Plantation Course at Sea Island Golf Club

The Plantation Course occupies a stretch of St. Simons Island that has hosted golf since the 1920s, when Walter Travis laid out the original nine holes. The site has been through multiple iterations since then, including work by Dick Wilson in the 1960s and a synthesis by Rees Jones in the 1990s. In 2019, Davis Love III and Mark Love, who grew up playing these holes and whose family name is inseparable from Sea Island golf, undertook a complete rebuild that reimagined the course as a Golden Age homage. The result is a par-72 layout of 7,058 yards that feels both new and historically rooted, which is a difficult combination to achieve and a credit to the Love brothers' understanding of the site.

The design philosophy centres on strategic width. The fairways are wider than those on the Seaside Course, and the visual presentation from the tee invites an aggressive line. The subtlety lies in the green complexes, which reward specific angles of approach and punish others. A drive to the generous centre of the fairway leaves a playable but less advantageous approach than a drive to the narrower preferred side. The course does not force golfers into a single strategy. It offers choices and makes some choices better than others, which is the hallmark of Golden Age design principles applied to modern yardage.

Live oaks define the routing's character. The trees are old enough and large enough to create natural corridors without the claustrophobia that some tree-lined courses impose. The Spanish moss hanging from the branches provides the visual texture that is specific to the Lowcountry, and the filtered light beneath the canopy gives the course a different quality than the open marsh exposure of the Seaside. Several holes open from the oak corridors into marsh views that arrive as a surprise, a pacing technique that gives the round a narrative structure.

The par 3s are the architectural strength of the routing. Each uses a different combination of length, wind exposure, and green contour to create distinct problems. The shorter par 3s demand precision in club selection and landing spot. The longer ones test the ability to carry a long iron or hybrid to a target that reveals its full shape only from the correct angle. Together, the four par 3s represent the range of what the Love brothers can do when given a site this varied.

The green fee of $250 to $335 includes cart, range balls, forecaddie, and club cleaning. As with the Seaside, access is limited to resort guests booking through Sea Island directly. The forecaddie programme operates here as well, and the local knowledge is particularly valuable on the Plantation, where the optimal angles of approach are not always obvious from the fairway.

The 135 slope, lower than the Seaside's 141, reflects the wider corridors and more forgiving tee-to-green experience. This does not mean the Plantation is an easy course. It means the penalty for a miss is less severe, and the recovery options are more varied. For many visiting golfers, the Plantation will produce the more enjoyable round of the two Sea Island courses, even if the Seaside carries the greater name recognition.

Know before you go

Resort guest access only. Book directly through Sea Island Resort. The all-inclusive green fee covers cart, range, forecaddie, and club cleaning. The course plays well year-round, with the spring and autumn months offering the best combination of weather and course condition.

What stands out

The 2019 rebuild by Davis Love III transformed a course with a complicated architectural history into a coherent, strategically rich layout that rewards thinking. The Golden Age design philosophy, expressed through wide fairways, nuanced green complexes, and a routing that uses the live oaks and marsh as natural framing, makes the Plantation the most architecturally rewarding course in the Sea Island collection for golfers who pay attention to design.