The Ocean Course at Kiawah Island, site of Phil Mickelson’s win in 2021, will host a third men’s major.
The Ocean Course at Kiawah Island Golf Resort on Kiawah Island, South Carolina, will be the host of another major.
The venue, site of then-50-year-old Phil Mickelson’s PGA Championship triumph in 2021 to become the oldest player to win a men’s major, will again host the PGA Championship in 2031.
The PGA of America also announced Wednesday that the 2029 Girls and Boys Junior PGA Championships will be at the Ocean Course.
The 113th PGA Championship is scheduled for May 2031. It will be the third time the Wanamaker Trophy is up for grabs along South Carolina’s coast. The Ocean Course previously hosted the 2012 (won by Rory McIlroy) and 2021 PGA Championships. It’s the ninth course to host three or more PGA Championships.
Other significant events at the Ocean Course include the 1991 Ryder Cup won by the American side, the 2005 PGA Professional Championship (Mike Small) and the 2007 Senior PGA Championship (Denis Watson).
Kiawah Island Golf Resort’s Ocean Course in South Carolina (Courtesy Kiawah Island Golf Resort)
“We are ecstatic to bring the Junior PGA Championships and PGA Championship to the Ocean Course at Kiawah Island Golf Resort in 2029 and 2031,” said PGA of America President John Lindert, who is PGA director of golf at the Country Club of Lansing in Michigan. “Past PGA Championships at Kiawah Island have provided no shortage of memorable moments and historic performances, all taking place along a breathtaking coastal setting. The Ocean Course’s challenging layout and rich history make it an ideal destination for our championships.”
The Ocean Course was designed by Pete Dye and opened in 1991, shortly before the Ryder Cup. At the suggestion of his wife, Alice, he engineered fairways and greens closer to the tops of the dunes alongside the Atlantic Ocean instead of on lower grades, as is common on many traditional links layouts. This increases exposure to frequent winds while providing incredible views from just about any vantage.
Check out Golfweek’s top 100 U.S. public-access golf courses in 2023.
Welcome to the Golfweek’s Best 2023 list of the Top 100 Best Courses You Can Play in the U.S. Each year, we publish many lists, with this selection of public-access layouts among the premium offerings.
The hundreds of members of our course-ratings panel continually evaluate courses and rate them based on 10 criteria on a points basis of 1 through 10. They also file a single, overall rating on each course. Those overall ratings are averaged to produce these rankings. The top handful of courses in the world have an average rating of above 9, while many excellent layouts fall into the high-6 to 8 range.
All the courses on this list allow public access in some fashion, be it standard daily green fees, through a resort, or by staying at an affiliated hotel. If there’s a will, there’s a tee time.
Each course is listed with its 2022 ranking in parenthesis in the title line, its average rating next to the name, the location, the year it opened and the designers.
KEY: (m) modern, built in 1960 or after; (c) classic, built before 1960. For courses with a number preceding the (m) or (c), that is where the course ranks on Golfweek’s Best lists for top 200 modern or classic courses in the U.S.
“I’m bummed it didn’t happen on the weekend. But it was pretty awesome,” said Clark.
KIAWAH ISLAND, S.C. – How’s Wyndham Clark rolling?
On Monday, the first alternate learned he got into the field for the 103rd PGA Championship when two-time PGA winner Vijay Singh withdrew.
On Tuesday, playing the Ocean Course at Kiawah Island for the first time, Clark took to the tee on the terrifying 223-yard 17th hole where the petite green is guarded by water on the right and two deep waste areas on the left. On his first swing, he made a hole-in-one.
“It was a pretty surreal shot,” Clark told Golfweek.
Clark had seen multiple posts from players on Twitter and Instagram showcasing the difficulty of the hole. Seeing the hole for the first time, it didn’t take long for Clark to realize how arduous the par 3 could be. And the backup on the tee was another indication of the grueling challenge.
Using a PXG GEN4 4-iron, Clark sent his Titleist Pro V1x to the sky.
“It was blowing 20-plus (mph),” Clark said. “I just set up and the wind was in from off the right. I hit it perfect and it was going right at the flag. And in the air, we were all like, ‘Drinks on you,’ ‘hole-in-one,’ blah blah blah. And then it lands, and it started rolling and it goes in.
“I’m bummed it didn’t happen on the weekend. But it was pretty awesome.”
But not pretty expensive.
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“There were like 700 people out there and if I had run up a bar tab, I would have to finish top 20 this week to get my money back,” he laughed.
It was Clark’s third hole-in-one on a regulation-sized golf course; he’s had 20-30 on par-3 courses. His latest ace, however, did not alter his view of the hole.
