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.
