HILTON HEAD ISLAND, South Carolina (Island and area)

If returning to the Cloister is like putting on a comfortable slipper, returning to Hilton Head is like putting on that favorite coat you haven’t worn in some time. But, to carry the metaphor further, choose your time of visit carefully. Hilton Head, especially in high season, can get quite busy and the roads, particularly 278 -- the island’s only highway to the mainland -- can bulge with traffic. The island itself has pretty much developed out, so off-island development has been proceeding at a furious pace, and this is not likely to let up. Not with so many retirees and second-home buyers looking for a premium place to live.

What hasn’t changed are the island’s cleanliness and beauty. Thanks to foresighted developers like Charles Fraser, who began developing Sea Pines Plantation in the 1950's, development on the island has never been at the expense of its environmental treasures. 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.

Hilton Head proper is primarily made up of plantations, most of which have resorts on property, as well as private homes. In addition to Sea Pines Plantation, there are Palmetto Dunes with three fine golf courses and two attractive resort hotels, the Hyatt Regency 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 four public access courses, including the Country Club of Hilton Head and Oyster Reef, both Rees Jones creations.

#18 Harbour Town Golf Links, lighthouse and village

Sea Pines Plantation is a magnificent 5000-acre plantation of homes, rental units, and golf clubs set amidst thick pines, expansive marshes and beautiful inlets leading to Calibogue Sound on the west and the ocean on the east. The pine forest reminds you of Maine in summer. Most of the homes were built on ample lots to sustain the environment and provide a high quality of privacy. The Plantation encompasses the postcard quaint town of Harbour Town, with its treasured lighthouse (open to visitors), circular yacht basin and cozy shops and restaurants around the basin’s perimeter. For fine eating, CQ’s, next to a Marriott time-share property, is outstanding.

Guests of the rental units and homes have three fine golf courses to play including Harbour Town Golf Links, site of the MCI Classic held immediately after The Masters. In 2000, Harbour Town closes two weeks after the tournament and won’t reopen until the following March. The greens, which have been a problem since the course opened in 1969, are being rebuilt and planted with a more robust strain of Bermuda. The project is long overdue and will be welcomed by the legions of Harbour Town loyalists.

#15 Ocean Course, Sea Pines Plantation

Harbour Town’s closure means more golfers at Sea Pines’ Plantation Golf Club, which sports two excellent marshland courses -- Sea Marsh and the Ocean Course. Sea Marsh is shorter and more forgiving than Ocean, but no less scenic, as it snakes through pines and oaks on the edge of tidal marshes. Both layouts have been redesigned and are well maintained.

For those with swing woes, the club is the home of the Golf Academy at Sea Pines, whose director, Skip Malek, has tutored touring players. He also has appeared on Golf Academy Live at the Golf Channel. He knows his stuff.

Palmetto Dunes’ three courses include two of the best on the island, the Arthur Hills Course and the George Fazio Course. The Hills course is a 6700-yard par 72 with a 132 slope. It winds back and forth across a canal that cuts right through the course’s middle and provides great vistas and strategic challenges. In a set of wonderfully varied holes that never bore, #12 stands out. It wraps to the right around a long, narrow lake. On the left are trees from tee to green and the fairway is narrow. It is one of the most scenic holes you will ever play.

The 6873-yard par 70 Fazio course is older but no less challenging and visually appealing, as it features lots of water and trees that put a premium on accuracy off the tee. Many holes are doglegs, including two splendid short par 4's--#’s 5 and 13. Here, you must drive to the right hand part of the fairway, as overhanging trees on the left make hitting the green with your second shot all but impossible. George Fazio, uncle to Tom Fazio, was considered one of the finest designers in his day and this course is definitely evidence of that.

For more information and reservations, call Sea Pines at 1-800-955-8337; for tee times at Palmetto Dunes call 800-827-3006; for resort information at Port Royal call 1-800-2-FIND-18.

Belfair Plantation, Colleton River Plantation

Meanwhile, if you are considering buying a home in the Hilton Head area where you can enjoy privacy and access to some of THE best golf courses on the East Coast, you might consider Belfair and Colleton River plantations. These very exclusive, ultra-high-end private developments and golf club communities are adjacent one another off Highway 278 within minutes of Hilton Head. Both plantations have elegant custom-built homes on luxurious sites amid pine forests that border meadows and marshes.

East and West finishing holes at Belfair

Belfair has two Tom Fazio courses including Belfair East, which opened in early 1999. It is a splendid complement to the older West Course and both offer vintage Fazio features including expertly crafted holes of undulating fairways, accessible greens of subtle contours, and elevation changes in a magnificent marsh- and pineland setting. The finishing holes of Belfair's East and West courses overlook the marshes of the Colleton River.

Colleton River opened its second course -- The Pete Dye Course at Colleton River -- in October 1999 to great fanfare. It sits on THE most spectacular marsh site in the Low Country, a good reason why Director Robert Redford chose to film golf sequences of his movie, The Legend of Bagger Vance, there.

Dye Course #9 - "Dye's Mountain"

With the exception of the birdie-able opener of 345 yards, there is no let up on this par 72 masterpiece that stretches to 6900 yards from the blacks (7400 yards from the championship markers). Dye fans will see all of his devilish tricks here, especially his mounding which dominates the track. In creating all those mounds, Dye was left with half a dozen lakes that figure prominently on many holes, including the 205-yard 17th, arguably one of the most difficult and certainly one of the most beautiful holes in the country. The green sits tight against the lake on the right, is heavily bunkered on the left and is framed in back by magnificent trees.

The front nine winds through a maritime forest of pines and oaks while the more open, windswept links-style back side sits close to the Chechessee River where it meets Port Royal Sound, site of the largest and costliest maritime battle of the Civil War. The course site is absolutely stunning. At #9, the right half of the tee shot landing area -- known as Dye's Mountain -- rises to the highest elevation on the course and provides a sweeping view of a good portion of the back nine and the Port Royal Sound.

Some golfers will definitely find Dye’s mounding, huge contoured greens and ubiquitous bunkers objectionable. If so, they can play the plantation’s other track, a Nicklaus signature design that is one of the Golden Bear’s best.

For real estate and golf information at Colleton River, call 1-800-673-6456; at Belfair call, 1-800-587-7710.

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