by Tim Gavrich

    Mt. Pleasant, SC, offers all the modern conveniences and access to necessities of a mature suburban haven.  At 10 miles from downtown Charleston, the town appeals to both young families and retirees who prefer the offerings of an urban area without the high-density neighborhoods.  Mt. Pleasant also appeals to golfers with a yen for variety.
    The town offers a diverse array of courses, most of them taking advantage of the surrounding marshland and nearby ocean.   The marvelously marshy Rees Jones-designed Charleston National Golf Club and Arnold Palmer layout at RiverTowne Country Club, which hosted an an annual LPGA event until this year, are two excellent public golf options; and those who want the excitement of a couple of finishing holes on the ocean can pony up three-figure green fees for a shot at nearby Wild Dunes and its recently restored 18th green, which had fallen into the ocean two summers ago.

Water protects the 4th green at Dunes West's first par 5.  It is short, but the hazard makes even the gutsy golfer think twice about going for it in two shots.

    A few days ago, we played the nearby Dunes West Golf Club, an Arthur Hills track of 1991 vintage.  Dunes West, which is surrounded by a large planned development, enjoys a Low Country parkland setting with scenic views of Wagner Creek, a tributary of the Wando River, and the adjacent marsh.   The layout holds up well to the standards set by its competitor courses.  And it certainly drains well; Dunes West took on three inches of rain in a few hours two days before we played it, yet carts were allowed on the fairways the day we played and there was no evidence of the rain except for a few deep bunkers where the sand on their facings had washed down the slopes.  
    Hills courses are quite distinct from those of other designers, emphasizing second-shots more than other strokes.  Dunes West follows suit, its greatest demands being approach shots rather than tee shots.  Also, Arthur Hills, who will never reasonably be called a minimalist à la Doak,  Coore & Crenshaw and others of their ilk, sculpts and scoops out mounds that factor into the player's strategies at Dunes West.  Those mounds cause either infuriating or rewarding bounces, which is to say shot making on a Hills course is typically fun and exciting.  Dunes West fits that pattern; it is an enjoyable and well-balanced layout with a challenging set of green complexes that can change the approach to approach shots day to day.

A drive on the left side of the 5th fairway at Dunes West will force an approach over or around a tree on the par 4.    

 

    The four par 3s at Dunes West are not the most eye-catching one shotters in golf, but their varying distances -- from the 168 yard 6th to the 214 yard 17th - make you reach for four different clubs.  The 17th is the best of the four, with a light-bulb-shaped green guarded by a pond to the right and grass hollows and a bunker on the left.  Coming at a critical juncture in most matches, it will reward a "clutch" long iron or fairway wood, with a par likely to win the hole in a match.  The 12th is another compelling one-shotter; it requires a 173-yard stroke to a deep green angled from front-right to back-left and guarded by menacing bunkers on the left.  A low right-to-left shot is the best for accessing a middle or rear pin position.
    The two-shot holes at Dunes West are an intriguing bunch as well, a combination of clear birdie opportunities -- like the 357 yard 3rd hole - and more difficult king-size par 4s, like the 470-yard 14th.  The last two par 4s at Dunes West are the gems of the set.  At first sight, the 412-yard 16th appears to peel off to the right, but on closer inspection, the hole actually leans to the left, with a green set about 15 feet below the landing area.  A pond to the right and a bunker and mounds short and left add up to a scary second shot, even with a short iron in hand.  The finishing hole is a 456-yard brute with a shallow, pitched green guarded by marsh from the front left to the rear; just beyond, a huge live oak provides a nice backdrop (chairs were set up there facing the tree and water beyond, the likely scene of an impending wedding ceremony).  Reaching the 18th in regulation is a tall order but will put a lot of pressure on one's opponents if a match is close.
    The par 5s at Dunes West are not particularly long, but they can make big trouble for players who are overly aggressive.  The par 5s on the front side are under 500 yards from the back tees, but water figures prominently on both-by the green at the 489 yard 4th hole and off the tee of the 497 yard 8th.  The three-shot holes on the back nine are decidedly longer.  The 561-yard 15th hole features two angled strings of bunkers that can gobble up aggressive plays from the tees and on the lay-ups.  Playing into the teeth of the prevailing wind, the 15th is a difficult par five and should be respected rather than attacked.
    Dunes West is worth a stop for any golfer visiting the Mt. Pleasant, SC, area or for someone considering a permanent home there.  Despite being relatively benign off the tee, it will test everyone's iron and short games thoroughly, making for a good mix of fun and challenge.  The surrounding gated community of nicely landscaped homes in the $350,000 to $1 million range, which attracts retirees and growing families alike, never encroaches on the course; out of bounds stakes only infrequently demark the boundaries between private property and golf course property.    

