Mountains, marshes, beaches, and more golf than you could ever fit into one trip? That’s South Carolina. Here, variety isn’t just a perk – it’s the point. With pleasant year-round weather across the state’s 350 golf courses, golf never really takes a break here, which means you won’t have to either.
Best Golf Courses in South Carolina
1. The Ocean Course
Kiawah Island
There are many reasons the Ocean Course at Kiawah Island Golf Resort ranks among South Carolina’s best, with its setting chief among them. And the experience begins long before you reach the first tee. The drive out to Kiawah Island showcases classic Lowcountry beauty – shimmering marshes, soaring egrets, and glimpses of multi-million-dollar mansions peeking through the branches of towering oaks.
But once on the course, the real magic begins. True to its name, The Ocean Course lives up to every expectation, featuring more seaside holes than any other course in the Northern Hemisphere, with ten holes playing directly along the Atlantic. Firm fairways, ocean winds that will make you rethink your club choice on every shot, and views that make you pause and reflect. It’s brutal, beautiful, and exactly what you came for.
2. Yeamans Hall Club
Hanahan
Designed in 1925 by Seth Raynor, Yeamans Hall is quietly one of the best golf courses in South Carolina. Ultra-private and remarkably faithful to its original layout, it survived nearly a century with minimal changes – the biggest tweak coming in the late ‘90s, when Tom Doak reconstructed the greens to restore Raynor’s bold vision.
Just a short drive from downtown Charleston, Yeamans Hall feels a world apart. Oak-lined roads, guarded gates, and sweeping marsh views set the stage for a round that feels less like a game and more like stepping back in time.
3. Congaree Golf Club
Ridgeland
Congaree Golf Club may be somewhat new to the South Carolina golf scene, but it’s already earned a reputation as one of the most remarkable courses in the country. Opened less than a decade ago, it shares Yeamans Hall’s sense of exclusivity – though Congaree takes it even further. The club has only two official members (the owners) and operates on a unique invitation-only model. Those invited become “ambassadors,” supporting the Congaree Foundation, which funds educational and golf opportunities for underprivileged youth.
Set on the grounds of an 18th-century rice plantation, the Tom Fazio–designed course blends natural Lowcountry beauty with design sophistication. Its firm, fast fairways, Melbourne-style bunkering, and immaculate conditioning have led many to call it one of Fazio’s finest works – and one of the most meaningful, too.
4. Harbour Town Golf Links
Hilton Head Island
Harbour Town is the heartbeat of Sea Pines Resort, and it redefined what “resort golf” could be. It also proved that you don’t need length to offer a true test of skill. Every April, the PGA TOUR’s RBC Heritage brings the game’s best to a course where bomb-and-gouge gives way to patience and precision – all under the watchful gaze of the iconic Harbour Town Lighthouse.
Pete Dye and Jack Nicklaus designed a course that rewards thought over muscle. Fairways thread between pines and oaks, doglegs bend just so, and the coastal breeze never quite lets you settle. By the time you reach the 18th, with Calibogue Sound sparkling beside you, it’s easy to see why golfers travel from far and wide to play this one.
5. Country Club of Charleston
Charleston
If the nearby Yeamans Hall whispers Raynor’s genius, the Country Club of Charleston shouts it. Situated on the historic McLeod Plantation along the Ashley River, this 1925 layout by Seth Raynor features more of his classic “template” holes like the 11th (a reverse Redan) and the 16th (“Lion’s Mouth”) that golf architects and historians point to as among his finest. The front nine unspools along Lowcountry marshes and estuary, then the back nine slips into mature woodlands, giving you two distinct moods in one round.
6. The Tree Farm
Batesburg-Leesville
In one of the state’s most unsuspecting corners lies one of the most remarkable golf courses in the world. It’s part Pinehurst, part heathland, part untamed Augusta – and its logo is so good, you’ll want to save some extra cash for the pro shop.
Opened in 2023, The Tree Farm stretches across 500 acres of sand-based rolling terrain on the site of a former (you guessed it) tree farm. The course is the product of a unique collaboration: Tom Doak’s routing expertise, Kye Goalby’s construction mastery, and Zac Blair’s vision. Together, they crafted one of the best golf courses in South Carolina, with dramatic ridges and valleys framed by galleries of pine, scrub, and sand. Short green-to-tee transitions make for fast-paced rounds, while firm, undulating fairways and carefully shaped greens invite a mix of run-up and aerial shots. No two holes feel alike, and clever routing keeps golfers intimately connected to the clubhouse – you’re never more than two holes away from its central hub.
7. Old Barnwell
Aiken
Just 30 minutes south of The Tree Farm lies another standout newcomer to the Carolina golf scene: Old Barnwell. Like its northern neighbor, there’s a touch of Pinehurst here, with fairways funneled beneath longleaf and loblolly pines. But its wide open expanses evoke the Sandhills of another region: Nebraska.
But founder Nick Schreiber is building more than fairways and greens here; he’s building community. Teens can join a paid caddie program, high school students can apprentice in maintenance and agronomy, and partnerships with historically Black colleges and universities bring access, competition, and even the possibility of national championships right on the property.
The idea is simple but radical: a club that unites rather than divides, where golf is a force for good, not gatekeeping. The goals are lofty, the vision idealistic, and somehow, through it all, there’s genuinely outstanding golf to be played.
8. Secession Golf Club
Beaufort
Epic and intimate all at once. That’s Secession Golf Club in beautiful Beaufort, South Carolina. Its name nods to a pivotal moment in 1860, when South Carolina and ten other states voted to secede from the Union. And the course itself has a bit of storied “secession” of its own. After a dispute over the 14th green, original designer Pete Dye walked away after 13.5 holes.
Bruce Devlin stepped in to complete the project, but Dye’s fingerprints remain everywhere, from sod-stacked pot bunkers to strategic hazards and landing zones. Yet what lingers most is the setting: sweeping marshlands and tidal inlets, where shifting ocean winds and changing tides make each round feel totally different from the next.
Playing the best golf courses in South Carolina is about the views, the challenges, and the pure joy of the game. Don’t let lugging clubs slow you down – ShipSticks delivers your gear straight to the course, so you can skip baggage claim, skip the stress, and dive right into your round.
