Hilton Head Golf Courses & Tee Times

Who runs public golf on Hilton Head

On Hilton Head, resorts and golf companies run the courses you can book. The Sea Pines Resort runs Harbour Town, a public course, plus Heron Point by Pete Dye and Atlantic Dunes by Davis Love III, with better rates and tee times for guests carrying the resort's Guest Amenity Card. Palmetto Dunes has three: Robert Trent Jones, George Fazio and Arthur Hills. The Heritage Golf Collection runs four clubs that take public play: Port Royal, Oyster Reef, Shipyard and Palmetto Hall. The municipal course in this market is across the river in Georgia: Bacon Park, 27 holes on land Chatham County gave the City of Savannah in 1925, managed by O.C. Welch since 2014.

Public courses worth knowing on Hilton Head

• Harbour Town Golf Links: Pete Dye and Jack Nicklaus, 1967. RBC Heritage every year since 1969, with the lighthouse behind the 18th green on Calibogue Sound. Par 71 and 7,099 yards, short for a tour course, with small greens that average about 3,700 square feet. Carts stay on the path.
• Bacon Park Golf Course: Savannah's municipal course. Donald Ross laid it out in 1925 and it opened with 18 holes in late 1926. The CCC added holes and bridges in the 1930s, it grew to 27 holes in 1985, and Richard Mandell restored the Ross design from his field sketches after 2014.
• Palmetto Dunes George Fazio Course: The only par 70 on Hilton Head, with a run of long par 4s. Its neighbor, the Arthur Hills course, hosted college events that Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson and David Duval played.
• Atlantic Dunes by Davis Love III: Sea Pines course named the 2018 Golf Course of the Year by the National Golf Course Owners Association.
• Port Royal - Barony Course: Part of the Heritage Golf Collection's Port Royal club, which has a three-hole Practice Loop (a par 3, 4 and 5) for warming up.

Booking tee times on Hilton Head: the local rules

Book early. The Heritage Golf Collection asks for at least 30 days' notice and takes online bookings up to six months out; groups of 12 or more go through the reservation center. Cancel 24 hours ahead there or pay in full. Sea Pines holds your card and charges it if you cancel inside 48 hours, except for groups of 16 or more. Expect a four-hour pace at Sea Pines, and Harbour Town stays open all year, even through October overseeding and summer aeration.

Why tee times on Hilton Head are hard to get

Spring and fall are peak season on Hilton Head. In summer the heat pushes everyone toward early morning, so the first few hours of the day fill before anything else.

Each course releases its tee times on its own schedule, commonly a week or two out, with residents of town and county courses often booking first. Leagues, outings and members claim chunks of the sheet in advance, and whatever prime weekend times are left tend to go on release day.

When tee time cancellations happen

A full tee sheet rarely stays full. Many courses let you cancel without a fee up to 24 or 48 hours before your time, so spots tend to reappear in the last couple of days. A bad forecast shakes more loose, and a foursome that drops to three opens a single. None of it is announced. The time just shows up again on the booking page, and whoever looks first gets it.

How to get a tee time on Hilton Head

Doing it by hand? Here's what works.

1. Know the booking window. Find out how many days ahead each course releases times, and whether residents get an earlier window. Be ready the morning it opens.
2. Look again 24 to 48 hours out. That's when most cancellation deadlines pass and spots come back.
3. Be flexible on group size. Singles and twosomes fit into gaps a foursome can't.
4. Try twilight and weekday afternoons. They're the last to fill and often cheaper.
5. Widen the map. If your first choice is full, check the next town over. Hilton Head Isla has 1 courses on Yoink and Beaufort has 1.

Read the full guide to getting a tee time when everything's booked