    With memberships in the semi-private club starting at just $2,500, and with dues at a low $252 per month (full-family), Dunes West is a bargain.

Dunes West by the numbers (tees/rating/slope):
Black: 6,859/73.7/139
Gold: 6,508/71.5/131
Blue: 6,100/69.3/122
White: 5,424/66.1/106
Red: 5,208/69.2/118 (W)

 

If you would like more information about Dunes West or any of the communities in the Charleston/Mt. Pleasant area, please contact us. 

The Dunes West clubhouse is beautifully maintained, right down to the perfectly sculpted hedges.

 

Tim Gavrich, a collegiate golfer, maintains his own blog site at  the Hartford (CT) Golf Examiner, where he reviews golf courses and comments on other issues related to the game.

    Golfweek magazine has released it annual ranking of the top publicly accessible courses in the U.S., and the choices could entice a private club member to go public.  I have played a fair number of the courses on the list, many of which are withing golf communities.

 

Nutmeg State gems
    In my home state of Connecticut, Wintonbury Hills in Bloomfield and Oxford Greens in Oxford rank #2 and #3 in the state, behind the Lake of Isles North Course at the Foxwoods Casino.  I love Wintonbury Hills especially for its provenance -- designed by Pete Dye for $1 as a gift to the town and one of its residents and Golfweek writer, Bradley Klein -- and its proximity to our home, just 20 minutes.  The course is mild Dye, except

when the greens firm up, which is most of the playing season.  No homes surround Wintonbury, but Oxford Greens is plunked down amidst some unimaginatively designed age-restricted housing, and its severely sloped fairways can put your ball into someone's backyard.  I have not played the public Lake of Isles course but I did play its interesting, well-conditioned and private sister course whose finishing hole includes a view of the massive casino hotel in the distance.  
    It has been many years since I played Delaware's Baywood Greens as I made my way to Lewes Ferry to Cape May, NJ, a relaxing way to break up a long trip from south to north.  If you catch the ferry right, you can save time and stress by avoiding the Interstate 95 parking lot around Washington and Baltimore.  I recall Baywood Greens' sleek layout and magnificent floral arrangements on many of its holes, including a par five that required three shots onto peninsulas, including one of the greens.  Baywood is #5 of 5 on the Delaware list.

The approach to the 18th at the increasingly popular Caledonia in Pawleys Island, SC, could ruin an otherwise pleasurable round on a beautiful course.  Diners who gather on the veranda to watch you putt don't help much either.

 

Arnie turns impressions around 

    I was pleased to see the Golf Club of North Hampton in Fernandina Beach, FL, near Jacksonville, just creep onto Florida's list of 25 at #24.  That is quite a feat in such a golf rich state, and well deserved in my estimation.  North Hampton made me recalibrate my opinion of Arnold Palmer designs, which previously I had found pretentious and generally without subtlety.  But North Hampton was a fine links-like course that, despite the amount of homes surrounding it, provided pleasant views of sculpted fairway and greenside bunkers and large and contoured greens.  Bravo, Arnie.  Not surprisingly, TPC Sawgrass tops the Florida list. The Ocean Course at Ginn Hammock Beach weighs in at #7; despite his financial and public relations problems, few would Bobby Ginn for the quality of the golf courses he has completed.

