12/16/2023 0 Comments 9 summer islands lane kiawah video![]() Behind and to the right of the raised green are dead with wet marsh swallowing golf balls. The 2nd hole is a great example of this with a fairway that runs perpendicular to the tee. All but the longest hitters are forced to play the par 5 as a three shot hole. The par 5s on the Ocean Course all seem to zig-zag. This hole is the pit lane before pulling out onto the race track. The fairway is fairly wide, but anything down the left side is safe. The first hole eases golfers into the round. It may be one of the toughest in the world, but it is also very fair. The course will only destroy you if you stray from the well-defined areas of play. ![]() I love how the fairways are wide and well-defined on the course. You realize just how much work must have gone into building the site when looking at the expansive flat marshlands on Kiawah Island. The design team did one heck of a job. The landscape was completely flat before Dye came in to build up dunes, fairways, and greens. Stern designed clubhouse and the two nines run out on either side of the building. The central hub of the course is the Robert A.M. Dye made use of the best land on hand, but those long cart rights at the beginning and middle of the round is a little jarring and definitely feel more American than anything Scottish. The only weakness in the routing is the use of carts to get from the clubhouse to the first tee, and the 9th green to the 10th tee. The front nine goes out and back to the clubhouse, followed by the same on the back nine. The course’s routing could be seen as a modern take on the traditional “out and back” links layouts in Scotland. The Kiawah Island Ocean Course was designed by Pete and Alice Dye in 1991. When asked what changes the course would undergo for 2021, he replied, “Not a single thing.” It was surreal to see the legendary architect in front of his masterpiece. ![]() In addition to a laundry list of other honors, the course was recently tapped to host the 2021 PGA Championship. I was able to attend the announcement press conference in the clubhouse where Pete Dye spoke about the course. The Ocean Course was ranked #43 in the World by Golf Magazine in 2013. The only negative is that playing one of the toughest courses in the world as your second round in a day might result in you dying of exhaustion. Your “replay” rate is around $190, which is quite a good deal. One tip is to play the Ocean Course as your second round of the day after playing another Kiawah Island Golf Resort course in the morning. If you stay in the 5-Star hotel, your round costs less, but those savings are devoured by your hotel bill. When all is said and done, you are looking at around $450. If you play before 3PM, you are then required to take a caddie. If you want to play the course without staying at the Sanctuary Hotel on the Island, the round will run you $375. One thing that kept me from returning to the Ocean Course sooner was the price. We teed off at 3PM on a gorgeous South Carolina Saturday and we finished with the sun setting on our backs… Does it get any better?! Five years later, I got another crack at it and I found the course to be much more enjoyable. During my first round on the course I played with rental clubs, was intimidated by the “hardest course in the United States” moniker, and I didn’t really embrace the beautiful course. This latest round on the Kiawah Island Ocean Course marked my chance for redemption.
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