Harbour Town Golf Links is a public golf course in the
eastern United States
The Eastern United States, commonly referred to as the American East, Eastern America, or simply the East, is the region of the United States to the east of the Mississippi River. In some cases the term may refer to a smaller area or the East C ...
, located in
South Carolina
)''Animis opibusque parati'' ( for, , Latin, Prepared in mind and resources, links=no)
, anthem = " Carolina";" South Carolina On My Mind"
, Former = Province of South Carolina
, seat = Columbia
, LargestCity = Charleston
, LargestMetro = ...
in Sea Pines Plantation on
Hilton Head Island
Hilton Head Island, sometimes referred to as simply Hilton Head, is a South Carolina Lowcountry, Lowcountry resort town and barrier island in Beaufort County, South Carolina, United States. It is northeast of Savannah, Georgia, and southwest of C ...
in
Beaufort County. Since 1969, it has hosted the
RBC Heritage
The RBC Heritage, known for much of its history as the Heritage Classic or simply the Heritage, is a PGA Tour event in South Carolina, first played in 1969. It is currently played in mid-April, the week after The Masters in Augusta, Georgia.
T ...
on the
PGA Tour
The PGA Tour (stylized in all capital letters as PGA TOUR by its officials) is the organizer of professional golf tours in the United States and North America. It organizes most of the events on the flagship annual series of tournaments also k ...
, usually in mid-April, the week after
The Masters
The Masters Tournament (usually referred to as simply The Masters, or the U.S. Masters outside North America) is one of the four major championships in professional golf. Scheduled for the first full week of April, the Masters is the first maj ...
.
Often referred to in the context of the PGA simply as "Hilton Head", Harbour Town Golf Links is ranked high among golf courses in America by ''
Golf Digest
''Golf Digest'' is a monthly golf magazine published by Warner Bros. Discovery through its sports unit under its Warner Bros. Discovery Golf division. It is a generalist golf publication covering recreational golf and men's and women's competiti ...
'' and ''
Golf Magazine
''Golf Magazine'' is a monthly golf magazine. It was started in April 1959 by Universal Publishing and Distributing, who sold it to Times Mirror in 1972. Time Inc. acquired it in 2000. It was acquired by Howard Milstein in 2018. It was the world ...
''. The course consists of narrow fairways, overhanging oaks, pines, palmettos, and dark lagoons. Harbour Town, along with the Atlantic Dunes (formerly known as ''Ocean Course'') and Heron Point, make up the
Sea Pines Resort
The Sea Pines Resort or Sea Pines is located in Sea Pines Plantation, a 5,200-acre private residential gated community located on the southern tip of the island which comprises the town of Hilton Head Island, South Carolina. Sea Pines is home to ...
.
General information
Harbour Town Golf Links was designed by
Pete Dye
Paul Dye Jr. (December 29, 1925 – January 9, 2020), known as Pete Dye, was an American golf course designer and a member of a family of course designers. He was married to fellow designer and amateur champion Alice Dye.
Early life
Dye was ...
in 1967 with the help of professional golfer
Jack Nicklaus
Jack William Nicklaus (born January 21, 1940), nicknamed The Golden Bear, is a retired American professional golfer and List of golf courses designed by Jack Nicklaus, golf course designer. He is widely considered to be one of the greatest go ...
. Dye also designed another course in the
Sea Pines Resort
The Sea Pines Resort or Sea Pines is located in Sea Pines Plantation, a 5,200-acre private residential gated community located on the southern tip of the island which comprises the town of Hilton Head Island, South Carolina. Sea Pines is home to ...
, Heron Point, which he redesigned in 2007. The course is open all year, even during overseeding in October and the aerating of the greens in June, July, and August.
Green fees for public play range from $195 to $369, depending on the season. An estimated 38,000 rounds of golf are played at Harbour Town every year.
Grass types
The holes at Harbour Town Golf Links consist of seven different types of grass. Five of the grass types, four of which are Bermudas, are able to withstand the heat during the warm summer months of
Hilton Head Island
Hilton Head Island, sometimes referred to as simply Hilton Head, is a South Carolina Lowcountry, Lowcountry resort town and barrier island in Beaufort County, South Carolina, United States. It is northeast of Savannah, Georgia, and southwest of C ...
. The other two grass types are annually overseeded in October in order to keep the course green during the cold months. The
rye grass
''Lolium'' is a genus of tufted grasses in the bluegrass subfamily (Pooideae). It is often called ryegrass, but this term is sometimes used to refer to grasses in other genera.
They are characterized by bunch-like growth habits. ''Lolium'' is ...
that is planted in October is only temporary and will eventually die out when the weather warms up, and the
Bermuda grass
''Cynodon dactylon'', commonly known as Bermuda grass, is a grass found worldwide. It is native to Europe, Africa, Australia and much of Asia. It has been introduced to the Americas. Although it is not native to Bermuda, it is an abundant invasiv ...
is no longer dormant. The
fairways and rough consist of 419 Bermuda grass.
