Some 12 miles long and 5 miles wide, Hilton Head is a maritime jewel off the southernmost coast of South Carolina about 40 miles northwest of Savannah, Ga. Blessed with beautiful white sand beaches, lush pine and live oak forests, and an old-style southern charm, Hilton Head is among America’s leading vacation resorts and places to live.

Island visitors enjoying a beautiful day on the beach or ambling down a lush fairway might be pardoned for thinking it has always been a peaceful haven, but, in fact, this tiny island had a contentious history long before golf came to Hilton Head in the 1950s.
In the 1500s the Spanish drove out the native American Indians but not without fierce resistance. In 1663 Capt. William Hilton discovered the island and claimed it for the British Crown. During the Civil War 50,000 Union troops garrisoned on the island to protect American trade routes and plan attacks against the Confederacy.
After the war, former slaves who had worked the indigo, cotton and rice fields on the island’s plantations remained on Hilton Head, preserving their unique Gullah culture and language even to this day.
More recently, in the 1940’s Hilton Head was rediscovered as a hunting ground for wealthy sportsmen who later saw the commercial potential in the mature pine trees that covered the island. As the timber industry grew, electricity came to the island for the first time in 1950. Six years later, the bridge connecting the mainland to the island was completed, and Hilton Head stepped into the modern age for good.
Remarkably, golf wasn’t introduced to this thickly forested barrier island until 1956 when the first course, the Ocean Course, opened. The course is in Sea Pines Resort, a 5500-acre residential/recreational development pioneered by Charles Fraser, son of a timber magnate who is heralded as modern Hilton Head’s Founding Father (see profile).
Fraser had the vision and planning acumen to create a very progressive legal template by which the island could be developed without destroying its rich natural heritage. His pioneering smart-growth ethic, undergirded by strict covenants aimed at controlling development and harmonizing it with natural preservation, have served as a model for community planners everywhere.
Sea Pines Resort is a model of wise planning in a spectacular natural setting. Clean roads snake through a lush forest of pines and hardwoods that drape like huge umbrellas over widely spaced luxury homes and condominium rental complexes. The resort includes a Harbour Town, a village of restaurants, shops, and a circular yacht basin.
Sea Pines also has a large tennis complex and four other golf courses, led by world famous Harbour Town Golf Links, home of the MCI Heritage, which is held every year right after The Masters. Created by Pete Dye with Jack Nicklaus consulting, and opened in 1969, the course is a favorite among Tour professionals. The Heritage is the single biggest event on the Hilton Head calendar and a major impetus for tourism.
Towering directly over Harbour Town is a 200-foot tall candy-striped lighthouse, the island’s most visible landmark. Visitors climbing to the top of the lighthouse are rewarded with a spectacular view of Calibogue Sound to the south and west and Harbour Town Golf Links’ signature finishing hole. Just to the southwest is Daufuskie, a sparsely populated island popularized by writer Pat Conroy in his novel, The Water is Wide.”
Accessible by ferry or private helicopter, Daufuskie reflects a by-gone era of the Old South. There are no traffic lights or grocery stores on the island, but it does have three of the best golf courses in the Hilton Head area. These include two courses at the Daufuskie Island Resort by Jack Nicklaus and Tom Weiskopf/Jay Morrish, and Haig Point, a private Rees Jones product.
Hilton Head is warmed by the Gulf Stream. It has an average temperature of 70 degrees that assures a year-round golf season. Water and Live Oak, Hickory, Wax Myrtle, Magnolia, Palmetto, Yucca trees and Swamp Maple are just some of the abundant tree species on the island rich in marshland species of flora that include bayberry and cassina bushes (whose red berries make great tea), marsh lace, and sassafras (another good tea source). As for fauna, marsh hawks, eagles, and deer are just the tip of the iceberg.
Golfers among Hilton Head’s 2.5 million annual visitors log a million rounds a year. There are 24 golf courses on Hilton Head Island. Six are private including Long Cove, a Pete Dye creation in the most exclusive gated community on the island. According to insiders, Long Cove is the finest course on Hilton Head. Another 40 courses lie just west of the island in and around Bluffton, SC.
Hilton Head proper is made up primarily of plantation-style communities. Some have resorts and all have private homes. In addition to Sea Pines Resort, these include Palmetto Dunes with three fine golf courses and two hotels, the Marriott Beach and Golf Resort and the Hilton Oceanfront Resort. Also, Port Royal Plantation includes the Westin Resort and three courses, which are ideally suited for casual resort play and outings. Hilton Head Plantation doesn’t have a resort hotel but boasts one private and three semi-private courses, including the Country Club of Hilton Head and Oyster Reef, both Rees Jones creations.
Indigo Run has a public and private course, both signature Jack Nicklaus designs. Palmetto Hall Plantation boasts an Arthur Hills course, one of the best on the island, and a course configured entirely on computer by Robert Cupp. For all its quirky geometrical features, including triangularly shaped bunkers, this is a fine, scenic test of golf.
Popular courses off the island include Old South in Bluffton, a marsh-dominated venue designed by award-winning architect Clyde Johnston. Closer to the island bridge is another Johnston offering, Old Carolina, built on a former horse farm. South Carolina National, a recently renovated George Cobb creation in Beaufort County, is worth the 45-minute drive from Hilton Head.
Within minutes of Hilton Head on Highway 278 are two magnificent private golf communities-Berkeley Hall and Colleton River Plantation-both of which rival Sea Pines for their natural endowments, privacy, luxury homes and quality of golf courses. Berkeley Hall boasts two gorgeous Tom Fazio courses that wind through forest and out along the Colleton River. They are served by a colonial-style red-brick clubhouse that has “seven distinct dining experiences.” Endowed with equally spectacular pine wooded and riverfront scenery, the 800-acre Colleton River Plantation has a stunning Jack Nicklaus signature layout and the more recently opened Pete Dye gem, where scenes in the film, Legend of Bagger Vance, were shot.
There is no shortage of things to do on Hilton Head. The island has over 200 stores, some of which are at Shelter Cove, the island’s lone shopping mall. It boasts numerous specialty shops as well as two outlet centers just off island. There are over 250 restaurants on the island serving every type of cuisine, especially seafood fresh off the boat.
Hilton Head is also getting a reputation for its vast arts and cultural offerings with dozens of great galleries and the Arts Center of Coastal Carolina, the second largest theater facility in the state which showcases original Broadway productions. In addition to nature and boat tours, biking is very popular on miles of trails and the hardpacked beaches.
Visitors to Hilton Head quickly notice the absence of billboards and other intrusive features of commercialism. Hilton Head’s night life is somewhat tame, as it is primarily a family destination. A couple of popular dance spots and sports bars are sprinkled throughout the island. Traffic, particularly in high season and on turnover day, can be a headache on this island of few major roads but traffic notwithstanding Hilton Head offers a respite from a frenzied world.

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