Harbour Town Golf Links Named South Carolina’s Best Course for 2004 

Greenville, SC – March 23, 2005 – Harbour Town Golf Links on Hilton Head Island has been named the
#1 Course in South Carolina for 2004 by a panel jointly sanctioned by SouthCarolina Magazine and South Carolina Golf Today.

Harbour Town, home of the PGA Tour’s long-running MCI Heritage Classic, beat comparative newcomer Sage Valley Golf Club in Aiken by the narrowest of margins - just 0.07 of a point on a 50-point scale. 

“There could hardly have been a more exciting scenario in this the panel’s first roll call of the 50 Best Courses in the state,” says panel executive director, Michael Whitaker. “I think Sage Valley will represent the biggest surprise in the ratings for many people. It is a relatively new, very private, golf-only operation. Course quality aside, it could hardly be further removed from Harbour Town, which is a 36-year-old resort course that plays around 40,000 rounds each year and enjoys national television exposure through the MCI Heritage.”

The new South Carolina Golf Course Ratings Panel is a joint project of South Carolina Magazine, a bi-monthly general interest publication celebrating the Palmetto state’s people, places, lure and legend, and South Carolina Golf Today, a monthly golf newspaper. The panel’s mission is to promote greater interest and awareness of all that is good about the game in the Palmetto state, which is home to well over 400 courses.

Member-only Long Cove Club, also on Hilton Head Island and like Harbour Town a Pete Dye design, was a close third in the ratings produced by the panel’s invitation-only membership of nearly 100 avid golfers, leading amateurs, professionals, course owners, industry leaders, and golf course superintendents.

Harbour Town generated instant international headlines when Arnold Palmer won the first Heritage tournament upon the course opening in 1969. Dye’s tight fairways, small greens, and pot bunkering represented a radical shift in design philosophies at the time and has since been regarded as a turning point in modern American golf course architecture. Sage Valley was designed by Tom Fazio, one of Dye’s peers on the highest tier of course design.

Rank	South Carolina’s 50 Best Courses	Average Score/Ballot
1	Harbour Town Golf Links - Sea Pines Resort (Hilton Head Island) Year Built 1969 Designer Pete Dye & Jack Nicklaus Head Golf Professional John Farrell Golf Course Superintendent Gary Snyder	45.57
2	Sage Valley Golf Club (Graniteville) Year Built 2001 Designer Tom Fazio Head Golf Professional Jackie Seawell Golf Course Superintendent Chuck Green	45.50
3	Long Cove Club (Hilton Head Island) Year Built 1980 Designer Pete Dye Head Golf Professional Bob Patton Golf Course Superintendent Ashley Davis	44.78
4	The Ocean Course - Kiawah Island Golf Resort Year Built 1991 Designer Pete Dye Head Golf Professional Brian Gerard Golf Course Superintendent Jeff Stone	43.86
5	Yeaman's Hall Club (Hanahan) Year Built 1925 Designer Seth Raynor Head Golf Professional Claude Brusse Golf Course Superintendent Jim Yonce	43.20
6	Greenville Country Club - Chanticleer Course Year Built 1970 Designer Robert Trent Jones, Sr. Head Golf Professional Brian Lamb Golf Course Superintendent Jim Matthews	42.35
7	Kiawah Island Club – Cassique Course Year Built 2000 Designer Tom Watson Head Golf Professional Martin Shorter   Golf Course Superintendent Randall Glover	42.17
8	The Dunes Golf & Beach Club (Myrtle Beach) Year Built 1948 Designer Robert Trent Jones, Sr. Head Golf Professional Brian Vest Golf Course Superintendent Stephen Hamilton	41.95
9	Secession Golf Club (Beaufort) Year Built 1991 Designer Bruce Devlin Head Golf Professional Mike Harmon Golf Course Superintendent John Davis	40.84
10	Musgrove Mill Golf Club (Clinton) Year Built 1988 Designer Arnold Palmer & Ed Seay Head Golf Professional Jeff Tallman Golf Course Superintendent Will Holroyd	40.24

The South Carolina Golf Course Rating Panel was formed in 2004 to promote excellence in South Carolina golf course design and operations through competitive rankings, education and public advocacy. The Panel was designed to serve as an ambassador for golf in South Carolina by striving to stimulate and facilitate the promotion and marketing of outstanding golf courses, resorts, and real estate developments as follows:

1)      South Carolina’s 50 Best Courses -  At the conclusion of each year, the members of the Panel cast a ballot identifying their choices for the top 50 courses in the state. The results of this poll will be published in the April issues of SouthCarolina Magazine and South Carolina Golf Today (the Panel’s sponsoring publications), along with feature articles on the top courses and resorts.

2)      New Course Of The Year - As new courses open during the year Panelists will evaluate and "rate" them. The results of these ratings will be used to determine the winner of the "Best New Course of the Year" award, which will be published each February along with featured articles.

Structure:  The Panel consists of 100 members, 8 of which serve as Regional Directors.  Approximately 25 Panelists have been chosen from each of the following geographical regions:  The Upstate, The Midlands, The Lowcountry, and The Grand Strand. The governing body of the Panel is its Board of Directors, consisting of the eight Regional Directors and six at-large members.

Membership in the Panel is by invitation from its Board of Directors.

Categories of Membership:

1)      Golf Industry – individuals affiliated with a business that has a direct or indirect connection to golf.

2)      Players & Coaches – individuals who have demonstrated skill at playing, teaching, or coaching the game.

3)      Media – individuals who cover the game of golf for one or more media outlets.

4)      Associate – members who do not fall into one of the three categories above.

Total membership is currently limited to 100, with approximately 25% of the panel representing each of the four categories above.

For more information on the South Carolina Golf Course Ratings Panel contact its Executive Director, Michael Whitaker via email at mikew@scgolfpanel.org.

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