The tee boxes are made up of Celebration Bermuda as well as TifSports Bermuda. The fairways,
rough, and tee boxes are overseeded with rye grass in October. Several tee boxes are composed of Empire Zoysia which does not become dormant (brown) in the winter. These
Zoysia
''Zoysia'' (;["Zoysia."](_blank)
entry at CollinsDictionary.com. Retrieved 5 September 2021. , -, ...
tee boxes do not need do be overseeded. Harbour Town Golf Link's greens consist of TifEagle Bermuda which is overseeded with Poa Trivialis in October. The course
superintendent
Superintendent may refer to:
*Superintendent (police), Superintendent of Police (SP), or Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP), a police rank
*Prison warden or Superintendent, a prison administrator
*Superintendent (ecclesiastical), a church exec ...
, Jonathan Wright, is in charge of maintaining the different types of grass.
Magazine rankings
''
Golf Digest
''Golf Digest'' is a monthly golf magazine published by Warner Bros. Discovery through its sports unit under its Warner Bros. Discovery Golf division. It is a generalist golf publication covering recreational golf and men's and women's competiti ...
'' ranked Harbour Town the 2011-2012 #21 ranked public course in America after previously being ranked #13 in 2010.
PGA Tour professionals rated Harbour Town the #2 ranked golf course played on tour in a survey performed by ''Golf Digest''.
''
Golf Magazine
''Golf Magazine'' is a monthly golf magazine. It was started in April 1959 by Universal Publishing and Distributing, who sold it to Times Mirror in 1972. Time Inc. acquired it in 2000. It was acquired by Howard Milstein in 2018. It was the world ...
'' rates Harbour Town the 2012 #12 rated public course in America. In 2010, it was ranked #14 in the country by ''Golf Magazine''.
Course information
Harbour Town Golf Links is a
par 71 course and from the back tees, relatively short for a
PGA Tour
The PGA Tour (stylized in all capital letters as PGA TOUR by its officials) is the organizer of professional golf tours in the United States and North America. It organizes most of the events on the flagship annual series of tournaments also k ...
event; most are on courses that average . For its inaugural tour event in 1969, the course was set at .
It has slick and firm Bermuda grass greens that are small in size; they average in area, while the average on tour is .
Several holes have a very small margin of error between greens and water hazards (4, 8, 14, 17, 18).
Tee
A tee is a stand used in sport to support and elevate a stationary ball prior to striking with a foot, club or bat. Tees are used extensively in golf, tee-ball, baseball, American football, and rugby.
Etymology
The word tee is derived from the ...
shots and lay-ups must be placed in the strategic part of fairway in order to have a direct shot into the green. Sometimes golfers get blocked out by overhanging trees, even if they are in the fairway. Holes in which players may be blocked out from the fairway include numbers 1, 2, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 15, and 16. Compared to other courses Harbour Town has high percentage of holes with this challenge.
The ninth hole is a tight par 4 that can be reached from the tee with a long drive. It normally plays around , tempting golfers to go for a small green guarded by bunkers. The two finishing holes are along Calibogue Sound, so the water line can vary due to changing tides. The hazard line is permanent, but shots can be played off the sand at
low tide. On the final two holes, wind off the water must be factored. The seventeenth hole, a par three, plays southwest and usually into a headwind. The eighteenth is the
signature hole
A golf course is the grounds on which the sport of golf is played. It consists of a series of holes, each consisting of a tee box, a fairway, the rough and other hazards, and a green with a cylindrical hole in the ground, known as a "cup". ...
and heads northward; its entire left side is guarded by the sound and the right is lined with out of bounds stakes. The red-and-white-striped
Harbour Town
Harbour Town is a shopping centre concept that incorporates multiple factory outlets in one centre. As of February 2021, there are two locations owned and operated under the Harbour Town brand: Biggera Waters, on Queensland's Gold Coast, and ...
lighthouse is a backdrop, often a good target for approach shots to the green.
:
The Heritage Classic
Beginning in 1969, Harbour Town Golf Links has hosted the annual RBC Heritage
The RBC Heritage, known for much of its history as the Heritage Classic or simply the Heritage, is a PGA Tour event in South Carolina, first played in 1969. It is currently played in mid-April, the week after The Masters in Augusta, Georgia.
T ...
on the PGA Tour
The PGA Tour (stylized in all capital letters as PGA TOUR by its officials) is the organizer of professional golf tours in the United States and North America. It organizes most of the events on the flagship annual series of tournaments also k ...
, held in April the weekend following the Masters Tournament
The Masters Tournament (usually referred to as simply The Masters, or the U.S. Masters outside North America) is one of the four major championships in professional golf. Scheduled for the first full week of April, the Masters is the first maj ...
