The 12th is the best and most dramatic of the Links Course's par 3s. 

by Tim Gavrich 

    The Links Course at Wild Dunes is a resort/daily fee facility located on the Isle of Palms, 15 miles north of Charleston, SC.  Open for play since 1980, it is one of Tom Fazio's earlier designs, and one of his best-regarded.  The golf course is solid overall and comes to a dramatic close with the final two holes playing along the ocean.  I rate courses on a number of criteria, with my ratings ranging from 1 (Repulsive) to 10 (Exceptional).  I invite your own opinions; simply use the Comments function at the bottom of this article.

Golf Course Setting: 8 ~~ The Links Course winds through the Wild Dunes resort area.  Although houses line many of the holes, the scenery is quite pleasant and varied.  The transitions between a typical, wetland-heavy Low Country setting and dunes (of varying proximity to the ocean) are fairly smooth.  True to their billing, the 17th and 18th holes are spectacular.  One problem: beach erosion has caused the 18th hole to begin to fall into the ocean (see yesterday's posting, immediately below this review).  Dozens of huge sand bags line the left side of the final hole, seriously impeding the landscape, leaving players with a bad taste in their mouths at the end of the round.  This is the only quibble with the setting of the course.

Golf Course Condition: 8 ~~ The Links Course was in extremely good condition.  The Bermuda fairways were lush and cut fairly tightly; well-struck shots were not met with any resistance, and divots were large.  The rough was thick and penal; a missed fairway made reaching the green in regulation a chore indeed.  The Champion Bermuda greens, though very smooth, were rather slow.   The oppressive summer heat and lack of rain have most coastal courses exercising caution when it comes to mowing the putting surfaces.  The golf course would have been even more enjoyable had the greens been faster.

Quality of Green Complexes: 8 ~~ The Links' strongest suit was its set of greens.  The greens themselves are smaller than average (appropriate for a golf course of such modest length), but possess quite a lot of undulation.  Nearly every greenside bunker was small, deep, and circular -- it is evident that designer Fazio wished to bring the concept of pot bunkers of the British Isles to coastal South Carolina.  The highlight among all the green complexes comes at the par 5 5th hole.  The elevated green is tucked between dunes, and a large mound with a tiny bunker scooped into it prevents the player from seeing the bottom of the flagstick.  The green combines both strategy and quirkiness - I would enjoy hitting hours of shots to the green from a variety of distances.

Quality of Par 3s: 7 ~~ The par 3s at the Links Course do not vary much in terms of distance, but the fact that they play in three different directions means that the winds that blow over the Links Course site necessitate a variety of tee shots.  The greens complexes are also sufficiently different to present four different looks on the par 3s.  The strongest among them is the 12th hole, which plays to a green set among dunes.  The view towards the green is breathtaking, and the constant breezes make the hole all the more intimidating.

Quality of Par 4s: 7 ~~ The par 4s at the Links course vary nicely in length, direction, and difficulty.  Although there is no drivable par 4 on the course, there is plenty of fun to be had on the two-shotters.  From the drive-and-wedge 10th (331 yards from the back tees) to the brutish 427-yard 13th, the player's long game receives a thorough examination at Wild Dunes.  The strongest par 4 on the course is the penultimate hole, which whisks the player to the ocean and sweeps along the beach to a green tucked amid the dunes.

Quality of Par 5s: 5 ~~ The three-shot holes at the Links Course are its weakest point.  The 1st and 14th play alongside one another and in the same direction, and due to the beach erosion eating away at the left side of the 18th, what was already an extremely narrow hole is getting narrower by the day (see yesterday's article below).  It is becoming something of an eyesore instead of the inspiration it was designed to be.  The huge sand-filled plastic bags pollute the scene, leaving players with a bad taste in their mouth at the end of the round.  The highlight among the par 5s is the 5th, whose green is discussed earlier in this review.

Routing of Golf Course/A Good Walk?: 6 ~~ As is true with most courses routed among condos and houses, the Links Course is rather spread out (although nothing like the resort's Harbor Course, which runs straight out for eight holes and straight back for 10 and is the least favored of the two Fazio designs).  Lengthy green-to-tee walks abound at the Links Course, so walking is all but out of the question.  The 14th tee is beside the 1st and 10th tees, so members could potentially walk four or five holes late in the afternoon but 18 are out of the question for all but the hardiest souls.

Overall Rating: 7.5 ~~ At 27 years, The Links Course at Wild Dunes is one of the older resort courses that bump up against the Atlantic, and it has weathered (pardon the pun) the devastation of Hurricane Hugo in 1989, after which its ocean holes had to be rebuilt.  The finishing hole once again appears to be in for some restoration as the ocean currents wear away at the dunes that hold the 18th in place.  Although homes line most of the fairways on the course, our foursome threatened the out of bounds stakes just two or three times.   Overall, the Links layout provides an intriguing test of a player's skills throughout the round and enough of a seaside feel to keep members and daily fee players alike coming back for more.

