Old South Golf Links

Old South Golf Links is Clyde Johnston's 1991 Lowcountry course in Bluffton, just over the bridge from Hilton Head Island, that delivers genuine marsh golf at mainland prices. Golf Digest named it among the Top 10 New Public Courses the year after it opened, and three decades later the recognition still fits. You get marsh views, mature trees, and tidal-creek hazards at a price point the island's resort courses cannot approach.

At 6,772 yards from the Gold tees with a 72.7 rating and a 141 slope, the course is not a pushover. The slope, in fact, exceeds several of the island's more expensive layouts, including the Arthur Hills Course at Palmetto Dunes and the Palmetto Hall course. Johnston routed the holes through genuine Lowcountry marshland, and the tidal boundaries create natural hazards that demand awareness of both distance and direction. Four sets of tees accommodate a range of abilities, with the forward tees bringing the course well within reach for casual golfers.

The marsh defines the experience. Several holes run along or across tidal creeks, and the views across the salt grass and spartina are the same Lowcountry landscape the resort courses charge three to five times as much to access. The difference is context, not quality. Old South does not have the resort infrastructure, the plantation gate, or the branded design name. It has golf through marshland at $55 to $100 per round, and for many visiting golfers that is the better deal.