Chechessee Creek Club

Designed by Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw, the golf course at Chechessee Creek Club sits amidst towering oaks and pines to the north of Callawassie Island. The raised green complexes, with imaginative putting surface contours and jagged-edged bunkering, are the layout’s defining design feature.

Opened in 2000, the course was constructed with sand-capped fairways for improved drainage and the promotion of firm and fast playing conditions. Apart from elevating greensites a couple of feet higher than their surroundings, there was little earth moving of any consequence undertaken when the fairways were fashioned here.

The original plan for the property was to accommodate over a hundred home sites around the 300-acre site but this was revised down to less than fifty by owner Jim Chaffin once the course routing had been finalised, ensuring that golfers would be able to savour a more secluded experience without the intrusion of real estate elements.

Feature holes include the 440-yard 8th, which is the most heavily bunkered hole on the card, and – on a particularly strong back nine – the 340-yard 12th (where the drive over wetlands is followed by an approach to a green fronted by a lone bunker) and the 602-yard 15th, where a couple of prominent oak trees have to be negotiated between tee and green.

A renovation was carried out in 2015, when the entire course was re-grassed, using Tifeagle on the greens, TifGrand sod on the putting surface surrounds and Celebration everywhere else. Drainage issues were also addressed, in particular at the 5th hole, where a new drain line was installed along the left side of the fairway and the former sandy waste area replaced by several bunkers.