Minnesota Golfer - Fall 2010 - 24

By Derek Duncan
Next spring, head to Sea Island, Ga., for unparalleled golf-and luxury too.
T
he southeastern coast of Georgia is a
beautiful, mysterious confl uence of
land, forest, marsh and sea. It creates
an utterly distinctive backdrop for golf,
and for more than 80 years players and
families have enjoyed the best of it at one
of the South's most iconic winter retreats
and residences, Sea Island.
Located on a thin, private strip of land
just off the coast of Brunswick between St.
Simons Island and the Atlantic Ocean, just
90 minutes from both Savannah, Ga., and
Jacksonville, Fla., Sea Island and its famed
Cloister Hotel (replaced in 2003 by a newer,
more extravagant version) opened in
1928. Though always home for the generations
of families who have supported
it each winter, the resort has also evolved
into a resort of considerable luxury and international
prestige, earning fi ve-diamond
awards from Mobile and Forbes and fi vestar
status from AAA and playing host to
the 2004 G-8 summit.
The golf at Sea Island is a bridge between
the historic and contemporary. The
fi rst two nines (actually located on neighboring
St. Simons Island) were built in
1927 and 1929, respectively, by luminaries
of the early 20th century game: Walter Travis
and the British duo of Henry Colt and
Charles Alison. New nines were added by
Dick Wilson in 1959 and Joe Lee in 1973.
Prior to 1998 the courses were played as
four separate nines. That changed when
Rees Jones arrived to combine the Travis
and Wilson nines into one coherent
course, now called Plantation. Plantation
is classic Lowcountry golf, with elegant
holes that snake through corridors of
ancient, moss-draped oaks, lagoons and
Jones's yawning amoeba-shaped fl anking
bunkers. The 10th and 18th are situated on
stunning property opening to views across
St. Simons Sound and the Atlantic Ocean,
both holes cozying up to the magnifi cent
Lodge, a fi ve-diamond auxiliary hotel,
restaurant, clubhouse and soaring woodpaneled
locker room.
Seaside is even more spectacular. Consolidating
the Lee and Colt & Alison
nines in 1999, Tom Fazio created a course
uniquely his own by razing everything to
the core and then sculpting voluptuous
fairways and Pinehurst-style crowned
greens between exposed sand dunes and
marshland barriers. Circling around a vast,
open wetland, then working out along the
edge of the island next to the Frederica
River and the expanses of the Intracoastal
Waterway, Seaside features some of the
most consistently spectacular scenery in
the Southeast.
You can catch a glimpse of Seaside,
ranked the seventh best course in Georgia
by Golf Digest and 25th on Golf Magazine's
Top100 You Can Play list, on television
this October when it hosts the newest
PGA Tour event, the McGladrey Classic
(October 4-10).
The region is stacked with great golf.
If you can work connections, play the resort's
über-private Ocean Forest Golf Club
(a Golf Digest Top 100 course). Otherwise
drive just south of Brunswick to The Golf
Club at Sanctuary Cove. Designed by the
fi rm of Mark and Davis Love III (a resident
of Sea Island and co-presenter of the
McGladrey Classic), the course winds out
toward the coastal marshes and showcases
a style of architecture recalling Donald
Ross and Seth Raynor with squared off
bunkers and greens, punchbowl and double
plateau putting surfaces, and wide fairways
allowing multiple angles of attack.
» When to Go
Few, if any, spring destinations combine the Southeastern
calling cards of beaches, coastal marshes, lagoons,
moss-draped live oaks and perfect 70º winter days with
the sophistication that Sea Island does.
Seaside
22
MINNESOTAGOLFER Fall 2010
PHOTO COURTESY OF SEASIDE
Minnesota Golfer - Fall 2010

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