Sea Pines CC prepares to reopen following course renovation

Sea Pines Country Club on Hilton Head Island, South Carolina, will reopen in November following bunker work, regrassing and the expansion of its practice facility.

Golf course architect Phil Smith has led the project, working alongside the club’s general manager and chief operating officer Robbie Ames as well as golf course superintendent Tom Metzger, with MacCurrach Golf Construction handling the renovation work.

The project has seen tees, fairways and greens regrassed and several bunkers reshaped. The ninth fairway has been recontoured, and a new pot bunker added.

Fairways have been grassed with Celebration Bermuda. “Tom and his team will be able to create visually stunning mowing patterns like you’d see at Harbour Town,” said James Swift, director of golf. “Celebration bermuda is the gold standard of turf in the Lowcountry. It also stays green longer in the fall and is quicker to come back in the spring, even as early as March.”

Greens now feature TifEagle bermuda grass and have been restored to their original dimensions, allowing for more pin placements, while new sand and Capillary Concrete liners have been added to bunkers.

Work at the club has also included the expansion of the practice facility, with the range lengthened by 25 yards, eight new targets added and teeing areas now four times larger

The short game area’s chipping green is now three times larger than before, and also features two practice bunkers.

“I would put it right up there among the best practice facilities in the area,” said Swift. “We had been landlocked and limited in what we could offer. Now we can host golf schools, clinics and other instructional programming. With everything we feature, we’re now a golf purist’s club.”

After reopening the course and practice facilities, Sea Pines will next unveil its new, state-of-the-art indoor teaching and practice centre, which includes TrackMan 4 simulators and monitors, and indoor hitting bays that open onto the expanded practice range.

“Golf is a challenging game, and we want our members to have every tool available to get better,” Swift says. “It’s also an incredibly fun game, and the simulator also gives our members and their families a golf entertainment option where they can get together, enjoy a few beverages and appetisers, and play some of the greatest courses in the world.”

Richard HumphreysRichard Humphreys

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