“It’s one of the toughest par-3s I’ve ever seen, one of the toughest holes I’ve played in all of golf,” he said. “You look at it from the tee you know you can obviously miss it left but that’s a tough spot and if you miss it right or come up short, you’re in the water.
“We got to the green and my caddie said, ‘Go put balls in the bunkers on the left because that’s where we’re going to be. He was joking but he knows hitting the green during the tournament is going to be an incredible shot.”
No. 17 at Kiawah Island is a long (like, uber-long) par 3 over water. Here’s what players had to say early week.
KIAWAH ISLAND, S.C. – Off in the distance some 230 yards is a sliver of emerald safety that gives slight comfort to those who will be staring down potential tragedy during the 103rd playing of the PGA Championship.
It’s the putting surface at the end of the par-3 17th hole on The Ocean Course at Kiawah Island, Pete Dye’s masterpiece hard by the Atlantic that, while eye-popping, is a wind-swept, treacherous walk on a tightrope, or as Lee Westwood said of the layout, it’s a thrills-and-spills kind of place.
This week, the course could play out to 7,876 yards, making it the longest in major championship history by more than 100 yards, and the 230 yards on the penultimate hole protected by water on the right and two deep waste areas that look like bunkers on the left could prove the most pivotal of all.
“Seventeen is the ultimate test of nerve,” 2013 Masters champion Adam Scott said. “It doesn’t matter when you’re playing it. If it’s three weeks ago or this Sunday coming down the stretch, it’s a long par 3 over water.
“I don’t know how holes get more difficult than that.”
The Puttview yardage book for Kiawah Island Golf Resort’s Ocean Course (Courtesy of Puttview)
If blame is to be assigned for the cruel outcomes over the years on the 17th, it would be directed toward Alice Dye, an accomplished architect herself and a top golfer who always had her husband’s ear. It was her idea as the course was nearing completion for the 1991 Ryder Cup to add the watery graveyard.
“There wasn’t going to be a lake on the 17th but Alice felt we needed a dramatic element at this point,” Dye wrote in his autobiography. “Since players of Ryder Cup caliber can handle bunker shots with ease, to make a realistic challenge, we dug an eight-acre lake that stretches from the tee to the offset green, which runs away from the player diagonally to the right.”
The hole exploded in the minds of golf fans when The Ocean Course made its tournament debut in the 1991 Ryder Cup dubbed the “War by the Shore.” It played out like a dark alley in a horror flick as players fell victim to the confrontation time and time again.
Johnny Miller said on the telecast that year the hole was so intimidating that a player could choke while playing a practice round alone. David Feherty, who closed out Payne Stewart in Ryder Cup singles play on the 17th, said he’d never seen anything like it.
“The hardest hole in the history of the universe,” Feherty said of the 1991 version of the 17th. “It was 270 yards and nowhere to go. Water to the right and these mine shafts on the left they called bunkers.”
Ian Woosnam of the European team plays out of the bunker on the 17th hole during the Final Day Singles of the 1991 Ryder Cup at Kiawah Island in South Carolina. (Photo: Stephen Munday /Allsport)
Mark Calcavecchia had one of golf’s infamous meltdowns in his crucial singles match against Colin Montgomerie. Calcavecchia was 4 up with four holes to play but lost the 15th and 16th. He looked safe to win after Montgomerie hit his tee shot on 17 into the water.
Calcavecchia, however, hit a shank into the lake and then missed a 3-footer for bogey to lose the hole. He also lost the 18th and only earned a halve. Thinking he cost the U.S. victory, he went to the beach and broke down in tears, then started hyperventilating and needed medical attention. His health improved as the U.S. won the match.
Twenty-one years later, The Ocean Course held its first major with the 2012 PGA Championship and the par-3 17th wasn’t much easier. The field averaged 3.303 strokes on the hole that week, making nearly as many double bogeys or worse (28) than birdies (31). It ranked in the top-10 of most difficult par-3s that year on the PGA Tour.
And now it’s making another start turn this week.
Expect more carnage.
Well, maybe not from Wyndham Clark. The first alternate who got into the field Monday when 1998 and 2004 PGA champion Vijay Singh withdrew, had never seen the course before playing a Tuesday practice round. At the 17th, he took out his 4-iron and sent the ball skyward and made a hole in one.
As for most all others, the 17th was not kind.
Using a 2-iron on Tuesday, world No. 4 Xander Schauffele hit a tee shot that found the water. Using the same 2-iron, he hit his next tee shot to 2 feet.
“I think that kind of sums up the hole in all honesty,” he said. “When you’re hitting a long iron into wind and it’s struck properly, it should hold its line and its flight. If you don’t, it’s going to go way offline and not hold its flight.
