The Sea Pines Resort

The Sea Pines Resort on Hilton Head Island is one of America's most storied golf destinations, built around three courses within the resort itself. Chief among them is Harbour Town Golf Links, designed by Pete Dye with the help of Jack Nicklaus and opened in 1967, a tight, tactical par 71 of 7,099 yards famous for its narrow, oak-lined fairways, small Bermuda greens and the iconic red-and-white Harbour Town lighthouse framing the par 4 18th. Alongside it sit Atlantic Dunes, a Davis Love III reconstruction of the island's original Ocean Course playing to a par 72 over 7,065 yards through classic Lowcountry marsh and dune scenery, and Heron Point, redesigned by Pete Dye from the old Sea Marsh layout and running to 7,035 yards, with the risk-reward holes and water-guarded greens typical of his work. Three genuinely different, high-quality courses within one resort make Sea Pines a rare proposition for a golf holiday.

For accommodation, golfers can choose to stay right at the heart of the action at The Inn & Club at Harbour Town, the only Forbes Four-Star and AAA Four Diamond hotel on Hilton Head Island. Its 60 rooms are generously sized at 480 square feet each, with coastal-inspired interiors, personalised butler service, complimentary valet parking and a serenity pool with seasonal beach concierge, while the standout Fairway Suite looks directly over the 9th fairway of Harbour Town Golf Links itself. For those travelling as a family or a larger group, Sea Pines also offers more than 400 vacation homes and villas across the resort, ranging from one-bedroom villas to seven-bedroom homes, many with ocean, golf course or Lowcountry views, giving groups the space and privacy a hotel room can't match while still enjoying full access to resort facilities via a Guest Amenity Card.

Harbour Town Golf Links' real claim to fame, however, is its tournament pedigree: it has hosted the PGA Tour's Heritage Classic, now known as the RBC Heritage, every year since 1969, when Arnold Palmer won the inaugural event. Played the week after the Masters each April, the tournament has drawn a roll call of the game's greats to this same layout for more than half a century, and walking the course guests are staying on - past the same lighthouse and down the same closing holes seen on television every spring - is one of the most compelling reasons to build a golf holiday around Sea Pines.