January 2023 Golf Trip in Hilton Head

[billchao]

2 hours ago, Carl3 said:

Bill, I won't be able to attend. Work demands are unfortunately looking heavy for January/February. 

Thanks,

Carl

Understandable. I’m sure we’ll meet again.

2 hours ago, iacas said:

I'll keep myself as a "maybe" for now - it sounds like I'd be the fourth, so if I show up or not probably won't affect plans and I can decide pretty late. Though if you do get a solid fourth, that may make the decision for me as five is a weird number for this kind of thing.

Sounds good. 

[DaveP043]

Mary Anne and I are still in.  I just got to Pinehurst, with my golf buddies, so she and I won't have much chance to talk it over, but I'll let her know the deal.  Once we get a chance to figure out our plans and a more detailed schedule, we'll be in touch.

Thanks again for putting this all together.

[iacas]

Now almost certainly out, as Natalie's current plans are to drive back down with Pete and Nick from Maine.

[Bucki1968]

On 11/11/2022 at 4:40 PM, billchao said:

So as of right now we're down to @DaveP043, Mary Anne, and myself confirmed. I spoke with @Hardspoon and he's not going to make it.

The plan is to just play one round each day and have tee times in the late mornings. This way we don't have to get up early or rush from place to place due to limited daylight and it gives us more flexibility in terms of finding available tee times. There's just not enough time to experience everything so I decided on the Sea Pines Resort courses over the Palmetto Dunes Oceanfront Resort courses.

Here's a tentative schedule:

Monday 1/9 - Arrival. Not sure what everyone's travel plans are so I'm not going to plan any golf for now. My flight into Savannah should arrive around 11:15 AM. I was originally planning on renting a car but I don't think we'll need an extra vehicle so I'll probably take an Uber or a taxi out of the airport. Hotel check-in is after 4:00 PM. 

Tuesday 1/10 - Old South Golf Links

Wednesday 1/11 - Atlantic Dunes

Thursday 1/12 - Heron Point

Friday 1/13 - Hilton Head National

Saturday 1/14 - The Golf Club at Hilton Head Lakes. Departure. Again, not sure what everyone's travel plans are. My flight is basically 8:00 PM so I think I'll plan to play golf sometime during the day, even if it's by myself. The course is fairly close to I95 FWIW.

I'm open to changing the course selection. I'm still kind of debating over Harbour Town. If we go that route then we hit all three Sea Pines Resort courses and do that T-W-Th or W-Th-F and drop Hilton Head National or Hilton Head Lakes.

I'll start looking into dining options soon. That's the most important part of the trip anyway 

Hey, just got back from HH. Played Harbour Town, Atlantic Dunes, Old South golf links and Oyster Reef. 
 

Harbour Town cost us 300.00 and Atlantic Dunes was 150.00. Caddy fee is recommended 40.00 per player for fore caddy. We liked Harbour Town but we weren’t all that impressed with Atlanta Dunes (which was surprising because all our research said it might be better than HT). We LOVED old south and oyster reef. Both great courses. All were in pretty good shape but best greens were oyster creek and old south. Just over seeded at sea pines. Was nice to walk both courses at sea pines. They are very walkable. Just thought I would throw you some info. Old south cost us 78.00 and oyster reef was 99.00.

[Bucki1968]

17 hours ago, Bucki1968 said:

Hey, just got back from HH. Played Harbour Town, Atlantic Dunes, Old South golf links and Oyster Reef. 
 

Harbour Town cost us 300.00 and Atlantic Dunes was 150.00. Caddy fee is recommended 40.00 per player for fore caddy. We liked Harbour Town but we weren’t all that impressed with Atlanta Dunes (which was surprising because all our research said it might be better than HT). We LOVED old south and oyster reef. Both great courses. All were in pretty good shape but best greens were oyster creek and old south. Just over seeded at sea pines. Was nice to walk both courses at sea pines. They are very walkable. Just thought I would throw you some info. Old south cost us 78.00 and oyster reef was 99.00.

Forgot to add I, I was told by other players (and various other golfers not in our group) that Hilton Head National is in phenomenal shape right now. I think they did mention that it was slightly more $ than old south. They all said they liked the layout at old south better. I'm getting this info second hand for what it's worth.

[billchao]

Thanks for the feedback, @Bucki1968.

May I ask what you didn’t like at Atlantic Dunes? I’ve also read that a lot of people liked it better that Harbour Town; more specifically that HT in the off-season isn’t kept at championship condition and isn’t worth the extra money.

