Harbour Town Golf Links

[klineka]

I will be traveling to Hilton Head for a family vacation in about a month and have a tee time booked to play Harbour Town. I'm looking forward to it as this will be the first course I've played that has hosted a PGA Tour event.

A couple things I'm trying to decide are which tees to play from and if I want to take a full caddie or just the forecaddie that is mandatory.

The blue tees are 6,681 and I would have no problem with that length on a normal course near me, but the 73.4/144 rating is quite a bit higher than I'm used to and feels a bit intimidating based on some of the writeups I've read so far about the course. The white tees are 6,253 and 71.4/136 which is much more in line with what I typically play in terms of rating. I'd rather enjoy the course over getting my teeth kicked in so not even considering the back tees.

Even with someone else carrying my bag, the thought of walking 18 holes in August doesn't sound all that appealing, so even though it's cart path only I still think I'm leaning towards the forecaddie and riding in a cart. Would be nice to have a space for drinks, towels, some shade, etc.

Has anyone played it before? If so, thoughts? 

I think the plan is for my wife to drop me off before the round then have her and my son come back over and we all hang out around The Sea Pines area the rest of the day after the round. Would love any advice or recommendations for food, shopping, etc too. 

Edited July 27, 2023 by klineka

[billchao]

@DaveP043 and I went to Hilton Head together earlier this year. We didn’t play Harbour Town, though, so I won’t be much help there.

I would recommend checking out the actual harbor area down there. There were a bunch of little shops in the area that we didn’t get to spend too much time at, but we did have a beer on the second floor of a restaurant right by the lighthouse with a great view across the water to the 18th hole.

Are you looking for food recommendations right in the Sea Pines area or just in Hilton Head in general?

[klineka]

45 minutes ago, billchao said:

Are you looking for food recommendations right in the Sea Pines area or just in Hilton Head in general?

I'll take any recommendations if you have them. I've never been to the area and my wife has only been once.

[billchao]

55 minutes ago, klineka said:

I'll take any recommendations if you have them. I've never been to the area and my wife has only been once.

I hope you like seafood 😃

Scott’s Fish Market was pretty good. It’s pretty much in the middle of the island right on the marina where you can see boats that cost more than your house. The place smelled like fried fish as soon as you walk in the door. I got the seafood platter and everything was perfectly cooked. Also they made pretty good Bloody Mary’s.

Fishcamp on Broad Creek was also another hit in my book. I’m trying to remember what I ate there. I think it was the seafood pasta. I know the hush puppies were good.

For breakfast stuff I recommend Hilton Head Social Bakery. Classic French pastries and croissants. They have two locations and the one by Scott’s was closed when I went because it was the off-season, but their South location is pretty close to the entrance to Sea Pines.

The other place that really sticks out in my head is The Cottage which is in Old Bluffton, so it’s not on the island. It’s a breakfast and brunch place. I think they close in the early afternoon. It’s an old small house someone converted into a restaurant and it’s got quite a lot of character. I got shrimp and grits there which were delicious, but did not partake in any of their pastries or cakes.

[Maroon88]

On 7/27/2023 at 8:34 AM, klineka said:

I will be traveling to Hilton Head for a family vacation in about a month and have a tee time booked to play Harbour Town. I'm looking forward to it as this will be the first course I've played that has hosted a PGA Tour event.

A couple things I'm trying to decide are which tees to play from and if I want to take a full caddie or just the forecaddie that is mandatory.

The blue tees are 6,681 and I would have no problem with that length on a normal course near me, but the 73.4/144 rating is quite a bit higher than I'm used to and feels a bit intimidating based on some of the writeups I've read so far about the course. The white tees are 6,253 and 71.4/136 which is much more in line with what I typically play in terms of rating. I'd rather enjoy the course over getting my teeth kicked in so not even considering the back tees.

Even with someone else carrying my bag, the thought of walking 18 holes in August doesn't sound all that appealing, so even though it's cart path only I still think I'm leaning towards the forecaddie and riding in a cart. Would be nice to have a space for drinks, towels, some shade, etc.

Has anyone played it before? If so, thoughts? 

I think the plan is for my wife to drop me off before the round then have her and my son come back over and we all hang out around The Sea Pines area the rest of the day after the round. Would love any advice or recommendations for food, shopping, etc too. 