 

Like a spotlight in the pines

     Golf raters love the design team of (Bill) Coore & (Ben) Crenshaw, as do golfers themselves, and their Cuscowilla Golf Club, the #1 ranked course in Georgia, is one of the best courses I have played in the last decade.  The flat layout is a paragon of simplicity and challenge rolled into one (the eye catching red bunkers, a mix of sand and good ‘ol Georgia clay, aren't too shabby either).  Located in a corner of the many-fingered Lake Oconee in the northeastern part of the state, Cuscowilla stands up to many local rivals, including three layouts at Reynolds Plantation (#,3, 5 & 8) and the Harbor Club in nearby Greensboro.  About an hour south, the two-year old Longshadow Golf Club(#6 of 10) was initially named Madison Lakes for the surrounding residential community.  The course has moved up the popularity scale in a few short years and deserved a more distinctive name.  My son Tim and I played the front nine there before its official opening, courtesy of designer Mike Young, and it was clear, even before things were finished, that Longshadow had great bones.

The Foxwoods Casino in Connecticut built two courses called Lake of Isles.  The private one (pictured) features an interesting and challenging layout; the public one has an equal reputation.    

 

    Few golf courses are as much fun to play as The Ranch in Southwick, MA, just over the Connecticut state line.  The club's name is a bit of a misnomer, the expectation being of a flat landscape; yet the layout at The Ranch rises gently over the first nine and reaches a lusty altitude on the 16th tee, where drives can easily roll down the mountain nearly 400 yards on the 618-yard par 5.  The Ranch is rated #7 in Massachusetts.

 

Smokin' Tobacco Road
    The courses in and around Pinehurst dominate the top 10 list in North Carolina, but Mike Strantz's wild and wacky Tobacco Road, about 45 minutes down the road, hangs in at #5, just behind the new Leopard's Chase, part of the Ocean Ridge Plantation community on the northern outskirts of the Myrtle Beach area.  Tobacco Road is one of those courses that you should play once in your life, and I guarantee that someday, on another golf course or at a cocktail party, you will meet someone who also has played it, and you will have lots to talk about the rest of the night.
    I have played all but two of Golfweek's top 10 courses in South Carolina, and they seem well chosen.  I have no argument with Pete Dye's dunes

infested Ocean Course at Kiawah Island as #1, or Harbour Town on Hilton Head as the runner up.  It has been years since I played them, but blind shots over dunes at the Ocean Course and more than just a lighthouse at Harbour Town rank high on my personal golf experiences.  Caledonia Golf & Fish Club in Pawleys Island may be the hottest golf course east of Bandon Dunes, commanding $200 green fees in the peak seasons (fall and spring) in a competitive golf market place, but Caledonia is perpetually in such impeccable condition and so beautifully landscaped that few grouse about the expense, lack of a practice range and par 3 9th hole that seems something of an afterthought.  True Blue Golf Club, Caledonia's sister course just across the street, holds down the #7 position and just 15 minutes away, the sporty Fazio-designed TPC of Myrtle Beach, racks up the #8 spot.  All are part of the recent manufactured marketing association called the Waccamaw Golf Trail.
    Pete Dye's Kingsmill Resort River Course holds down the #9 spot for Virginia.  Kingsmill, in the golf rich and historic area of Williamsburg, is the epitome of a golf community for those who prefer to be on a lifetime vacation.  The Tom Clark/Curtis Strange-designed Woods Course is almost as popular with Kingsmill guests as is the River Course; no residences pollute the vistas along the Woods layout.  A third course, by Arnold Palmer, features large greens but lags the others in popularity.  Perhaps the most unusual course at Kingsmill is Bray Links, a nine-hole short course along the river that commands the best views of all.