Wild Dunes Links Course, Isle of Palms, SC.  Phone:  (800) 845-8880.  Web site: www.wilddunes.com 

Yardage/Rating/Slope
Black: 6709/73.2/131
White: 6193/70.4/128
Gold: 5536/67.3/118
Red (W): 4907/70.4/120

    You must own property in Wild Dunes to be a member of the club, which provides access to both the Links and Harbor courses.  Full family golf membership for residents is $25,000, with monthly dues of $342.  Non-resident initiation is $15,000 with dues of $206.  Access to the club's fitness center requires an extra fee.  Daily greens fees for non-members range from $135 to $165, depending on season.
    We will discuss the community of Wild Dunes in an upcoming issue of HomeOnTheCourse.  To subscribe today and receive the just released August issue, with an exhaustive review of the Williamsburg, VA, golfing communities, click here.  It is easy and secure, and at just $39 for six issues annually, quite possibly the best real estate investment you will ever make.

The most intriguing green complex at the Links is at the par 5 5th. 

Typically, a hulking condo building behind a green is depressing enough for a golfer, but the sandbags that line the left edge of the 18th fairway and the green at Wild Dunes' Links Course are even sadder.  We hope they turn back the sands of time.

    Mother Nature won't give a break to the famed Links Course at Wild Dunes on Isle of Palms in South Carolina.  In 1989, Hurricane Hugo tore through Charleston and the barrier islands just north of the city, destroying hundreds of homes and the two finishing holes at Wild Dunes.  Sand had to be pumped back up onto the beach and reshaped to hold up the ocean side of the par 5 18th hole.
    We played the Tom Fazio designed course yesterday - he also designed the milder Harbor Course for the resort -- and were impressed with the layout and condition.  Look for Tim Gavrich's review here tomorrow.  But we were also depressed by the sight of huge piles of white sandbags beginning 2/3 of the way down the 500-yard finisher and extending to the very edge of the green.  The tide was in and the ocean was beating at the sandbags, some of which had disintegrated, the empty bags flapping around at the base of the none-too-stable sand wall.  We asked one of Wild Dunes "golf ambassadors" about the status of the hole, and he indicated there were plans to re-pump sand from slightly offshore to prop up the wall.  Those plans are on hold, pending the hatching of sea turtle eggs in another few weeks.
    The turtles had better hurry, for their sake and Wild Dunes'.  This is hurricane season, and Hugo is not the only big storm to erode the resort's beaches in the last 30 years.  As you stand on the very edge of the 18th green, you can peer straight down into the normally roiling waters.  Any more erosion and the green could soon be the smallest in South Carolina.  Also, the fairway has already been encroached to the point of being almost unfairly narrow; it is a tough enough hole to begin with, given the strong left to right winds that force you to aim your tee shot at the beach.  I hit what I thought was a perfect drive down the center, but it drifted right and into the dunes near the attractive homes that line the first part of the fairway. 

    It was an ugly finish on an otherwise fair and fun golf course.  We hope the turtles do hurry up, and Mother Nature doesn't.

The carved hedges at the first tee hint at the landscaping on the rest of the course.

