Golf Makes History in Charleston
by Karen Misuraca
Since its founding in 1670, Charleston has been famous for its historic "firsts," ranging
from the first museum in America to the first shots of the Civil War, at Fort Sumpter, and the
first golf club. Draped in Spanish moss and bedecked with splendid antebellum and colonial
mansions, cobblestone streets and glorious gardens. The city remains the seductive siren she has
always been, as drowsy and as voluptuous as a Southern belle on a hot afternoon.
On a peninsula nearly surrounded by the Ashley and Cooper rivers and one of the largest harbors on
the Atlantic coast, Charleston is a few miles from idyllic beaches and tropical, barrier islands
along the Intracoastal Waterway, which golfers know as the world's longest water hazard. In 1786,
America's first golf green was set up in what is now downtown Charleston by British merchants, who
established the South Carolina Golf Club, now known as The Country Club of Charleston. Today,
nearly two dozen championship golf courses designed by some of the stars of the game are clustered
around greater Charleston, making this a major golfing destination in the Southeast.
In the late 1970's, Tom Fazio kicked off the modern age of golf in the Charleston area by laying
out the Links Course at
Wild Dunes Resort on flattish Low Country terrain on the Isle of Palms, amid
massive natural sand dunes, saltwater marshes, fragrant magnolias, palms and twisted oaks. On
rolling fairways, golfers battle relentless winds off the ocean. Fazio's second creation at Wild
Dunes, the Harbor Course plays inland, finishing with three holes on the Waterway and the
marsh. Steps away from the fairways, new luxury condominiums are available to buy or rent at
The Village at Wild Dunes.
 Kiawah Fairways
Winding out of Charleston through overhanging oak trees, Bohicket Road leads to the vacation
and golf mecca of Kiawah Island Resort. Bursting onto the international scene when
it hosted the hotly contested 1991 Ryder Cup matches—"The War by the Shore"—followed by
two World Cup of Golf competitions, the 7,356-yard Ocean Course at Kiawah is notorious for
Pete Dye's long, forced carries and for strong winds on ten seaside holes. Bordering Haulover
Creek and the Kiawah River, fairways are menaced by tidal creeks and lagoons and by high dunes
along two miles of oceanfront. A charmer with a wood-shingled exterior and wraparound verandas,
the new $24 million clubhouse will be headquarters for the 2012 PGA Championship.
Famous course architects and players have made their mark at Kiawah, including Gary Player at
Cougar Point, where herons stalk silently in the shallow ponds, seeking their catches of
the day. Fairway moguls and swales make flat lies rare on Tom Fazio's Osprey Point, laid
around large natural lakes, marshes and a maritime forest. 'Gators float in the ponds and sun
themselves on the first hole of Clyde Johnson's Oak Point Golf Club, an affordable track
just inland of the island.
Jack Nicklaus designed Turtle Point in the early '80s, then updated it in 2000 with faster,
flatter greens and larger bunkers, winding the narrow track alongside lagoons beneath live oaks,
tall pines and palmettos, finishing with a flourish on three waterfront holes. Adjacent to the
course, a grand hostelry, The Sanctuary at Kiawah Island Golf Resort is a Mobil 5-star and
AAA 5-diamond property right on Atlantic shores. Families rent villas and homes on Kiawah,
enjoying ten miles of private beach lapped by calm, warm surf, an award-winning tennis complex and
nature activities.
Quiet Hideaway
A half-hour's drive south of downtown Charleston in secluded enclave of Seabrook Island
Resort, the Crooked Oaks Course is a narrow, links-style track running
through Low Country woods and well watered by mirror-like waterways. A recent multi-million-dollar
update added bentgrass greens, which are unusual in the region. The duney, breezy Ocean Winds
Course was designed by a legendary architect in the Southeast, Willard Byrd, who brought into
play a vast tidal marsh, habitat for spectators that include the occasional alligator, egrets,
endangered wood storks and myriad other birdlife. Vacationers in the villas and townhomes on the
shoreline of the Bohicket River and on the oceanfront and lakefront are accorded access to tee
times at Seabrook, and to the beach and racquet clubs, the equestrian center, and a marina for
yachts and charter boats that ply the marine creeks and the ocean for fish, crab and shrimp.
 Four in Mount Pleasant
Across the Cooper River from the city in the suburb of Mount Pleasant, four public-access
courses are standouts. More than a mile of wooden bridges crisscross reedy wetlands at Charleston
National Country Club, where balls bounce off century-old oaks and get lost in the
palmettos, thanks to Rees Jones' layout of long, tough carries. Shortly before the course was set
to open as a private venue, thousands of trees were blasted down by Hurricane Hugo, whereupon the
course was transformed into a wider-fairway, reasonably priced public track, all the better for
visiting players.
Annika Sorenstam hosted the 2008 Ginn Tribute at RiverTowne Country Club, an LPGA tournament
won by Seon Hwa Lee in a sudden-death playoff with Karrie Webb. A 7,200-yard Arnold Palmer
Signature course anchored by an impressive white-columned mansion, RiverTowne traces the shores of
Wando River and Horlbeck Creek on wide, windswept fairways.
On the site of Revolutionary War and Civil War battles, The Links at Stono Ferry, a Ron Garl design,
starts in groves of oaks and pines, finishing with three holes along the Intracoastal Waterway and
an island hole on the 18th.
Golfers love to stay in the harborside cottages at the Belvedere Club and Resort in Mount
Pleasant, as the property offers tee time arrangements for RiverTowne and for Patriots Point
Links. Brushed by unpredictable winds, three holes on Patriots Point jut right into
Charleston Harbor, and the rest, nearly treeless, are bordered by Shem Creek and numerous with
streams and ponds.
Just up the road, Patriots Point Naval and Maritime Museum, the home of the "Fighting Lady"
WWII aircraft carrier "Yorktown", is one of the many historic attractions of Charleston.
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