head Island, SC
    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 in 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.
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    7. (6) Kiawah Island Club: Cassique
    USGA/Russell Kirk
    Private
    7. (6) Kiawah Island Club: Cassique
    Johns Island, SC
    Kiawah Island Club’s Cassique Course (pronounced Kah-seek) was created by Hall-of-Famer Tom Watson and his crew from old farm fields along the tidal marshes of the Kiawah River. As a five-time Champion Golfer of Year, Watson wanted his design to demand the “touch, feel and imagination” of links-style golf, so he framed most holes with choppy faux dunes, rumpled the fairways and installed some of his favorite links features: a burn a la Turnberry, Carnoustie-inspired Spectacles and a Hell Bunker from St. Andrews. With the front nine in open land and the back nine among trees, Cassique poses bump-and-run opportunities everywhere, and even has a couple of blind shots.
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    8. (8) Long Cove Club
    Rob Kaufman / Kaufman Photography
    Private
    8. (8) Long Cove Club
    Hilton Head Island, SC
    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 construction of No. 52 TPC Sawgrass. Once TPC was finished, Dye was persuaded to build Long Cove. Having previously done No. 142 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 became 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. 107 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.
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    9. (9) Kiawah Island Club: River
    Jon Cavalier
    Private
    9. (9) Kiawah Island Club: River
    Johns Island, SC
    Built half a decade before the club’s other 18, Cassique (ranked 166th on our latest rankings), The River Course at Kiawah Island Club features an exquisite river setting. The course flows gently through forest and along lagoons the first six holes, then becomes truly great from seven to nine, with two holes playing around big Bass Pond and the ninth running along the marshy edge of the Kiawah River. The back nine repeats the rhythm, with play again beginning in forest and along ponds before a dunesy stretch scattered with live oaks and vast expanses of sand. The River Course concludes appropriately with 17 and 18 along the tidal wetlands of the Kiawah River. There’s nothing particularly original in the architecture of The River Course, as Fazio has done variations of these holes before. It some ways, it’s The Greatest Hits of Tom Fazio.
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    10. (12) Palmetto Golf Club
    Derek Duncan
    Private
    10. (12) Palmetto Golf Club
    Aiken, SC
    4.2
    13 Panelists
    Golf in Aiken began over a century ago with two in-town courses, Palmetto Golf Club and Aiken Golf Club. Palmetto, founded in 1892, was primarily designed by Herbert Leeds, the builder of Myopia Hunt Club near Boston, with major amendments in 1932 by Alister MacKenzie who was working on Augusta National (just 30 miles away). Ranking comfortably inside our Third 100 Greatest Courses, it’s a polished, jewel-box design draped over up and down topography with one of the country’s great sets of greens full of slick interior movements that slip away into a variety of undulous chipping areas.
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    11. (10) May River Golf Club At Palmetto Bluff
    Courtesy of the club
    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 forest while the back nine circles counter-clockwise, and each touch repeatedly on the wetlands of 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.
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    12. (20) Country Club of Charleston
    Copyright USGA/John Mummert
    Private
    12. (20) Country Club of Charleston
    Charleston, SC
    4.2
    12 Panelists
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    14. (17) Old Tabby Links
    Private
    14. (17) Old Tabby Links
    Okatie, SC
    4.2
    12 Panelists
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    16. (15) Chechessee Creek Club
    Private
    16. (15) Chechessee Creek Club
    Okatie, SC
    4.2
    22 Panelists
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    17. (23) The Cliffs At Mountain Park
    Patrick O’Brien
    Private
    17. (23) The Cliffs At Mountain Park
    Marietta, SC
    4.3
    5 Panelists
    The Cliffs at Mountain Park in Travelers Rest is one of the best courses in South Carolina. Discover our experts' reviews and where The Cliffs at Mountain Park ranks in our rankings
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    19. (NR) Quixote Club
    Private
    19. (NR) Quixote Club
    Sumter, SC
    4.3
    4 Panelists