I played Harbour Town several yrs ago with 3 other guys.  We were there on a business trip, but made time for golf.  It remains my favorite course I've ever played.  We rode in carts but had a forecaddie for the group.  He was awesome!  It's amazing how after a few swings he knows how far you hit each club.  Be prepared to tip him (I think we tipped him $100 each).

We played one teebox up from the tips. If/when I go back I'll probably play the same tees because even though my Hcp is lower, I don't hit as far as I used to.

[jsgolfer]

I have a good friend who is a Member there and he says, you should play the white tees.

[klineka]

Back from the trip, enjoyed the trip and the golf course overall.

@billchao Thanks for the food recommendations, we did try Scott's Fish Market one night, it was great. I got a shrimp pasta and it was one of my favorite meals of the week.

My wife and son went to the Hilton Head Social Bakery inside Sea Pines after they dropped me off at the golf course. They enjoyed that as well.

I'd be happy to give additional recommendations too if anyone wants any.

The shrimp pasta at Scott's Fish Market.

 

Now onto the actual golf course.

I thoroughly enjoyed the round and the experience. The golf course itself didn't blow me away architecturally, but the conditioning and other things about entire experience as a whole helped elevate the day. 

I arrived about an hour prior to the tee time so I could get breakfast. They took my clubs right away, loaded them onto a cart and I went and checked in at the Pro Shop.

I walked around inside a bit and briefly checked out the Pete Dye room, which was a cool exhibit detailing Pete Dye and the building of the golf course. Then I went over to the restaurant and didn't think to ask for a menu or anything, just asked for a breakfast sandwich and it ended up being a breakfast BLT. I hadn't had one of these before but it was very good. Exactly as it sounds, a BLT sandwich with 2 fried eggs and a couple slices of cheese all on toasted bread served alongside some breakfast potatoes with peppers and onions. I ate this outside on a chair overlooking the practice putting green and driving range, a great (and filling) way to start my morning.

View right as you step outside the clubhouse doors. Practice putting green in front, driving range in the back right and the 1st tee over to the left just out of frame.

 

After breakfast I went over to the warmup area and hit some shots. All the range balls were ProV1x balls which was a cool touch. Range was hitting from mats and the netting started about 250yds from the mats. Netting was plenty high enough though so you could hit every club in the bag no problem. 

Had a less than ideal warmup, irons and wedges were fine and normal but hybrid, 3wood, and driver all had snap hooks/pull draws which is very unusual for me. Not quite the most confidence inspiring warmup I was looking for heading into a golf course that requires precision off the tee. 

Rolled some practice putts, green was in great shape and a comfortable speed (nothing too drastically different from my home course) and then it was off to the first tee where I met the forecaddie and the 3 other guys in my group who were there on a golf trip. Forecaddie was great, he gave us general guidance for where to aim/hit off the tee and how far to certain trouble spots. Then he'd go up a ways and watch our balls land and give us yardages in. The at the green he'd help with reads if we wanted. I got in a nice rhythm where if I would read the putt and then tell him where my read was and he'd either confirm or adjust slightly. But for the most part I was fairly close with my reads which helped give me confidence.

I'm not going to go hole by hole but I'll just give some general commentary on the course and my round.

I did end up playing from the blue tees along with 2 of the other guys in my group with the 4th playing from the whites. The other two guys who played from blues were about the same as me in terms of distance off the tee and we all felt that blue was the right choice. Even on some par 4s where I clipped a tree or something with my tee shot, I was still always has a realistic chance to get nGIR/GIR with my approach shots.

I shot 41-40 for a 5.3 differential and with it being rated 74.0/150 it was easily the toughest rated course I'll play all year. Considering I didn't have my best stuff off the tee I was pleased with that score. I will say that the course doesn't play nearly as narrow as I was expecting. There weren't very many times where it completely took driver out of my hands, you almost always had plenty of options available to you off the tee which I really enjoyed.

My short game kept me in it, I had a couple ridiculously good up and downs including hole 3 where I had a very tight lie and played a low but super spinny shot that carried over the brow of a bunker and took one hop and stopped on a dime a few inches from the hole. Another one on hole 9 where I had a crowd of about 20-30 people watching from the clubhouse and I hit a high soft flop shot to a short sided pin and left myself about 6 feet and made the putt.

