Golf

Greater Charleston can take justifiable pride in the variety of golf challenges available to the area’s visitors and residents.

If you’re a serious tournament player with world-class experience, or if you’re just one of those relatively harmless twice-a-year duffers, Charleston has you well covered when it comes to golf. After all, this is the site of America’s very first golf course—among the city’s many claims to fame. The actual site of the first course, laid out in 1786 and known as “Harleston Green,” has long ago been overtaken by subsequent urbanization, but golf is always proudly mentioned when the list of Charleston’s “famous firsts” comes up.

Today, Lowcountry golf is a wealth of opportunity. From the world-ranked resort courses to the ever-popular public tracks, from the private courses to the semi-private offerings, it’s possible to golf every day for nearly a month and play a different 18-hole course each day.

Clearly, the great drawing card for Lowcountry golf is the weather. Here the winter chill hardly ever discourages the stouthearted player, and the summer’s sweltering heat only adds another challenge to the dedicated would-be pro. Indeed, for the vast majority of the year, Charleston area golf courses sing the siren’s call to golfers from (literally) all over the world.

We’ll start with some of the famous designer names that are associated with Lowcountry golf courses. Then, we’ll take you on a brief tour of some of our infamous signature holes, where even the best players are tested to make birdie.

We’ll give you a tour of the area’s public courses, and then go out to the island resorts where an array of designer courses await the serious golfer determined to be tested by the very best.