Old Tabby Links - South Carolina - USA

Isolated from the many other courses laid out along the South Carolina coast, the Arnold Palmer-designed Old Tabby Links course lies at the centre of an exclusive residential complex that has received many plaudits since it first opened in 1993.

The anticipation mounts leaving Hilton Head behind, driving past huge expanses of marshland to Callawassie Island, then on through dense woodland over the bridge to Spring Island, where the golf course finally comes into view.

The front nine at Old Tabby Links are routed through oak woods before the landscape changes dramatically on the back nine, with holes 10 to 15 laid out on what were once quail hunting pastures, followed by the last three holes that open out past marshes leading to the Chechessee River.

Many consider the 9th hole – where the Tabby Ruins lie to the right of the fairway, across a large pond – as one of the best risk reward par fives in the Palmetto State while the par three 17th is regarded as one of the 18 best holes that the great Arnie has ever created. Sited on a narrow peninsula, the green is guarded by a natural, spring-fed pond on the left and a deep bunker front right with the salt marshes of the Chechessee River to the rear.

The course underwent a substantial upgrade during 2012 when the Arnold Palmer Design Company and MacCurrach Construction re-grassed greens, widened fairways and rebuilt many of the bunkers; all of which was intended to heighten the strategic interest of the Old Tabby Links layout.