I’d probably bite the bullet and play HT if this was the only trip to Hilton Head I was planning on doing in my life but I have this timeshare access for 37 more years 😃

[Bucki1968]

I didn't think Atlantic Dunes was a bad golf course but the others in the group didn't like it as much. If I had to choose to play Harbour Town or Atlantic Dunes, I'm picking HT every time. I think Atlantic Dunes just looks a little "artificial" to me? It's not as much fun to play Atlantic Dunes was pretty much the overall opinion.  I actually shot a better score on Harbour Town in harder conditions on a longer course. Harbour Town will really test you. Best par 3's I've ever seen on a golf course.  It cost way too much money. But we wanted to check it off the list so....

[Chris Brooks]

I played Atlantic Dunes about a year ago and won't go back. It felt like every Florida real estate golf course I've played on, though thankfully the houses are set pretty far back from the fairways. The name "Atlantic Dunes" is a bit of a joke - the course feels manufactured and the only chance of seeing the Atlantic is if you stand on your toes on the par 3 on the back 9.

All that said, the course was in good shape and staff were very friendly.

[billchao]

1 hour ago, Chris Brooks said:

The name "Atlantic Dunes" is a bit of a joke - the course feels manufactured and the only chance of seeing the Atlantic is if you stand on your toes on the par 3 on the back 9.

Well it is on the Atlantic Ocean even if you can’t see it. There’s only a handful of holes on the whole island where you can see the ocean from what I can tell.

[Chris Brooks]

10 hours ago, billchao said:

Well it is on the Atlantic Ocean even if you can’t see it. There’s only a handful of holes on the whole island where you can see the ocean from what I can tell.

Probably true, and probably why I'm not terribly interested in returning to HH.

[billchao]

1 hour ago, Chris Brooks said:

Probably true, and probably why I'm not terribly interested in returning to HH.

Yea it’s not really an oceanfront golfing destination if that was what you were looking for.

[klineka]

@billchao @DaveP043

What are your guy's thoughts after playing the Sea Pines courses (and the others that you played)?

I am going down to HHI in 6 weeks and trying to figure out where I want to play, only playing 1 round since it is a family vacation after all.

I played Harbour Town last year so as of right now I am leaning towards Atlantic Dunes since that seems to be the "next best" rated for public courses after Harbour Town.

[billchao]

27 minutes ago, klineka said:

@billchao @DaveP043

What are your guy's thoughts after playing the Sea Pines courses (and the others that you played)?

I am going down to HHI in 6 weeks and trying to figure out where I want to play, only playing 1 round since it is a family vacation after all.

I played Harbour Town last year so as of right now I am leaning towards Atlantic Dunes since that seems to be the "next best" rated for public courses after Harbour Town.

We played four courses: Atlantic Dunes, Heron Point, Old South, and Hilton Head National. Of the two Sea Pines courses we played, I felt Atlantic Dunes was the better one. The layout was more fun but still provided a challenge. I didn't like Heron Point at all. I felt it was excessively penal. Like you hit a good shot but just slightly too far on the wrong line and you're OB by a foot type of penal. Lots of weird doglegs that force longer hitters to hit less than driver off the tee and then still have a long approach to the green, and dogleg par 5s where you have to hit 200 off the tee and have 300 to the green. It was kind of everything I hate about a housing development course.

Old South and Hilton Head National are both off the Island, but just off in Bluffton. Both are good courses, but Hilton Head National just didn't have the Hilton Head marshland golf vibe to me. It felt like it could have been built in eastern Ohio. It was still a good layout and fun. Old South has several quirky holes with 90° doglegs but the views were spectacular. You definitely know you're playing next to a tidal marsh. Of the four, Old South is the one on my list for the next trip.

[klineka]

1 hour ago, billchao said:

Like you hit a good shot but just slightly too far on the wrong line and you're OB by a foot type of penal. Lots of weird doglegs that force longer hitters to hit less than driver off the tee and then still have a long approach to the green, and dogleg par 5s where you have to hit 200 off the tee and have 300 to the green. It was kind of everything I hate about a housing development course.

Yeah I'm good on that, that's exactly the kind of course I hate as well, especially being a longer hitter.

[gbogey]

17 hours ago, billchao said:

We played four courses: Atlantic Dunes, Heron Point, Old South, and Hilton Head National. Of the two Sea Pines courses we played, I felt Atlantic Dunes was the better one.

I played Atlantic Dunes last month and I thought it was very enjoyable. It was my third course done by Davis Love. I must say that all three have been very fun to play with a good mix of challenge but not overly penal.