“You’ve really got to muster up some courage coming down the stretch and depending on where they put that tee box, it’s going to be really tricky.”
World No. 2 Justin Thomas took to Twitter and Instagram to show his go at 17.
“220 hole, 198 cover, into a 15ish mph wind … what y’all hitting? I flighted hold cut 4 iron … into the water. It looked pretty though!” he wrote with the accompanying video documenting the shot.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CO_Jh5TBlDk/
World No. 3 Jon Rahm muscled up when he got to the 17th.
“I smoked a 2-iron to just carry it over the middle of the green over the water,” he said. “Extremely difficult. That’s all I can say. Any time you have 230 yards into the wind over water into a narrow target, it’s just not easy.
“I’m hoping we don’t play it back there every day.”
So does Kevin Kisner.
“Lord hope that we’re going to play a tee up,” Kevin Kisner said. “(Tuesday) we played it at 202 from the front edge of the back box, so we were trying to hit a 235-yard shot over water to an area about 13 yards wide.
“I tried to hit a 7-wood; was unsuccessful. That’s not a very easy shot into the wind. Depending on where they play it and where the flag is, I think you have a range (of club selection) from 5-iron to 3-wood.
“Sounds fun, doesn’t it?”
The 17th is part of a closing stretch that’s just downright mean – the 466-yard, par-4 15th; the 608-yard, par-5 16th; the 17th; and the 505-yard, par-4 18th. It’s an unsympathetic finish which demands the winner to call on all his talents.
Which is the way it should be, said European Ryder Cup captain Padraig Harrington, who won the 1997 World Cup here with Paul McGinley.
“If you want to hit the green on 17, you’ve got to be brave,” said Harrington, who hit 5-wood into the wind on Tuesday at the 17th. “There are a lot of great holes here. I do agree if I was designing the golf course, a championship golf course, I would have a real stern test at the end because you want a true winner, and a true winner is going to have to hit the shots at the end and really take them on.
“You can’t have a soft finish in any shape or form. Nobody would have won this tournament until they’re through the 71st hole, that’s for sure.”
The statistics from the 2012 PGA Championship at Kiawah Island’s Ocean Course provide insight to how the course might play in 2021.
There’s much to learn from the 2012 PGA Championship at Kiawah Island Golf Resort’s Ocean Course as focus shifts to this year’s rendition of the major championship at the same coastal layout in South Carolina.
Much attention will be on Rory McIlroy, who ran away from the field alongside the Atlantic Ocean in 2012 for an eight-shot victory over David Lynn. But what can we learn about the course itself? A few things to start, then seven specific spots of interest from the 2012 hole-by-hole statistics.
First off, The Ocean Course is not as easy as McIlroy made it appear. He finished at 13 under par and alone in double digits under par, with only 20 players total breaking par.
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Second, the fearsome par-3 17th might not be as fearsome as some would assume, in relation to the other par 3s on the course.
And third, players better be ready to go right out of the gate, as the start of the front nine presented the best scoring opportunities in 2012.
Following are more points of interest from the hole-by-hole statistics from the 2012 PGA Championship at the Pete Dye-designed Kiawah Island Ocean Course, which ranks No. 1 on Golfweek’s Best list of public-access courses in South Carolina.
Jordan Spieth’s reputation on Pete Dye layouts is less than stellar. Still, he feels he’s on solid footing entering the PGA Championship.
KIAWAH ISLAND, S.C. – Jordan Spieth’s history on Pete Dye golf courses suggests his chances of winning the Wanamaker Trophy this week to complete the career Grand Slam are slim at best.
As he said, he hasn’t performed particularly well on tracks designed by Dye, whose signature traits abound on The Ocean Course at Kiawah Island, home to the 103rd PGA Championship.
Of Spieth’s 15 career victories worldwide – 12 on the PGA Tour, which include the 2015 Masters, 2015 U.S. Open and 2017 Open Championship – just one came on a course Dye had a hand in. Spieth won the 2017 Travelers Championship at TPC River Highlands in Connecticut, which was designed by Robert Ross and Maurice Kearney in 1928 and then worked on by Dye in 1982 and Bobby Weed in 1989.
Spieth’s Dye record is most dire at the Stadium Course at TPC Sawgrass in northeast Florida, where, after tying for fourth in his first Players Championship in 2014, he’s missed four cuts and finished in ties for 40something twice in six starts.
Despite all this, Spieth likes Dye courses, so at least that bodes well.
“I do. I really like Pete Dye golf courses. I don’t think I’ve fared extremely well on them because they have to be played with such patience,” Spieth said Tuesday.
