Sea Pines Racquet Club, Hilton Head Island

• Address: 5 Lighthouse Lane, Hilton Head Island, SC 29928
• Hours: 7:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily; courts booked in advance
• Phone: 843-363-4495

The Sea Pines Racquet Club is The Sea Pines Resort’s tennis and pickleball club, a few minutes’ walk from Harbour Town on Hilton Head Island. It is a clay-court club first: about 20 Har-Tru courts plus hard courts, six courts given over to pickleball, a pro shop, and a teaching staff that includes Stan Smith, the former world No. 1. The Smith Stearns Tennis Academy trains here.

You do not have to be a member or a resort guest to play. Anyone can book a court by the hour; resort guests just get their first two hours each day included. See tennis in Sea Pines for how it compares with the island’s other Sea Pines club.

Court Fees and Who Can Play

The resort lists these court rates. Tennis: resort guests get two hours a day at no charge, property owners pay $35 an hour, and everyone else pays $50 an hour. Racquets rent for $5. The guest hours do not cover clinics or lessons and do not carry over to pickleball.

Pickleball: $30 an hour for resort guests and property owners, $35 for everyone else, and $20 for four paddles and balls. The pickleball courts run 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Book either sport online through seapines.com or by phone. The resort also sells a tennis membership that includes court time and cheaper clinics, which is worth pricing if you are here for a long stay.

Clinics, Lessons and Tennis Weekends

The resort’s pros are USPTA and PTR certified and teach adult clinics (17 and up), junior and children’s programs, and private lessons. For pickleball there is a beginners’ clinic on Monday, Wednesday and Friday mornings, an intermediate one on Tuesday and Thursday, and round robins on weekday mornings and afternoons; the clinics were $35 a day.

For a whole trip built around tennis, the resort sells packaged weekends by phone, among them the Stan Smith Super Series, taught by Smith and his staff, and the Weekend Workout, which is about doubles strokes and strategy. Serious juniors go to the Smith Stearns Tennis Academy, which runs its camps and full-time program from these courts.

A Little History

The club’s courts hosted the women’s pro tournament that started as the Family Circle Cup, played in Sea Pines on clay from its first year in 1973 until 2000, apart from 1975 and 1976 on Amelia Island, Florida. It moved to Charleston in 2001 and is now the Charleston Open. It is one reason Hilton Head still has a name as a clay-court tennis island.

Planned Changes (Reported July 2026)

On July 2, 2026 the Island Packet reported preliminary site plans, submitted to the Town of Hilton Head Island, that would take out the club’s 20 clay courts and replace them with two tennis courts, four pickleball courts and two padel courts, next to a new resort pool, bar and restaurant. It is part of a larger renovation of the Inn at Harbour Town. The reported schedule is construction starting sometime in 2027 and finishing in late 2028 or early 2029.

Those are preliminary plans, not a finished project, and the club is running as normal. If you are planning a tennis trip for 2027 or later, call the club before you book to ask which courts will be open during your dates.

Getting There

The club is on Lighthouse Lane, next to the Inn at Harbour Town, a short walk from Harbour Town and the lighthouse. If you are not staying in Sea Pines, you pay the gate fee on the way in, $10 per standard vehicle; the guest pass office page has the details. After a match, the Sea Pines restaurants guide has lunch nearby. For the other club inside the gate, see South Beach Racquet Club.