Golf Courses in Hilton Head Island & Bluffton, SC

The Hilton Head Island area boasts more than 26 championship golf courses, from a PGA Tour venue to easy-to-book daily-fee tracks a few miles over the bridge in Bluffton. This guide covers the nineteen that are actually open to visitors — public, resort, and semi-private courses on Hilton Head Island and in Bluffton — leaving out the area’s private member clubs. Search for the best golf courses in South Carolina and Hilton Head’s names turn up again and again — Harbour Town Golf Links has hosted the RBC Heritage every spring since 1969, and the resorts around it (Sea Pines, Palmetto Dunes, Shipyard, Port Royal) run championship layouts by Pete Dye, Jack Nicklaus, Robert Trent Jones and Davis Love III. Below: a short best-of list, a plain breakdown of which hilton head golf courses are open to the public versus resort guests only, and the full course-by-course directory for the island and Bluffton. For trip-planning basics and the RBC Heritage, see the golf overview.

Best Golf Courses in Hilton Head Island

Ask which are the best golf courses in South Carolina and this stretch of coast answers more than any other — a genuine PGA Tour venue, three resort courses in one plantation, and daily-fee tracks priced for a vacation budget. Six that stand out for different reasons:

• Signature pick: Harbour Town Golf Links — the tournament test. If you play one round on the island, this is the one; Pete Dye’s course rewards precision over power, and the 18th at the lighthouse is worth the green fee alone.

• Scenic pick: Robert Trent Jones Oceanfront Golf Course — the only oceanfront round. Nowhere else on the island puts you this close to the Atlantic mid-round.

• Group-trip pick: Atlantic Dunes by Davis Love III — best for mid-handicappers and vacationing groups. Playable, coastal-feeling, and forgiving without feeling easy.

• Value-resort pick: Port Royal — Robber’s Row — resort golf without the Sea Pines/Palmetto Dunes price premium, on a course with real history built into the land.

• Bluffton pick: Old South Golf Links — the best public value in Bluffton. Marsh views on the Intracoastal for a fraction of a resort-course green fee.

• Budget pick: Dolphin Head Golf Club — the island’s cheapest round, and its oldest course still in play, open to the public since 1974.

Public and Resort Golf Courses on Hilton Head Island

None of the nineteen hilton head public golf courses covered here are strictly members-only — even the “semi-private” ones sell public tee times. The difference is who gets first access and how far ahead you need to book.

Resort courses

Open to resort guests, and generally to the public with an advance tee time — book earliest of the three groups. Many of these resorts also sell golf packages that bundle a room with discounted rounds, worth pricing out if you’re planning more than one round on a trip.

• Harbour Town Golf Links

• Heron Point by Pete Dye

• Atlantic Dunes by Davis Love III

• Robert Trent Jones Oceanfront Golf Course

• Arthur Hills Golf Course

• George Fazio Golf Course

• Shipyard Golf Club

• Port Royal Golf Club — Barony Course

• Port Royal Golf Club — Robber’s Row Course

• Bear Creek Golf Club

Semi-private club courses

Private clubs that sell tee times to the public, usually with fewer blackout dates than a resort course during peak weeks.

• Golden Bear Golf Club

• Oyster Reef Golf Club

• Palmetto Hall Golf & Country Club — Arthur Hills Course

• Palmetto Hall Golf & Country Club — Robert Cupp Course

• Eagle’s Pointe Golf Club

Public, daily-fee courses

No membership or resort stay required — the easiest tee times to book on short notice. Three are in Bluffton; the fourth, Dolphin Head, is on Hilton Head Island itself.

• Dolphin Head Golf Club

• Hilton Head National Golf Club

• Old South Golf Links

• Crescent Pointe Golf Club

Hilton Head Island Golf Courses

Fifteen of the nineteen courses on this page are Hilton Head Island golf courses proper — the resort layouts inside Sea Pines, Palmetto Dunes, Shipyard, and Port Royal, plus the semi-private and public HHI golf courses at Hilton Head Plantation and Indigo Run. Every Hilton Head Island golf course below, with its designer, hole count, and access.

Bluffton, SC Golf Courses

The remaining four are Bluffton, SC golf courses — a short drive over the bridge, with public and semi-private daily-fee tee times that are generally easier to book on short notice than the Hilton Head Island resorts above.