Hilton Head Island is a golfer's paradise, but with over 20 championship courses, figuring out where to book your tee times can feel overwhelming. This guide cuts through the noise, offering a coach's perspective on the island's best tracks. We'll break down what makes each course special and provide practical advice on how to play them well, so you can arrive ready to take on some of the finest designs in the country.
You can't talk about golf in Hilton Head without starting at Harbour Town. Home to the PGA Tour's RBC Heritage tournament, this is the course you’ve seen on TV, with its iconic red-and-white striped lighthouse watching over the 18th green. What the cameras don’t always capture is just how demanding this Pete Dye masterpiece is. It's not a course you can overpower, it’s one you have to outsmart.
The fairways are brilliantly framed by ancient oaks and towering pines, but their branches often hang over the edges, shrinking your landing areas. The greens are some of the smallest you'll ever play, testing your iron accuracy on every single approach. This isn't a "bomb and gouge" track, it's a test of precision, strategy, and nerve.
My advice here is to leave your ego in the car. For many players, the driver is not the right play on most holes. Think one or two shots ahead.
While Harbour Town gets most of the spotlight, The Sea Pines Resort hosts two other phenomenal courses that are must-plays for any serious golfer visiting the island.
If you love the strategic puzzle of Harbour Town, you’ll enjoy Heron Point. It has Pete Dye’s DNA all over it - dramatic angles, risk-reward opportunities, and plenty of visual intimidation. It feels a bit more modern, with more significant undulation in the fairways and around the greens. The greens themselves are often larger than Harbour Town's but feature more mounds and swales, making lag putting a serious test.
Patience is the secret to scoring well at Heron Point. Dye baits you into taking aggressive lines. The mistake many golfers make is trying to bite off more than they can handle. Your goal is to find the strategically correct positions in the fairway that give you the best angle into the green. Trust your yardage, commit to your target, and don't get greedy.
As the island's first golf course, originally built in 1957, Atlantic Dunes was completely reborn after a full renovation by Davis Love III. The result is a stunningly beautiful course that feels completely different from a Pete Dye design. It's more of a classic Lowcountry layout, with sweeping sand dunes, natural grasses, and a distinct seaside atmosphere. The feeling here is more relaxed, with wider playing corridors, but the ocean breeze adds a layer of challenge that's always present.
This course is all about managing the wind. What might be a 7-iron on a calm day could be a 5-iron one minute and a 9-iron the next. Spend time on the range hitting lower, more controlled shots. Learning to take an extra club and swing easy will pay dividends. The exposed nature of the course means you need to factor in not just the wind's effect on the carry distance, but how it will influence the ball once it hits the firm, fast greens.
Just down the road from Sea Pines is the Palmetto Dunes Oceanfront Resort, which boasts three distinct and equally brilliant championship courses, each with its own unique personality.
The RTJ course is famous for one thing above all else: the incredible ocean view from the par-5 10th hole. But the course is much more than a single picturesque moment. Trent Jones was a master of creating bold, sweeping designs, and this course is a prime example. You’ll find generous fairways, but the challenge lies in the approach shots to large, multi-tiered greens that are heavily guarded by imposing bunkers.
While tee shots are less demanding here, your iron play needs to be sharp. Pay close attention to your yardage and, even more importantly, the pin location. Being on the correct tier of the green is crucial. Landing on the front of a green when the pin is on the back shelf will leave you with an extremely difficult, and often three-putt-inducing, experience. Play to the fat part of the green and be happy with a two-putt par.
The Fazio course has the distinction of being Hilton Head’s only par-70 layout. It's known for its long, challenging par-4s and a series of beautiful but treacherous par-3s. The fairways are tighter and tree-lined, placing a premium on finding the short grass off the tee. This is a true second-shot golf course, where precision into small, well-protected greens is the name of the game.
This is另一个 "accuracy over distance" test. Much like Harbour Town, you don't need to hit driver everywhere. If a long iron or hybrid off the tee gets you safely in the fairway, it’s the right club. Short game becomes incredibly important here, as missing a green will almost certainly leave you with a delicate chip or pitch shot.
The Hills course is defined by its dramatic topography and the brilliant way it uses the island's natural dune lines and lagoons. The course layout is a masterclass in routing, with water coming into play on 10 of the 18 holes. While it's a beautiful walk, the ever-present water hazards create a constant sense of tension and demand sound course management.
Your entire strategy should be built around avoiding big numbers. On every tee shot, your first thought should be: "Where is the trouble, and how can I play away from it?" Sometimes this means aiming for a specific side of the fairway or even laying up short of a hazard. Don't let a tight landing area tempt you into a shot you're not comfortable with. A simple bogey is always better than a double or triple.
While the resort courses get a lot of attention, there are fantastic public-access courses that are absolutely worth your time.
Designed by Rees Jones, Oyster Reef has consistently been ranked among the top public courses in the state. From the moment you arrive, it feels pristine and well-cared-for. The course winds through lagoons and dense forests before culminating in one of the most scenic holes on the whole island: the par-3 6th, which plays towards a green set against the vast backdrop of the Port Royal Sound. Rees Jones is known as the "Open Doctor" for his work toughening up U.S. Open courses, and his strategic bunkering is on full display here.
Study the course map before your round. Jones places fairway bunkers right in popular landing zones, catching drives that look perfect in the air. You have to plan your tee shots to either carry them or stay short of them. Chart your way around the course, don't just mindlessly hit shots at the flag.
Hilton Head tests every part of your game, but mostly, it tests your brain. The best courses here reward smart, strategic golf over brute force, challenging you to execute precise shots and think your way from tee to green.
Playing intelligent, calculated golf is the philosophy of Hilton Head, and that’s also where new technology can give you a significant advantage out on the course. On an unfamiliar hole, knowing the smart way to play it can be the difference between a par and a disaster. We all face those in-between club situations with a crosswind or a weird lie in the rough - having an expert opinion in your pocket removes an immense amount of doubt. To help golfers with this, I built Caddie AI to be your personal course strategist and on-demand coach, giving you clear, simple advice so you can commit to every swing with more confidence.
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The Golf Genius app is one of the best tools for managing and participating in competitive golf events, but figuring it out for the first time can feel like reading a new set of greens. This guide cuts through the confusion and shows you exactly how to use the app as a player. We’ll cover everything from logging into your tournament and entering scores to checking the live leaderboard so you can enjoy the competition without any tech headaches.
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