Kiawah Island: Ocean Course
I debated doing this write-up. I first played Kiawah nearly 25 years ago and again about ten years later. I have no photos and only a vague recollection of the course except it was brutally hard and a combo of ocean-front and low-country hell – where you needed pin-point accuracy to negotiate from one little island of grass to the next. So I didn’t want someone to stumble onto this page and think, “and this is interesting because?” and then think that about the whole blog. But then I thought, you might be able to say that about any page on here anyway and I want to add some memories of the top courses I’ve played regardless, so what the hell, I’ll figure something to write about and include all of the courses.
My first trip here was my first true buddies golf trip. Before that, most golf trips were really bachelor parties with a side of golf. I could do a separate blog on cool bachelor party places but most of those were 25-30 years ago and of course there were no photos! Montreal is a great bachelor party town. We golfed up there for one of the bachelor parties and I told my knucklehead friends and cousins, “You can’t yell ‘Fore’ up here as they don’t know what it means. You have to yell “Foutre’ which means ‘Watch Out.'” Of course, it actually means “Fuck.” So those hacks are up there wailing golf balls at people yelling “Fuck You.” Ha, what fun.
Of course those funny dollars with blue princes and red queens on them were also fun to throw around at the Canadian Ballet. Us big tippers were making it rain with $5 and $10 bills that were probably worth about $0.50 USD at the time. The world used to be fun back then. I remember crossing the border, the first of a 3-car convoy of drunks from our place in Vermont. We told the border agent that the car behind us was likely smuggling in drugs and we recommended a full and painful cavity search. He got in on the fun and told them he got word they were sneaking in drugs and would do a full cavity search. Scared the crap out of them until he said we suggested it. Ha!
Back to Kiawah. First time I played it, I rarely golfed and to be as God-awful as I was and try to play this course was a silly notion. Found the scorecard and shot a 108. Yikes. The second time was a little better and by then had started pro-actively trying to get out and play different courses so I appreciated this a lot more even though it was still a kick in the nuts. If you are new to the game and want to try out your first top 100 course, don’t choose Kiawah. It’s beautiful, has PGA and major pedigree, conditioning and all of the bells and whistles, but it will really make you question if you want to play this game. There’s a course on Oahu called Koolau that was equally as discouraging as it was pretty to look at. I just read they had to close it due to COVID.
We stayed on property when I went back to Kiawah in either 2006 or 2007 for a Leaders/ Training Summit. We stayed at the Sanctuary and that is world-class. We played a couple of the other courses there the first time but not this time. We ate at the resort in Sanctuary at the Ocean Room (I didn’t remember the name but got that from the website and now I kind of remember it and certainly remember it being pretty pricey). I’d like to go back there again, this time with a camera and at least some semblance of a game. I’d also love to play Cassique and the River Club as I never got to play these.
Golf Scrapbook 