I thought the par 3s were by far the strength of the course. They were all great holes visually and were fun to play. Hole 7 was probably my favorite hole on the front 9, it was a ~175yd par 3 that had a ton of different options for tee placement. Two big trees guard the front of the green and most of the green is surrounded by sand. We had a front pin and I hit one of my better shots of the day, an 8iron about 15-18 feet straight over the flagstick and made par.

The back 9 from holes 13-18 was by far my favorite stretch of the course. Great green complexes, variety of doglegs and visuals off the tee, and the approach shot into 16 when you come around the corner and start getting glimpses of the water was cool too.

Highlight of the day for me was the par 3 17th hole. I had 177 straight downwind and caddie said there's a pretty severe drop off behind the green with not much room after that so I went with 8iron. Struck it well and had about 15 feet left for birdie. I read it myself and this one was by far our biggest difference in read. I read it ~6 inches out to the left, breaking left to right. He said there was some heavy grain near the hole and that it was a right edge putt. I decided to trust him completely and did right edge. Started the putt right where I wanted to and it looked like it was going to veer off right but then in the last couple feet the grain nudged it back left and it dropped in the right center of the hole for my only birdie of the day. Shoutout Greg for the read!

Tee shot on 17 and a still shot from the video that one of my playing partners offered to take of all our tee shots on that hole. Flag is just a bit right of the lone palm tree.

 

Then onto the famous 18th. I hit a fairly solid tee shot on 18, not a great approach with the ball barely clearing the tall grass near the green but hit my chip shot to about 10 feet and drained the putt to save par and play my final 4 holes in -1. I didn't realize how narrow 18's green is, the green itself is tucked much further left than I realized.

Pace of play was great, we played right in 4 hours including grabbing some food from the halfway house. We had time for pictures and such but never felt overall rushed nor were we ever waiting long to hit our shots.

 

Outside of the par 3s, the rest of the holes were pretty good, but not great or jaw dropping in my opinion. The par 4s and 5s blended together and didn't have a whole lot that made them stand out in my mind. Comparing to the other highly ranked course I've played this year being Mid Pines, I enjoyed and can remember far more of the par 4s and 5s at Mid Pines than Harbour Town.

The greens were in phenomenal shape, probably the best greens I have ever putted on. Also the fact that I was pouring in putts and gained +4.10 strokes putting compared to scratch might skew that opinion slightly. Or maybe I putted so well because of the greens. There was quite a bit of undulation in the greens, but they always played much straighter than they looked at first glance. I believe these greens are annually the smallest on tour, but putting from off the green was almost always an option unless you were in a bunker so that helped make the greens feel bigger than they actually were.

Plenty of other amenities helped elevate the experience as well, towels, cooler stocked with water on each cart plus someone coming around every few holes offering refills of water/towels, etc which was appreciated as the heat index was in the 90s when we started and was likely over 100 for most of the back 9 although we did have a fairly steady breeze throughout which did help some.   

I had a great experience overall, I'm not sure I'd be rushing back to play it again given the rather steep price tag and how many other courses are on the island, I'd like to see some of the other courses on the island first, but I wouldn't mind giving it another shot some day.

[billchao]

12 hours ago, klineka said:

Back from the trip, enjoyed the trip and the golf course overall.

@billchao Thanks for the food recommendations, we did try Scott's Fish Market one night, it was great. I got a shrimp pasta and it was one of my favorite meals of the week.

My wife and son went to the Hilton Head Social Bakery inside Sea Pines after they dropped me off at the golf course. They enjoyed that as well.

You’re welcome! I’m glad you enjoyed my recommendations. Sounds like you guys had a great trip.

12 hours ago, klineka said:

I'd be happy to give additional recommendations too if anyone wants any.

I’m sure I’ll hit you up at some point in the future. I will be going back.

12 hours ago, klineka said:

Outside of the par 3s, the rest of the holes were pretty good, but not great or jaw dropping in my opinion. The par 4s and 5s blended together and didn't have a whole lot that made them stand out in my mind.

When I was researching the courses for my trip, this was kind of the feeling that I got from all the serious reviews of the course. It’s just not particularly special, save for a few holes. Given the price to play, it was a fairly easy decision to skip it. I’m sure I’ll play it one day just to check it off the list but it’s not a course I feel like I have to play.