Harbour Town Rewards the Shot Maker

Tiny greens, narrow fairways, and breathtaking vistas of Calibogue Sound with the most-recognized lighthouse in America are hallmarks of world-famous Harbour Town Golf Links. It was one of Pete Dye’s earliest designs (with able assistance from Jack Nicklaus) and accordingly puts a premium on shot-making and course management rather than brute strength. From the tips, its 7,101 yards with a 75.6 rating/147 slope. There are four shorter sets of tees, though, and you’ll enjoy the course more if you choose the right ones for your game. I played the blues (6,640 yards) with a former European Tour player and they were plenty for both of us.

Harbour Town builds a crescendo as your round unfolds. It’s demanding, solid golf through the first two-thirds of the course, but starts its climb to the climatic 18th hole once you reach number 13, a 354-yard par four where Dye’s trademark railroad ties elevate a tiny, tricky green above a bunker that surrounds it on three sides. That’s followed by the often-televised par-three 14th hole, 165-yards where the water in front and along the right are the only things you can think about. The last par five on the course is hole 15, 541-yards that demands a long drive and perfect second shot to avoid the water on the left.

The 16th hole, 395 yards, can humiliate the best players. It’s a hard dogleg left where the landing area is dominated by trees in the middle of the fairway and the green is guarded by massive bunkers.  The wind-blown 17th hole, a 174-yard par three, demands not just directional control but perfect distance, since long is as bad as short.

Then there is the finisher, a 444-yard par four that plays along Calibogue Sound.  Your aiming point off the tee is the candy-striped lighthouse in the distance. Your second shot will be a long iron or something similar that has to carry over the sound. You can bail right, but then you’ll have some tricky grass mounding to contend with as you chip to the green. It’s a hole you’ll remember.

While you’re in Sea Pines, check out the other two courses, Heron Point by Pete Dye, which opened in 2007, and the Ocean Course, rebuilt by Mark McCumber in 1995.

Right now, you can experience three nights in private villa accommodations and three rounds at Sea Pines’ championship golf courses (including Harbour Town) for a bargain rate of $213 per golfer. There are even complimentary repeat rounds at Heron Point and Ocean Course based on availability. Sea Pines recently unveiled the new 23,000 square foot Plantation Golf Club and golf learning center at its Heron Point by Pete Dye and Ocean courses This value-packed offer also includes complimentary range balls, 10 percent pro shop discount on retail merchandise and 10 percent food and beverage discount at the resort's restaurants. Price is per golfer, per night based on quad occupancy in a two bedroom villa. Valid through May 31, 2014 at www.SeaPinesGolf.com

Among many other books, Dave Donelson is the author of Weird Golf: 18 tales of fantastic, horrific, scientifically impossible, and morally reprehensible golf

Memorable Shots at Harbour Town

Watching Boo Weekly win the Verizon Heritage at Harbour Town on Hilton Head brought back images of a memorable shot I hit there. That's one of the great things about the game--your best shots stay in your memory the way a good 18-year-old single malt lingers on the back of your throat.

I was playing with Beau and Dick, boon companions with whom I've teed it up since balata was the peak of golf technology, which is a long, long time. This trip wasn't quite that long ago, but it wasn't yesterday, either. I think Bush The First may have been in office, but I'm not exactly sure. It's funny, I can remember the shot I hit that day, but not who was President of the United States.

A storm threatened before the round began, but it wasn't raining, so we were going to play and hope for the best. It was very foggy on the practice range. I remember because Beau was warming up with brand new irons when the head of his five iron snapped off the graphite shaft and disappeared into the fog. Amid many jibes about his prodigious strength and how he should try to hit the ball instead of the ground two inches below it, he trotted out onto the range, found the club head, and took it to the pro shop for repair. That wasn't going to happen before our tee time, so Beau played with a loaner--complaining about it the entire round, of course.

The wind off Calibogue Sound was vicious, which played havoc with my erratic game that day. The teeny-tiny Harbour Town greens--the smallest on the PGA tour--were particularly unhittable for me and my score showed it. I don't recall the exact number on any given hole, but when I reached the 18th tee, I needed no worse than a bogey to break 100. I was not having a positive golf score experience.

Having given up all hope, I stepped up to the final tee shot totally relaxed. In other words, I didn't give a damn anymore. The wind roared directly into my face from somewhere behind the candy-striped lighthouse behind the green 478 yards away. Not caring, I swung loose--very loose--and hit the ball on the dime-size sweet spot on my Spaulding Executive driver. (That kind of dates the story, doesn't it?)

The ball took off low and boring into the wind, ending up in the center of the fairway next to a sprinkler head that said I had bombed it 279 yards into the wind. I find it mystifying that I can remember the exact yardage of my drive, but not who was the leader of the free world that day.

Yes, I broke 100, even though I sailed my second shot over the green in a paroxysm of adrenaline compounded by severe over-clubbing. A 99 is nothing to brag about, but I'll never forget that drive.

The other thing I remember is the Christmas present I sent to Dick and Beau that year: a ceramic beer stein picturing the 18th hole at Harbour Town. On it, I used a read Sharpie to draw a star where my drive landed.

Dave Donelson, author of Heart of Diamonds a romantic thriller about blood diamonds in the Congo