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Harbour Town Golf Links is a public golf course in the eastern United States, located in South Carolina in Sea Pines Plantation on Hilton Head Island in Beaufort County. Since 1969, it has hosted the RBC Heritage on the PGA Tour, usually in mid-April, the week after The Masters.
Often referred to in the context of the PGA simply as "Hilton Head", Harbour Town Golf Links is ranked high among golf courses in America by Golf Digest and Golf Magazine. The course consists of narrow fairways, overhanging oaks, pines, palmettos, and dark lagoons. Harbour Town, along with the Atlantic Dunes (formerly known as Ocean Course) and Heron Point, make up the Sea Pines Resort.
General information
Harbour Town Golf Links was designed by Pete Dye in 1967 with the help of professional golfer Jack Nicklaus. Dye also designed another course in the Sea Pines Resort, Heron Point, which he redesigned in 2007. The course is open all year, even during overseeding in October and the aerating of the greens in June, July, and August.
Green fees for public play range from $195 to $470, depending on the season.<!-- Tee times are accepted online through the course's website or with a call to the pro shop. The earliest tee time accepted is for 7:00 AM during the long summer days and 7:30 AM for the remainder of the year. The dress code states that denim is not allowed and that a collared shirt must be worn. Shoes with soft spikes must be worn; metal spiked shoes are not allowed.--> An estimated 38,000 rounds of golf are played at Harbour Town every year.
Grass types
The holes at Harbour Town Golf Links consist of seven different types of grass. Five of the grass types, four of which are Bermudas, are able to withstand the heat during the warm summer months of Hilton Head Island. The other two grass types are annually overseeded in October in order to keep the course green during the cold months. The rye grass that is planted in October is only temporary and will eventually die out when the weather warms up, and the Bermuda grass is no longer dormant. The fairways and rough consist of 419 Bermuda grass.
The tee boxes are made up of Celebration Bermuda as well as TifSports Bermuda. The fairways, rough, and tee boxes are overseeded with rye grass in October. Several tee boxes are composed of Empire Zoysia which does not become dormant (brown) in the winter. These Zoysia tee boxes do not need do be overseeded. Harbour Town Golf Links' greens consist of TifEagle Bermuda which is overseeded with Poa Trivialis in October. The course superintendent, Jonathan Wright, is in charge of maintaining the different types of grass.
Magazine rankings
Golf Digest ranked Harbour Town the 2011-2012 #21 ranked public course in America after previously being ranked #13 in 2010.
PGA Tour professionals rated Harbour Town the #2 ranked golf course played on tour in a survey performed by Golf Digest.
Course information
Harbour Town Golf Links is a par 71 course and from the back tees, relatively short for a PGA Tour event; most are on courses that average . For its inaugural tour event in 1969, the course was set at . It has slick and firm Bermuda grass greens that are small in size; they average in area, while the average on tour is .
Several holes have a very small margin of error between greens and water hazards (4, 8, 14, 17, 18). Tee shots and lay-ups must be placed in the strategic part of fairway in order to have a direct shot into the green. Sometimes golfers get blocked out by overhanging trees, even if they are in the fairway. Holes in which players may be blocked out from the fairway include numbers 1, 2, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 15, and 16. Compared to other courses Harbour Town has high percentage of holes with this challenge.
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The Heritage Classic
Beginning in 1969, Harbour Town Golf Links has hosted the annual RBC Heritage on the PGA Tour, long held in April the week following the Masters Tournament in Augusta, Georgia. Forty-year-old Arnold Palmer claimed the first victory with 283 (–1) for his 55th win on tour, but his first in over