But here’s the catch. The former world No. 1 is all about patience when he gets to majors, knowing full well the game’s four biggest tournaments are grinding marathons instead of high-octane sprints. So Dye or not, he’ll be patient this week.
“I just find a better way of being patient,” Spieth said. “On Pete Dye golf courses you’ve just got to wait for your distances. You think something is a good look, but then if you miss it by a couple yards on the wrong side you’re really in trouble.
“He does a good job of kind of making you kind of think you’re in the ‘A’ spot and then all of a sudden you just barely miss it and you end up in a tough location and make par or worse. This week I think it’ll be more about hitting middle of greens and then taking advantage of par 5s.”
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Also in Spieth’s favor this week is, well, everything else. He’s healthy again after a bout with COVID-19 about a month ago. And after a surprisingly long winless stretch that tested his patience and resolve – he went 82 starts without a victory – his resume is getting updated with entries on the good side of par. In his last nine starts, he has seven top 10s, including victory in the Valero Texas Open, his first triumph since the 2017 Open.
After falling to 92nd in the official world rankings, his worst rank since 2012, he’s up to 26th with a bullet.
“I’m kind of at this point measuring myself off feels and freedom, playing golf from a position of where I feel comfortable stepping over this shot,” Spieth said. “I’m embracing this long iron into a green under pressure versus, oh, shoot, where is this thing going to go.
“So it’s just more like playing with freedom for me regardless of results because I know if I’m playing with freedom that I have the confidence level and the skill set to be able to compete in the biggest tournaments.
“That’s where I can draw back on previous times.”
Spieth has often talked about the grind of working his way out of his winless stretch. Despite his return to form, the grind continues.
“I’m still quite a bit a ways away from where I want to be in my golf swing and in the performance and in the feels, but it’s getting closer,” he said. “And the closer it gets, the more I’m able to trust those shots and the more it not only gets rid of the scar tissue but can actually kind of prove advantageous under pressure.”
As for pressure, Spieth doesn’t feel any when it comes to grasping the Wanamaker and completing the career Grand Slam. He’s treating this major like any other.
“I think as we get into the weekend, if I’m able to work my way into contention, I think it’s something that’ll obviously be asked and come up, and it’s something that I certainly want,” he said. “But you go to a major, and for me at this point, I want to win the Masters as badly as I ever have this year. Didn’t happen. I want to win this one as badly as I ever have. Once you move on to the U.S. Open, the same.
“I feel like I’ll have a lot of chances at this tournament, and if I just focus on trying to take advantage of this golf course, play it the best I can and kind of stay in the same form tree to green I’ve been in, all I can ask for is a chance.”
Take a look at the hole-by-hole maps provided by Puttview for this week’s PGA Championship at the Ocean Course at Kiawah Island Golf Resort.
Kiawah Island Golf Resort’s Ocean Course takes its second turn as host of the PGA Championship this week, welcoming players and fans back to the South Carolina seaside just southeast of Charleston.
The Ocean Course was designed by Pete Dye and opened in 1991 after a somewhat frantic effort to complete construction before that year’s Ryder Cup, which the Americans won over the European team and that has become known as the “War by the Shore.”
Unlike most linksy courses, which play beneath and around the dunes, the Ocean was built atop the dunes at the suggestion of Dye’s wife, Alice. This provides fantastic views of the Atlantic but subjects the players in this week’s major championship to the full force of the coastal winds. Individual holes will play very differently this week depending on the weather.
The Ocean Course is part of the large and charming Kiawah Island Golf Resort, which is home to four other courses: Osprey Point by Tom Fazio, Oak Point by Clyde Johnston, Turtle Point by Jack Nicklaus and Cougar Point by Gary Player. And beside miles and miles of beaches, the resort is home to a five-star oceanfront hotel and luxurious villa rentals, several fun pool complexes, a marina, hiking trails and more, making it a top Lowcountry destination.
Thanks to yardage books provided by Puttview – the maker of detailed yardage books for more than 30,000 courses around the world – we can see exactly the challenges that players face this week. Check out each hole below.
Players and caddies didn’t hold back when asked their opinions on the use of rangefinders this week.
KIAWAH ISLAND, S.C. – The PGA of America believes pace of play will improve in this week’s PGA Championship by allowing the use of distance-measuring devices.
Players and caddies say not so fast.
Committed to speed up play, the PGA of America is the first major governing body to allow distance-measuring devices in its foremost professional events, starting with the 103rd edition of the PGA Championship this week on the Ocean Course at Kiawah Island.