    I can't complain about the golf courses I've played these last few weeks in coastal South Carolina.  Most have been in good condition but showing the effects of drought conditions along the coast.  I've putted on greens that had been stress-relieved by aeration just a few weeks earlier and were still a wee bit bumpy.  (Note:  I turned down a chance to play Patriots Point near Charleston when the pro shop, to its credit, informed me they had aerated two days earlier.)  Those that hadn't been aerated were less than close cut, for obvious reasons.  Until yesterday, I hadn't putted on any green that I could call fast.  The layouts of the courses I've played have been good to near-excellent; I'd put Arthur Hills' Coosaw Creek course near the Charleston International Airport and Rees Jones' Charleston National in the near-excellent category.
    Yesterday I played the best course this year at the highly rated Caledonia Golf & Fish Club in Pawleys Island, SC.  Raters in Zagat's golf guide gave it a 28 of 30, ranking it up there with most storied layouts in the land.  The condition yesterday for the dead of summer was phenomenal, and the layout was better than I had remembered it from the half dozen times I had played it previously, the most recent three years ago.  The course managers, who also run the companion True Blue Golf Club down the street, spend a lot of money on landscaping and irrigation, and they tend to the course with the fussiness and tender loving care of an Augusta National.  Although it hadn't rained the night before, we were relegated to cart path only until 9 a.m. after some early morning watering (our tee time was 7:30).  The course drains well and the fairways could have easily handled the cart traffic, but who is going to argue with folks who seem to have every blade of grass in place?
    Caledonia was designed by the late Mike Strantz whose eight other golf courses are a little bizarre for my taste.  Strantz has his fans, my teenage son among them, because his courses are unique, with landscapes that often seem as if they are of another world.  Huge mounds hiding landing areas, greens perched on bulldozer-made hills, misshapen greens with often-severe dips and turns...you can expect the unexpected at such Strantz-designed tracks as Tobacco Road, Royal New Kent, and the sand-surrounded True Blue, which is almost a "normal" routing that had to be modified a few years ago because it was gaining a reputation as too tough for the average vacationing golfer.
    But Caledonia can stand up to the best from all the great modern designers.  It begins with a fair, routine par 4 whose only "troubles" are a fairway trap and elevated green; and it ends with a par 4 with an all carry approach shot over water that offers all sorts of options off the tee and from the fairway.  On the finisher, you can hit something less than a wood off the tee to lay-up just short of the water, but your 160 yard approach shot will have about a 20-yard margin in which to land on the long-but-not-deep green; short is water and long is a menacing trap.  Or you can try to bust the ball down the middle, which will leave you an approach over the narrow part of the water to the 50-yard-long green.  Push the drive right, and you are hitting three to the green after a drop.  Pull it left, and you'll be negotiating a hill and downhill lie over the water.  When you get to the green, the fun really begins, not just because it is 150 feet long and severely contoured, but also because the deck of the adjacent plantation style clubhouse almost hangs over the back of the green.  Try making a five-foot putt to halve the match while those who have come before you are watching, second and third beers in hand.
    What makes Caledonia special is that, unlike Strantz's other courses, the hazards are clear and evident, not hidden, and you have bail-out options that don't necessarily cost you a stroke (if you can handle 60-foot putts on slick greens).  The devilish little par 3 11th is an excellent example, especially when the pin is up front, as it was yesterday.  A stream runs along the front left half of the narrow green and feeds a pond along the entire left side.  The pond isn't really in play, but if you want to get close to the pin, you will need to play a high shot into the prevailing breezes.  Too much finesse will put you in the muck in front, from which bogey or double is a sure thing.  You can take the more conservative long left route, but that leaves a downhill putt through a valley and up again to the pin.  Or you can lay-up - yes, I know, it's a short par 3 - and give yourself a 15-yard flop wedge up the hill and hope for a one putt.
    Most of the customary Strantz "drama" at Caledonia is in the greens.  The eighth green on the par 5, reachable for the longer hitters, is severely banked with a hill about 1/3 of the way back.  Third shots into front pin positions are relatively easy, as you can use the three-foot high bank as a backstop.  But make the mistake of hitting up top, and your putt downhill will risk rolling past the pin and over the retaining wall into the water.
    The greens were near flawless yesterday, and fast.  I did not feel cheated on any putt, even though I lipped out three or four times.   Although there was plenty of dew on the fairways before the sun burned everything off, I didn't come close to needing to improve my lie in the immaculate fairways.  Workers, who stayed discreetly out of the way, were all over the course raking the flower beds and cutting grass in the rough, demonstrating Caledonia's commitment to live up to its reputation as "Augusta like."  Although the course looks its best during spring blooming season, it looked fantastic today, with lots of pinks and reds in the flowered areas to contrast with the bright greens, sand-trap whites and muted blues of the water.
    Caledonia is part of the Waccamaw Golf Trail, a newly invented marketing venture that packages the best of the South Strand's courses.  Besides Caledonia, the Trail includes its companion course, True Blue, plus Heritage, Pawleys Plantation, the soon to open Founders Club and a few other good courses just 10 minutes north.  But Caledonia is easily the best.  It is not inexpensive to play, although the Myrtle Beach Passport I described here a couple of weeks ago knocked $30 off the $97 greens fees for my guests and me.  (Note:  You must be a full or part-time resident of one of the three local counties to qualify for the $39 card.)  In the high seasons of spring and fall, fees approach $200, the highest on the Grand Strand.  Caledonia is well worth it.
    Caledonia Golf & Fish Club, which is not part of a housing development, is located 1 ½ miles off U.S. Highway 17 in Pawleys Island, SC.  The club offers annual memberships that provide deeply discounted rounds, but you would have to play nearly 100 rounds to make the investment worthwhile.  Phone:  (800) 483-6800, or (843) 237-3675.  Web site:  www.fishclub.com.  Par 70.  Back tees:  6,526 yards, rating 72.1, slope 140.  Middle tees:  6,121 yards, rating 69.9, slope 134.  Front tees:  5,710, rating 67.8 (M), 73.0 (W), slope 129 (M), 128 (W).  Tees are also available from 4,957 yards.

The 8th green is one example of the steeply banked greens at Caledonia.  You can play the approach off the bank behind a front pin position.  But if you are too long, your comeback putt could be lost in the marsh in front.