    Quixote Club, an hour east of Columbia, is built over the top of an old country club course, although nothing of that routing remains. North Carolina-based architect Kris Spence and Jack Nicklaus II created a gorgeous walking course with new holes twisting and turning elegantly through exposed sandscapes and stands of oak and pine. The name of the club is taken from the owners’ altruistically audacious mission of providing funding for a charter school that hopes to turn around the educational opportunities of up to 2,000 local students.
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    20. (13) The Dunes Golf & Beach Club
    Private
    20. (13) The Dunes Golf & Beach Club
    Myrtle Beach, SC
    Its ocean-side dunes are mostly covered with turfgrass and mature trees now, but when Robert Trent Jones built The Dunes back in the late 1940s, the property was primarily windswept sand dotted with lagoons. Those lakes come in prominently on many holes, particularly on the 11th through 13th, dubbed Alligator Alley. (The boomerang-shaped par-5 13th is called Waterloo.) The home hole, with a pond in front of the green, started as a gambling par 5 but today is a daunting par 4. The course has hosted three USGA championships, including the 1962 U.S. Women's Open and most recently, the 2017 U.S. Women's Amateur Four-Ball.
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    21. (25) The Cliffs At Keowee Vineyards
    Jack Robert Photography
    Private
    21. (25) The Cliffs At Keowee Vineyards
    Sunset, SC
    4.1
    4 Panelists
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    22. (21) Haig Point: Signature (Calibogue and The Haig)
    Evan Schiller
    Private
    22. (21) Haig Point: Signature (Calibogue and The Haig)
    Hilton Head Island, SC
    4.1
    9 Panelists
    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
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    23. (19) Musgrove Mill Golf Club
    Musgrove Mill G.C
    Private
    23. (19) Musgrove Mill Golf Club
    Clinton, SC
    4.2
    8 Panelists
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    24. (28) The Reserve At Lake Keowee
    Private
    24. (28) The Reserve At Lake Keowee
    Sunset, SC
    3.7
    3 Panelists
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    25. (26) Bulls Bay Golf Club
    Courtesy of the club
    Private
    25. (26) Bulls Bay Golf Club
    Mount Pleasant, SC
    4.2
    8 Panelists
    You’d never know the Bulls Bay site was agricultural land indistinguishable from everything else for miles around. Strantz completely transformed the terrain of this property north of Charleston by excavating earth and creating a ridge on one side of the course. With the clubhouse sitting atop, it’s the focal point of the course and provides elevation changes uncommon for the lowcountry with several holes playing into and off of the high ground. The lower holes are just as enticing with a mix of long and short par 4s, four lovely and diverse par 3s, two boomerang par 5s and a stretch of holes that border Capers Creek and the Intracoastal Waterway.
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    26. (18) The Golf Club At Briar's Creek
    Private
    26. (18) The Golf Club At Briar's Creek
    Johns Island, SC
    3.7
    8 Panelists
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    27. (24) Belfair: West
    Private
    27. (24) Belfair: West
    Bluffton, SC
    4.2
    11 Panelists
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    28. (22) Caledonia Golf & Fish Club
    JD Cuban/Golf Digest
    Public
    28. (22) Caledonia Golf & Fish Club
    Pawleys Island, SC
    4.1
    27 Panelists
    Caledonia was Strantz’s first solo design in 1994, and his creativity shines on this golf-only, oak-dotted, sand-dune parcel abutting the marshes and rice paddies of Pawley’s Island. The design is ordered and composed, twisting low through the heavy tree canopy while setting up classic hole strategies into angled greens. There are touches of Pete Dye and just enough quirk to suggest something more intense and experimental brewing under the surface. Two musts: The chowder at the turn, and a drink on the porch behind the 18th hole.
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    29. (33) TPC Myrtle Beach
    Golf Tourism Solutions
    Public
    29. (33) TPC Myrtle Beach
    Murrells Inlet, SC
    3.9
    12 Panelists
    Once the host of the Senior PGA Tour Championship and now home to Dustin Johnson’s annual World Junior Golf Championship, TPC Myrtle Beach is designed to challenge even the pros. Numerous water hazards, strategically placed trees, and forced carries make this track a tough, but enjoyable test.
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    30. (NR) DeBordieu Club
    Private
    30. (NR) DeBordieu Club
    Georgetown, SC
    3.6
    6 Panelists