“We’re always interested in methods that may help improve the flow of play during our championships,” Jim Richerson, president of the PGA of America, said in a media release in February announcing the decision. “The use of distance-measuring devices is already common within the game and is now a part of the Rules of Golf. Players and caddies have long used them during practice rounds to gather relevant yardages.”
The response from players and caddies? It. Will. Slow. Play. Down.
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“I love what the PGA of America is trying to do. The organization has been at the forefront of change,” said Paul Tesori, longtime bag man for Webb Simpson. “The PGA Championship is the only major we’ve played lift, clean and place. The PGA of America was the first to allow shorts.
“But I think they reached into an area where I don’t think we need help.”
His boss agreed.
“This is a fact: it’s not going to speed up play because everybody I know and have talked to, we still want front numbers, and the range finder, you can’t always get the accurate front number,” said Simpson, the 2012 U.S. Open champion and current world No. 10. “So you’ll probably have the player shoot the pin, the caddie will walk off the number because I’m going to want what’s front. I haven’t read the reasoning behind it or their desire to test it out that week, but I don’t think it will really make a difference.”
And as Scott Sajtinac, caddie for 2013 PGA champion Jason Dufner, said: “Too much information is needed that is unzappable by a laser. But some will sure try to laser something extra.”
Harry Diamond, caddie for Rory McIlroy, uses a rangefinder during a practice round prior to the 2021 PGA Championship at Kiawah Island Resort’s Ocean Course on May 17, 2021 in Kiawah Island, South Carolina. (Photo: Sam Greenwood/Getty Images)
The devices, in accordance with Rule 4.3a (1), can only report on distance and direction. Those that also can calculate other data including elevation changes and wind speeds, are not allowed.
Since 2006, rangefinders and GPS devices have been allowed for recreational golf and tournaments with the rule stating that local rules would allow tournament committees to ban them. While rangefinders have been allowed in the U.S. Amateur since 2014, top professional events, including the Masters, U.S. Open and British Open, do not permit such usage.
As well, the PGA Tour conducted a four-tournament test of distance-measuring devices on the Korn Ferry Tour in 2017 but did not change its view.
“We decided at the time to continue to prohibit their use in official competitions on the PGA Tour, PGA Tour Champions and Korn Ferry Tour for the foreseeable future,” the PGA Tour said in a statement. “We will evaluate the impact rangefinders have on the competition at the PGA of America’s championships in 2021 and will then review the matter with our player directors and the Player Advisory Council.”
Where one and all do agree concerning the rangefinders – which also will be allowed in the PGA of America’s KPMG Women’s PGA Championship and KitchenAid Senior PGA Championship – is that time will not be wasted when players hit wayward shots, which could be frequent on the windswept grounds of the Ocean Course.
“I have a hard time seeing it speed things up, unless you get it way offline or you’re out of contention,” Jordan Spieth said. “We’ll plan on using it, but I think it will be more confirmation than anything. It’s not going to be we just step up, shoot it, and go. I mean, these pins get tucked and the wind’s blowing and you got to figure out a few more things than just the number to the hole.”
Added Bryson DeChambeau, the PGA Tour’s longest hitter: “It’s going to help me for when I hit it offline. We’re not going to have to go to a sprinkler head and walk 40, 50 yards away from a place to find a number.”
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But here’s where it will slow up play, according to players and caddies. How long will it take to pull the trigger if the player shoots one number and the caddie walks off a different number. They’d likely repeat the process. Then if there still is disagreement, the two would discuss how to go forward.
“I don’t know of one caddie who was consulted by the PGA of America, and that’s frustrating,” Tesori said. “We’d have stressed that normally, I’m getting a lot of info: the yardage to the front number, the carry number, left and right numbers, the distance behind the pin. And we’re talking about the wind and roll out. Of all the info, the last number we get is to the pin.
“If you shoot a rangefinder from 150 it will say 150 one time and 149 another and then 151. If you’re two yards off that can mean difference between 9-iron and pitching wedge. And if our numbers are different, we’ll redo all the numbers and if we’re still split, we’ll figure out what to do and away we go.
“As professionals, we have never done this before. It will be another part of the process and that will take time.”
World No. 2 and 2017 PGA champion Justin Thomas said he doesn’t like the PGA of America’s decision for many reasons but one in particular.
“I think it takes away an advantage of having a good caddie that maybe goes out there and does the work beforehand as opposed to someone, especially now between the yardage books, the greens books and range finders, you technically don’t even really need to see the place or play a practice round,” Thomas said. “You can go out there and know exactly what the green does, you know exactly what certain things are on certain angles because you can just shoot it with the range finder.
“I made my stance on it pretty clear. I don’t really like them.”