. Royal Bank of Canada
Royal Bank of Canada (RBC; french: Banque royale du Canada) is a Canadian multinational financial services company and the largest bank in Canada by market capitalization. The bank serves over 17 million clients and has more than 89,000& ...
(RBC) now sponsors the golf tournament after Verizon discontinued their sponsorship of the event following the 2010 event. It is the only PGA Tour event that is annually held in South Carolina. The Ocean Course at Kiawah Island has hosted the PGA Championship
The PGA Championship (often referred to as the US PGA Championship or USPGA outside the United States) is an annual golf tournament conducted by the Professional Golfers' Association of America. It is one of the four men's major championships ...
twice, won by Rory McIlroy in August 2012
File:2012 Events Collage V3.png, From left, clockwise: The passenger cruise ship Costa Concordia lies capsized after the Costa Concordia disaster; Damage to Casino Pier in Seaside Heights, New Jersey as a result of Hurricane Sandy; People gather ...
and Phil Mickelson
Philip Alfred Mickelson (born June 16, 1970), nicknamed Lefty, is an American professional golfer who plays for LIV Golf. He has won 45 events on the PGA Tour, including six Men's major golf championships, major championships: three Masters To ...
in May 2021
File:2021 collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: the James Webb Space Telescope was launched in 2021; Protesters in Yangon, Myanmar following the 2021 Myanmar coup d'état, coup d'état; A civil demonstration against the October–November 2021 ...
.
The inaugural tournament, "The Heritage Golf Classic", was held in late November 1969, with a winner's share of Forty-year-old Arnold Palmer
Arnold Daniel Palmer (September 10, 1929 – September 25, 2016) was an American professional golfer who is widely regarded as one of the greatest and most charismatic players in the sport's history. Dating back to 1955, he won numerous ev ...
claimed the first victory in 1969 with 283 (–1) on November 30 for his 55th win on tour, but his first in over The Heritage Classic, undergoing several different official names, has been held at Harbour Town annually since 1969. The founder of Sea Pines, Charles E. Fraser
Charles Elbert Fraser (June 13, 1929December 15, 2002) was an American real estate developer whose vision helped transform South Carolina's Hilton Head Island from a sparsely populated sea island into a world-class resort. He graduated from the ...
, started the tradition of the Heritage Classic, and the tournament is always started with a ceremonial tee shot into Calibogue Sound by the defending champion; a cannon is fired simultaneously as the ball is struck.
PGA Tour professionals rated the course #2 in a ''Golf Digest'' survey named "Top 10 PGA Tour Courses" in 2012, behind only Augusta National
Augusta National Golf Club, sometimes referred to as Augusta or the National, is a golf club in Augusta, Georgia, United States. Unlike most private clubs which operate as non-profits, Augusta National is a for-profit corporation, and it does no ...
, ranked the world's greatest golf course by ''Golf Digest''.
Harbour Town offers a different sort of challenge than most of the courses played on tour; the course plays differently due to the short yardage and tight fairways. Most courses played on tour are much longer in yardage but have a wider margin of error off the tee and through the green. Strategically placed oaks, pines, and palmettos line and overhang the slim fairways. Professionals will sometimes find themselves having no direct shot to the green even from their own fairway. Tee shots have to be placed on the ideal side of the fairway in order to win the tournament. Another challenging aspect of the course is from the small and slick Bermuda greens. Breaks are subtle and tricky to read as a result of the grain present in the Bermuda grass. Lagoons
A lagoon is a shallow body of water separated from a larger body of water by a narrow landform, such as reefs, barrier islands, barrier peninsulas, or isthmuses. Lagoons are commonly divided into ''coastal lagoons'' (or ''barrier lagoons'') an ...
and inner coastal waterways edge up to the greens forcing players to take more conservative shots.
Winning scores vary considerably from year to year because of the different challenges. Tour players may take advantage of the short yardages and having wedge
A wedge is a triangular shaped tool, and is a portable inclined plane, and one of the six simple machines. It can be used to separate two objects or portions of an object, lift up an object, or hold an object in place. It functions by converti ...
shots into the greens, but at the same time run the risk of finding themselves in the thick trees with no shot or in a water hazard. The record low score at The Heritage is by Webb Simpson
James Frederick Webb Simpson (born August 8, 1985) is an American professional golfer on the PGA Tour who won the 2012 U.S. Open and the 2018 Players Championship.
As an amateur, he was a member of the United States' victorious 2007 Walker C ...
in 2020, with a victory margin of one shot. Champions now win a prize of over $1.2 million, as well as the traditional tartan plaid jacket.
References
External links
*{{official website, https://www.seapines.com/golf/harbour-town-golf-links.aspx
Sea Pines resort official website
Buildings and structures in Beaufort County, South Carolina
Golf clubs and courses in South Carolina
Golf clubs and courses designed by Pete Dye
Tourist attractions in Beaufort County, South Carolina
1967 establishments in South Carolina