Colleton River Club: Nicklaus Course

Jack Nicklaus's 1992 course at Colleton River sits on a peninsula between the Colleton and Chechessee rivers, pairing wooded interior holes with a links-style closing stretch along the tidewater. Marsh, oaks and tidal creeks shape the corridors; the par-three 4th plays to a green surrounded by marsh at high tide, and the par-four 18th bends along the river toward home.

Colleton River Club was founded in 1987 as a residential and golf community on a peninsula between the Colleton and Chechessee rivers, just north of Hilton Head Island in Bluffton, South Carolina. Its inaugural course, designed by Jack Nicklaus with Bruce Borland, played its first round on September 28, 1992, and opened for full member play that year. The Nicklaus layout earned Golf Digest's Best New Private Course in America award in 1993, a designation that helped establish the club in the Lowcountry golf market. The course sits on a little over 7,100 yards from the championship tees, with most par 4s exceeding 400 yards.

Nicklaus' routing moves between three distinct landscape types: interior wooded holes under oaks and pines, transitional swamp-edge corridors, and an open, links-style closing stretch of five holes that runs along the tidewater marshes. Nicklaus himself compared the property to Cypress Point for the variety of elements on the site. Water comes into play on twelve holes, almost always in the form of tidal marsh or creek rather than manufactured ponds. Several holes have become identified with the course's character.

The par-three 4th, at 166 yards, plays to a green set on a marsh island — completely surrounded by water at high tide — with a cart bridge providing the only access. The short par-five 14th doglegs sharply right out of a wooded corridor, with a large fairway bunker guarding the approach. The 189-yard 17th plays to a green perched above the Colleton River, and the par-four 18th, at 454 yards, flirts with marshland down the right side as it bends toward the home green. Colleton River later added a Pete Dye course in 1998 and subsequently a Dan Byrd short course, but the Nicklaus has remained the club's original and ceremonial heart.

In 2022 the club celebrated the 30th anniversary of the Nicklaus Course's opening.