18th Hole at Harbour Town Golf Links
After being closed for a six-month restoration project, Harbour Town Golf Links (Hilton Head Island, S.C.) has reopened.
Originally designed by renowned architect Pete Dye with his wife Alice, and assisted by Jack Nicklaus, Harbour Town Golf Links has been the home of the PGA TOUR’s RBC Heritage Presented by Boeing since it opened in 1969. It’s also widely regarded as one of Dye’s best and most iconic creations, among the first masterpieces of his long and brilliant career. TOUR players and amateur golfers, including resort guests and members, also enjoy it.
Serving as player-consultant to the project was major championship winner and PGA TOUR legend Davis Love III, who won the RBC Heritage at Harbour Town Golf Links five times. Love is very familiar with the region and the complexities of working here: He grew up on the Southeast’s coastal islands, and his company, Love Golf Design, designed another course at The Sea Pines Resort, Atlantic Dunes by Davis Love III.
From the beginning of the project, Love and the team responsible for the restoration—including Allan MacCurrach from MacCurrach Golf Construction; Jon Wright, Head Golf Superintendent, Harbour Town Golf Links; John Farrell, Director of Sports Operations; The Riverstone Group, who own The Sea Pines Resort; and others—were committed to, as Love said, “protecting the strategy and integrity of Pete’s design.”
“We feel very fortunate to own such a historic and popular PGA TOUR tournament venue in Harbour Town Golf Links,” said Matthew Goodwin, representing The Riverstone Group. “We are fully committed to maintaining the golf course to the highest possible standard, while preserving the original design integrity of Pete Dye.”
Originally intended as an updating of the course’s infrastructure to ensure championship-caliber conditions year-round, it also presented an opportunity to restore many features from Dye’s original design and to ensure one of the country’s most recognizable layouts stands the test of time. Along with improvements to the agronomy and maintenance, all greens, bunkers, and bulkheads were rebuilt. The turf species—TifEagle on the greens; Celebration Bermuda on the fairways, tees, and rough—remain the same.
As for changes to the design, even the experienced Harbour Town Golf Links player will have trouble spotting them, explained Farrell. “Every ‘change’ we made had some documentation or images or video of what it was like previously.” Updates include returning some greens to their original shapes, which brought back some hole locations that were lost as the surfaces shrank over time. The same with some greenside bunkering, which, due to years of play and shrinkage, no longer abutted their greens.
Farrell added that while Love offered a TOUR player’s expertise, he was in tune with management’s desire to keep the course fun, exciting, and challenging the other 51 weeks of the year when resort guests, property owners, and locals celebrate it.
