GAINSWave® Treatment In Kiawah Island, SC

3. Old Barnwell (Aiken) [#]

Architects Brian Schneider and Blake Conant borrowed classic design principles and applied them in a fresh way on a sandy parcel of rolling land outside of Aiken. The firmness of the turf that superintendent Davis Verner routinely achieves (thanks, in part, to an absence of overseeding) allows the nuances of this design to sparkle. Half-par holes abound. Can you reach the open but long green at the par-5 opener? Should you try to drive the 2nd or 14th greens? (If you try and fail, the hunter quickly becomes the hunted as deep bunkers guard these two short 4s.) Can you use the mounds at the par-4 8th to kick an approach close on the inverted L-shaped green? Or how about trying to bounce one onto the rolling green at the 235-yard 11th? Meanwhile, the rust color of the centipede rough lends this open course a heathland-like feel. Completing the ideal is the club’s ethos of giving back to the game and the community, as established by Old Barnwell founder Nick Schreiber.

4. Harbour Town (Hilton Head Island) [#, Y, P]

Small greens. Snug fairways. Subtleties galore. Since 1969, the Dye-Nicklaus collaboration has been a breath of fresh air as an annual stop on the PGA Tour, a break from the same-old bomb-and-gouge designs. Modest in yardage but long in character, Harbour Town demands accuracy off the tee and dead-eye iron play to fairways and greens framed by stately pines and knobby live oaks. Standout features include the V-shaped green on the short par-4 9th, and the railroad ties around the 13th green, a Dye signature first inspired by the architect’s travels with his wife, Alice, to Scotland in the 1960s. The closing stretch from 13 on provides an especially rousing finale, punctuated by the sight of the red-and-white striped lighthouse, looming behind the 18th green.

5. Palmetto GC (Aiken)

6. Congaree (Ridgeland)

7. Tree Farm (Batesburg)

8. Country Club of Charleston (Charleston)

9. Long Cove (Hilton Head Island)

10. Sage Valley (Graniteville)

11. Secession (Beaufort)

12. Chechessee Creek (Okatie)

13. Palmetto Bluff – May River (Bluffton) [Y, P]

This graceful design captures the allure of Lowcountry golf. Many of the features are glued to the ground as the course meanders across the property. On some holes, like at the par-3 2nd, the wetland is well short of the green; on others, such as at the dangerous short par-4 7th, the hazard is flush against the putting surface. At the par-5 15th, a pair of Spectacle bunkers hide the long approach to the green, creating a sense of mystery. Holes 13 and 14 ooze charm and embody the sort of golf that you would like to play every day.

14. The Dunes (Myrtle Beach) [Y, P]

Before World War II, Robert Trent Jones Sr. worked for the legendary Canadian architect, Stanley Thompson. Jones’ early solo works, especially at Peachtree and here at the Dunes, show a similar design flair to that which made the Toronto Terror so famous. The second nine is anchored by the iconic par-5 13th that sweeps around the lake. Indeed, many consider the second nine one of the finest in the Palmetto State. But the first nine is nearly as good, with the dogleg 2nd and 4th holes favoring perfect draws off each tee, and the green at the one-shot 9th affording the best view of the Atlantic Ocean. For more than 50 years, the Golf Writers Association of America was smart enough to convene here the week before the Masters.

15. Colleton River Club – Pete Dye (Bluffton)

16. Quixote Club (Sumter)

17. Bull’s Bay (Awendaw)

18. Kiawah Island – Cassique (Kiawah Island)

19. Old Tabby Links (Okatie)

20. Kiawah Island – River (Kiawah)

21. Caledonia (Pawleys Island) [Y, P]

Strantz’s wildly artistic style — “You either love it, or you don’t understand it yet,” a shrewd observer once noted — has attracted a cult-like following since his 2005 death. Of his nine original designs, Caledonia was his first; he followed it soon with a sister design at nearby True Blue. Among the classic Strantz touches here are an isthmus of fairway on the par-4 13th and a “devil’s ***hole” bunker at the par-3 17th, set against a Lowcountry backdrop of Spanish Moss and meandering swamps. Strantz’s designs are full of strategic genius and complicated visuals. Caledonia is no exception.

22. Camden Country Club (Camden)

23. Greenville CC – Chanticleer (Greenville)

24. Colleton River Club – Nicklaus (Bluffton)

25. Musgrove Mill (Clinton)

For our newly released Top 100 U.S. and Top 100 You Can Play lists — a process that helped us create 50 best-in-state rankings — each panelist was provided a ballot that consisted of 609 courses. Beside the list of courses were 11 “buckets,” or groupings. If our panelists considered a course to be among the top three in the U.S., they ticked that first column. If they believed the course to be among Nos. 4-10, they checked that column, followed by 11-25, 26-50, and so on out to 250+ and even a column for “remove.” Panelists were also free to write in courses that they felt should have been included on the ballot.

Points were assigned to each bucket; to arrive at an average score for each course, we divide its aggregate score by the number of votes. From those point tallies, the courses are then ranked accordingly. It is an intentionally simple and straightforward process. Why? Because it historically has produced results that are widely lauded. Like the game itself, there’s no need to unnecessarily complicate things or try to fix something that already works so well.

The key to the process is the experience and expertise of our panel. Hailing from 15 nations and all the worldwide golf meccas, each of our 127 handpicked panelists has a keen eye for architecture, both regionally and globally. Many of our panelists have played more than 1,000 courses in 20-plus countries, some over 2,000. Their handicaps range from +5 to 15.

Because the nature of course rating is so intensely subjective, no one opinion carries the day. The only way, then, to build meaningful consensus is to incorporate this diversity of panelists and experiences into one ranking.

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