Palmetto Dunes - Robert Trent Jones Course

The Robert Trent Jones Course is the original Palmetto Dunes layout, opened in 1969 the same year Pete Dye built Harbour Town at the opposite end of the island. The two courses represent markedly different design philosophies, and playing both in the same trip offers a compressed education in mid-century American golf architecture. Where Dye favoured tight corridors and small targets, Jones preferred generous fairways with heavily guarded greens, strategic bunkering that punishes the careless approach, and risk-reward decisions built into par 5s and driveable par 4s.

The course plays 6,710 yards from the tips with a rating of 72.6 and a slope of 133. Those numbers are moderate, and the layout plays shorter than many of its peers on the island. The challenge lies not in length but in the approach game. Jones's greens are defended by deep, sculpted bunkers positioned to catch the shot from the wrong angle. Miss the green on the bunker side and recovery requires skill. Miss it on the safe side and the putt is longer but manageable. That calculus repeats across eighteen holes and creates a rhythm that rewards thinking.

The routing takes advantage of the Lowcountry setting, with lagoons, maritime forest, and ocean breezes all factoring into play at various points. Roger Rulewich, a longtime Jones associate, led a renovation that modernised playing surfaces and drainage without altering the strategic bones of the original design. The course was named South Carolina Golf Course of the Year in 2003.

The foundational Palmetto Dunes course, and the cleanest expression of Jones Sr's philosophy on the island. Choose it as the anchor of your Hilton Head trip and let the angles teach you something across eighteen holes.