    From Golf Digest Architecture Editor emeritus Ron Whitten: In the mid-1980s, I was researching a Golf Digest article on reversible golf courses, and one of the people I called was real estate developer Wallace Pate, who had laid out a reversible 10-hole course for his beach home development at DeBordieu Colony Club (pronounced "debby doo") in Georgetown, S.C., south of Myrtle Beach.

    "You've called too late," Pate told me. He had sold the course the year before, and Pete Dye was at that moment in the midst of replacing it with a conventional 18-hole course to be called DeBordieu Golf Club.

     

    Click here for our architecture editor's complete review.

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    31. (30) True Blue Golf Club
    Public
    31. (30) True Blue Golf Club
    Pawleys Island, SC
    4.1
    18 Panelists
    Strantz returned to Pawley’s Island just a few years after Caledonia opened, nearly to the exact same place, in fact. True Blue is Caledonia’s sister course, located on an inland property that sits just across the street, though sequestered from any marsh views. But what it lacks in scenery it makes up for in volume. Everything at True Blue is bigger and more heroic. Greens erupt out of sand barrens, fairways are 60 to 90 yards wide and holes take on the form of ambling caterpillars. The abrupt, hi-contrast shaping, made possible by the sandy terrain, is a not so subtle nod in the direction of Pine Valley.
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    32. (31) Belfair: East
    Private
    32. (31) Belfair: East
    Bluffton, SC
    4
    10 Panelists
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    34. (NR) Wachesaw Plantation Club: Wachesaw Plantation
    3.7
    3 Panelists
    Wachesaw Plantation Club in Murrells Inlet is one of the best courses in South Carolina. Discover our experts' reviews and where Wachesaw Plantation ranks in our rankings
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    35. (29) Barefoot Resort & Golf: Dye Course
    Public
    35. (29) Barefoot Resort & Golf: Dye Course
    North Myrtle Beach, SC
    4
    4 Panelists
    The highest ranked of the four courses at Barefoot Resort, the Dye course features classic Dye bunker complexes with risk/reward opportunities for low-handicappers with playable options from forward tees for higher handicappers.
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    36. (NR) Wexford
    Moonlight Productions
    Private
    36. (NR) Wexford
    Hilton Head Island, SC
    3.9
    4 Panelists
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    37. (NR) The Reserve Golf Club
    Private
    37. (NR) The Reserve Golf Club
    Pawleys Island, SC
    3.8
    4 Panelists
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    38. (NR) The Sea Pines Resort: Atlantic Dunes
    Public
    38. (NR) The Sea Pines Resort: Atlantic Dunes
    Hilton Head Island, SC
    4
    19 Panelists
    Overhauled by David Love III, Atlantic Dunes is the reconstruction of The Sea Pines Resort’s Ocean Course, Hilton Head’s first golf course. This lowcountry track features water on almost every hole, beautiful Spanish moss-draped oaks, and lurking gators, if you look close enough. The seaside feel of the course is accentuated by the native grasses and coquina shells scattered throughout.
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    39. (NR) Tidewater Golf Club
    Brian Oar/Courtesy of the club
    Public
    39. (NR) Tidewater Golf Club
    North Myrtle Beach, SC
    3.7
    12 Panelists
    When Ken Tomlinson set out to build this Grand Strand course, he looked to world famous designs, such as Merion and Pine Valley. The architect wanted to ensure that his venue would harmonize seamlessly with its natural surroundings. Tidewater does just that: sitting atop a peninsula, the golf course is nestled between the tidal marsh and forest lands in North Myrtle Beach.
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    40. (32) Berkeley Hall: North Course
    Chris Jordan
    Private
    40. (32) Berkeley Hall: North Course
    Bluffton, SC
    4.2
    9 Panelists
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    41. (34) Kiawah Island Golf Resort: Osprey Point
    Patrick J O'Brien
    Public
    41. (34) Kiawah Island Golf Resort: Osprey Point
    Johns Island, SC
    3.9
    15 Panelists
    Renovated in 2014 by Tom Fazio, several holes at Osprey Point run parallel to water hazards and deep bunkers provide ample defense against greens of varying sizes. Nestled in the natural Lowcountry salt marsh, this track’s stunning classic-style clubhouse also adds appeal.
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    42. (35) Daniel Island Club: Ralston Creek
    USGA/Russell Kirk
    Private
    42. (35) Daniel Island Club: Ralston Creek
    Charleston, SC
    3.7
    9 Panelists
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    43. (NR) Callawassie Island: Dogwood/Magnolia/Palmetto
    Private
    43. (NR) Callawassie Island: Dogwood/Magnolia/Palmetto
    Callawassie Island, SC
    Callawassie Island is one of the best courses in South Carolina. Discover our experts' reviews and where Callawassie Island ranks in our rankings
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    44. (NR) Barefoot Resort & Golf: Love Course
    Public
    44. (NR) Barefoot Resort & Golf: Love Course
    North Myrtle Beach, SC
    3.8
    9 Panelists
    A member of Golf Digest's 100 Greatest Public ranking from 2003 to 2007, the Love course is one of the best in Myrtle Beach and yet ranked as the third-best at golf-rich Barefoot Resort (just a few tenths of a point behind the Fazio course, according to our panelists). This is Love Golf Design's only work in Myrtle Beach, and it makes good use of the land with a good variety of holes—long, short and doglegs in each direction.
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    45. (NR) Riverton Pointe Golf and Country Club
    Private
    45. (NR) Riverton Pointe Golf and Country Club
    Hardeeville, SC
    Formerly known as Hampton Pointe, this property was renovated and rebranded in 2021 as an upscale residential community called Riverton Pointe, with a golf course completely overhauled by Nicklaus Design. The layout shows off the Lowcountry setting with holes that twist through forests of native pine and oak and bend around lagoons, studded by large, ornately sculptured bunkers and rippling greens with short-grass runoffs.
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