Hilton Head National Golf Club, located in Bluffton, S.C., is just one mile from the bridges to Hilton Head Island and a half-hour drive from historic downtown Savannah, Georgia. It sits adjacent to the new luxury Hilton Head National RV Resort. The course itself is a golfing gem. It has been acclaimed for more than 30 years as the best conditioned layout in the region. Moreover, it’s routinely rated among the top public courses in South Carolina. Hall of Fame golfer Gary Player and course architecture award winner Bobby Weed each contributed his distinctive design philosophies here in ways that make every club in your bag important. Experienced golfers are quick to point out that Hilton Head National is a course that’s challenging but not punishing.
Hilton Head National boasts immaculately groomed TifEagle Ultra greens that run fast and true. The opening holes offer several strategic risk-reward challenges, in particular, the signature 6th, a par 4, bordered its entire fairway by a treacherously close lagoon on the right with dangerous pot bunkers on the left. The back nine is tighter and rewards players with a good short game. Most memorable for many, however, is the abundance of wildlife with no houses overlooking the fairways or greens. The course has a private club atmosphere but is accessible to all. As Gary Player says, “Hilton Head National is my promise to you of an exceptional golf experience!”
Bobby Weed’s front nine layout offers plenty of run-up opportunities to the greens, which are generally a little larger than Player’s, but with more severe undulations. The par-3 fourth requires a carry over a waste bunker that takes up most of the yardage between tee and green. But the signature sixth will give you stores to tell—or explanations to make. Playing under 300 yards from the tips and just 250-275 from the middle tees, it’s one of Bobby Weed’s ultimate risk-reward opportunities. The largest lake on the entire course runs down the entire right side, then wraps around behind the green while pot bunkers and the course’s largest berm rise up to snatch shots hit left or short. Miss the pin by 10 yards right or left, and you’re cooked more than the delicious hot dog you got from the friendly cart attendant. That shortest par-4 at Hilton Head National is followed by the shortest par-3, a do-or-die 102-138 yarder over more pristine marshland.
The back nine begins with three increasingly longer par 4s to get your round started. The third plays 420-plus yards from the two back tees with water down the entire left side on the drive (around a slight dogleg left) and trees encroaching on the bailout area to the right. The long-iron approach must negotiate four mounds into the small green. The fourth, a middle-length par-3, seems benign enough on the scorecard, but from the elevated tee box golfers must play carefully to find the well bunkered tabletop green. You might feel like you need to call in Henry Kissinger to negotiate the huge waste bunker in front of the par-4 fifth, the large greenside bunker in front of the par-3 sixth, and the old oak that sits in front of the par-5 seventh, the National’s #1 handicap hole. The ninth might actually be the toughest, though, with deep marsh all along the right side of a narrow fairway.
