The brief: eight golfers, three nights at the Omni in Palmetto Dunes, three rounds on three different courses. Hilton Head is one of the most accessible golf destinations in the country for exactly this kind of trip — the courses are well-maintained, the logistics are simple, the island has enough going on off the course that no one feels trapped by the schedule. Palmetto Dunes gives you two of the three rounds without a car.
Day 1 — Arrive at Hilton Head Island · George Fazio Course
Flights into Savannah (SAV) or Hilton Head (HHH) and straight to the Omni. The hotel sits inside Palmetto Dunes, a 2,000-acre oceanfront resort with three courses. Afternoon tee time on the Fazio.
George Fazio's design is the island's only par-70 — two par 5s, four par 3s, and a series of long par 4s that run from the 432-yard opener to the 462-yard 18th. The course has new Diamond Zoysia greens and was once listed among Golf Digest's 100 Best in the country. It plays as a genuine test without requiring anything spectacular off the tee, and the course's reputation for being fair to all skill levels is accurate. The wind matters — the long par 4s play differently depending on direction, and the 17th, a water-carry par 3, will eat a club if you misread it. The group arrives to an honest round rather than a forgiving one, which is the right way to open a trip.
Dinner at One Hot Mama's — Executive Chef Orchid Paulmeier's BBQ restaurant on the south end of the island, part of the Official South Carolina BBQ Trail and a Hilton Head institution. The menu runs to baby-back ribs, pit-to-plate BBQ platters, hand-cut steaks, char-grilled chicken, and what the restaurant calls the world's best wings. The Garage Bar is attached. It's the right room for the first night of a group trip: loud enough, fun enough, no part of the evening spent figuring out whether the food is worth it.
Day 2 — Robert Trent Jones Course
Morning tee time on the Jones course, directly adjacent to the hotel. A lagoon threads through more than half the holes, which keeps the round interesting even as the course rewards steady, mid-handicap golf. The shifting winds off the Atlantic affect every hole differently — Robert Trent Jones and Roger Rulewich designed the layout to play differently depending on what the ocean is doing. The signature hole is the 10th, a 550-yard par 5 (from the back) that finishes on an elevated green with a direct view of the Atlantic — the only oceanfront hole on the course. Three solid shots, and you arrive at a green with one of the better views on the island. Golfweek named the Jones course among the Best Courses You Can Play in South Carolina in 2024.
Afternoon at leisure. The beach is a short walk from the hotel, and Palmetto Dunes runs through twelve miles of lagoon that connects the whole resort by kayak if anyone wants to stay moving.
Dinner at Red Fish — a Hilton Head institution at 8 Archer Road that has held Wine Spectator's Award of Excellence every year since 2001. The menu runs to seafood, Lowcountry dishes, and prime steaks, with produce sourced from the restaurant's own Bear Island Farms. The wine program is serious: more than 1,300 bottles in an on-site retail shop, available to order with the meal at a corkage fee. Live music most nights. Indoor fireplace and patio seating. A 4.6 on OpenTable across nearly 6,000 reviews, which is a number that takes sustained effort to hold. The right room for a group mid-trip.
An alternate worth knowing: Santa Fe Cafe, on William Hilton Parkway, is the only Southwestern restaurant on the island and has been for nearly thirty years. The rooftop cantina — open-air, climate-controlled, with a kiva fireplace — is the right setting for a group dinner that doesn't follow the standard coastal seafood playbook. The signature dish is the Painted Desert Soup: red pepper, corn, Mexican cream, and mole. The menu builds from there — mesquite-grilled lamb chops with cranberry chipotle sauce, pork tenderloin over smoked habanero BBQ, herb-roasted free-range chicken with jalapeño cornbread stuffing. A local favorite with a genuinely loyal staff and a room that earns repeat visits.
Day 3 — Hilton Head National
The third round takes the group off resort to Hilton Head National in nearby Bluffton, SC — a Gary Player and Bobby Weed design that feels like a private club despite being fully public. No houses come into view on any hole, the TifEagle greens are maintained to a high standard, and the course was built to put every club in the bag to work. Player's design philosophy runs to variety: the course changes character hole by hole. The signature 6th plays tight to a lagoon and requires a specific line off the tee. The course was named a USA Today Golf Atlas Top Fifty layout and hosted the first nationally televised Amoco-Centel PGA Championship. After three rounds in three days, it's a good closer — not a consolation course, but a comfortable one.
Dinner in the evening at the Quarterdeck, inside Sea Pines at Harbour Town. The restaurant sits next to the iconic striped Harbour Town Lighthouse on Calibogue Sound — outdoor seating, waterfront views, live music in the evenings, a rooftop oyster bar. Seafood and southern classics. The setting does some of the work: the lighthouse, the water, the boats coming in. It's the right room to end a three-day trip.
Day 4 — Depart Hilton Head Island
Morning checkout, drive to Savannah or catch the island's connector flight. A straightforward trip to run back.
If you want to step it up:
The elevated version of Day 3 is Harbour Town Golf Links at Sea Pines — Pete Dye's design with Jack Nicklaus as a consulting architect, and the course that hosts the RBC Heritage every spring on the PGA TOUR. Harbour Town rewards finesse over length. The course places a premium on shot shaping, precise iron play, and managing a layout where trees, water, and Dye's idiosyncratic bunkering are in play on nearly every hole. From the Heritage tees it plays to 7,131 yards with a 75.5 rating and 146 slope — numbers that announce what the course intends to do. The 8th hole (par 4, 467 yards from the back, with water and strategically placed trees protecting the green) and the 17th (a par 3 where nearly every quadrant around the green involves water, and the 90-yard bunker on the left is genuinely the safe miss) are the holes the group will remember arguing about. The 18th — a 470-yard par 4 finishing to the green with the Harbour Town Lighthouse directly behind it, looking across Calibogue Sound — is one of the most recognizable finishing holes in American golf. The same dinner at Quarterdeck follows. Same lighthouse, different context after that round.
Harbour Town is the right substitution for a group that plays to single-digit handicaps or wants to experience what the tour pros play. For a more casual group, Hilton Head National gives you a great day of golf without the score getting in the way of enjoying it.
