Anyone Been to Santee SC, or RTJ trail?

[Big_M]

I live in Charlotte and am thinking of taking a short trip (1-2 nights, 2-4 rounds) with one other person in early spring (late Feb, early March). I need to pull it off on the cheap, so I'm thinking of Santee SC, in the Lake Marion area. The other option might be to hit up a couple courses on the RTJ trail in Alabama. Has anyone played any of these courses or been to these areas?

Santee I'm looking at...
Santee National GC
Wyboo GC
Lake Marion GC
Santee Cooper CC
Crowfield Plantation

RTJ Trail...
Grand National Lakes and Links courses
Capitol Hill Judge, Legislator, and Senator courses

[PiKapp23]

My cousin lives on Lake Marion and her husband swears by the Santee Cooper course. He also likes the Lake Marion course and says Wyboo is nice. My uncle lives on Crowfield Plantation which he plays and really likes, although he says it's pretty difficult, It's about 45 minutes south toward Charleston. A few people I work with go in a very large group every fall (just under 100 players) and say it's much better than Myrtle Beach if you are going for golf, because it's cheaper for more golf and less crowded, but there's not a lot of other stuff to do in the area. They say the courses are probably not as 'nice' as the courses at Myrtle, but the price factor overrules.

[Big_M]

My cousin lives on Lake Marion and her husband swears by the Santee Cooper course. He also likes the Lake Marion course and says Wyboo is nice. My uncle lives on Crowfield Plantation which he plays and really likes, although he says it's pretty difficult, It's about 45 minutes south toward Charleston. A few people I work with go in a very large group every fall (just under 100 players) and say it's much better than Myrtle Beach if you are going for golf, because it's cheaper for more golf and less crowded, but there's not a lot of other stuff to do in the area. They say the courses are probably not as 'nice' as the courses at Myrtle, but the price factor overrules.

Thanks for the reply... yeah, I did Mytrle over the summer and the Sandhills last spring, and plan to do one of those again later this year. For now I just want something cheap and a tiny bit further south to favor warmer (if only slightly) weather. I don't really need to play the best courses, but wanted to play something pretty good, and it seems like the Santee area might be cheaper than Myrtle or the Sandhills because of where it is.

What is the area like?

[Hackerpratt]

I have a place on the lake up in Santee and played most of those courses, the only one I haven't played is Crowfield Plantation. All the others I would give a thumbs up for if you are looking for good golf for a cheap price. Wyboo is harder to get to as Santee National and Santee Cooper CC are right off of exit 98.

Hope you have fun!

[Hackerpratt]

Thanks for the reply... yeah, I did Mytrle over the summer and the Sandhills last spring, and plan to do one of those again later this year. For now I just want something cheap and a tiny bit further south to favor warmer (if only slightly) weather. I don't really need to play the best courses, but wanted to play something pretty good, and it seems like the Santee area might be cheaper than Myrtle or the Sandhills because of where it is.

There is not that much to do in Santee...a little bit country, but the people are great and there is some good old home cooking as well. If you go you HAVE TO go up to exit 108 and eat at the Summerton Dinner...it is a must for a meat and three dinner.

[CurtisBen]

I haven't played the courses listed but all of the RTJ golf trail are nice courses. I am a big fan of Ross Bridge in Birmingham and like the courses at Muscle Shoals they are nice but mostly convenient for me becasue I live about 1 1/2 hours from there quick weekend get away from or with the family.

[raygrinberg]

I've played Grand National and would play again in a heartbeat.

[putterboy]

Grand National - Would play Links then Lakes in that order
Capitol Hill - The Judge (play it twice and its a shot makers course and beautiful) then its a toss up between legislator and senator (links style fan then choose senator)

I love Ross Bridge too but I find it a bit more of a resort course - not worth the extra cash imho. I would pick the RTJ Oxmoor Valley - Ridge course down the road for a fraction of the price.

The only RTJ course that I found just 'ok' was silver lakes.

We are going for a third year in a row in early May and finally I will complete the tour with the two courses around Mobile - So looking forward to it

[lumpuckeroo]

I played Grand National, Highland Oaks, and Cambrian Ridge, there were great. We played over 4 days in late October several years ago, the weather was perfect and the course were in great shape. Playing from the proper set of tees makes a huge difference, the courses can be extremely hard if you bite off more then you can chew.....