In addition to being a course “where the pros play,” Harbour Town Golf Links features the best stretch of holes you can play on a Hilton Head Golf Vacation.
It starts off with the 15th hole, a 575-yard, button-hook-shaped par-5 lined almost entirely on both sides with trees and bunkers. The tee shot is fairly straightforward, though prodigious mounding can kick the ball out of position. The second shot is really the key, because if it’s not placed out wide to the right, there’s no way to access the green, located at the end of the left bending, hook section of the hole and guarded closely by trees and bunkers.
The 16th is, from its length, a manageable par-4. But, it’s shaped with a severe dogleg left with a massive bunker on the inside corner to keep you honest. There are also a couple of strategically placed trees on the right side that often thwart those trying to take the easy way out.
Next comes the 17th, a 200-yard par-3 over water to a narrow, difficult-to-hold green flanked by a sliver of sand. It’s just plain long and difficult and it almost cost the PGA Tour’s 2006 Verizon Heritage winner, Aaron Baddeley, the tournament — he bogeyed the hole and cut his lead to a single shot.
The 18th is one of the most famous holes on Tour. A massive, 478-yard par-4, it requires a bomb of a tee shot to a peninsula landing area jutting out into the Calibogue Sound. From there, only a high-flying, left-curling mid- or long-iron will reach the green because it’s all bunker in front.
Not only is this one of the hardest shots in golf for most amateurs, with the candy-stripped lighthouse in the background, it’s also one of the most beautiful.
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