Harbour Town Golf Links
Encyclopedia
The Harbour Town Golf Links is a golf course
Golf course
A golf course comprises a series of holes, each consisting of a teeing ground, fairway, rough and other hazards, and a green with a flagstick and cup, all designed for the game of golf. A standard round of golf consists of playing 18 holes, thus most golf courses have this number of holes...

 that hosts The Heritage golf tournament on the PGA Tour
PGA Tour
The PGA Tour is the organizer of the main men's professional golf tours in the United States and North America...

, usually held in April. The course is located in the Sea Pines Plantation of Hilton Head Island
Hilton Head Island, South Carolina
Hilton Head Island or Hilton Head is a resort town in Beaufort County, South Carolina, United States. It is north of Savannah, Georgia, and south of Charleston. The island gets its name from Captain William Hilton...

, in Beaufort County
Beaufort County, South Carolina
-National protected areas:*Ernest F. Hollings ACE Basin National Wildlife Refuge *Pinckney Island National Wildlife Refuge-Demographics:As of the census of 2000, there were 155,215 people, 45,532 households, and 33,056 families residing in the county. The population density was 206 people per...

 of South Carolina
South Carolina
South Carolina is a state in the Deep South of the United States that borders Georgia to the south, North Carolina to the north, and the Atlantic Ocean to the east. Originally part of the Province of Carolina, the Province of South Carolina was one of the 13 colonies that declared independence...

. Golf Magazine
Golf Magazine
Golf Magazine is a monthly golf magazine owned by Time Inc.. It was started in 1960 by Universal Publishing and Distributing, who sold it to Times Mirror in 1972. Time Inc. acquired it in 2000. It was the world's most widely read golf publication from August 2006 to January 2007. The magazine is...

has rated the course #1 in the state of South Carolina. The course opened in 1967, with Pete Dye
Pete Dye
Paul B. "Pete" Dye is a world-renowned golf course designer and a member of a famous family of course designers. He is married to fellow designer and former amateur champion Alice Dye.-Early life:Pete Dye was born in Urbana, Ohio...

 as the architect with help from Jack Nicklaus
Jack Nicklaus
Jack William Nicklaus , nicknamed "The Golden Bear", is an American professional golfer. He won 18 career major championships on the PGA Tour over a span of 25 years and is widely regarded as one of the greatest professional golfers of all time. In addition to his 18 Majors, he was runner-up a...

. The course, along with the Ocean and Heron Point (formerly Sea Marsh) courses, makes up the Sea Pines Resort.

General information

The course is open all year, even during overseeding in October and the aerating of the greens in June, July, and August. Guests are allowed to play the course, however everyone must have a tee time. Tee times are accepted online through the course's website. The earliest tee time accepted is for 7:00 A.M.
12-hour clock
The 12-hour clock is a time conversion convention in which the 24 hours of the day are divided into two periods called ante meridiem and post meridiem...

 Eastern Time
North American Eastern Time Zone
The Eastern Time Zone of the United States and Canada is a time zone that falls mostly along the east coast of North America. Its UTC time offset is −5 hrs during standard time and −4 hrs during daylight saving time...

. The dress code states that denim is not allowed and that bermuda shorts
Bermuda shorts
Bermuda Shorts, also known as walking shorts or dress shorts, are a particular type of short trousers, now widely worn as semi-casual attire by both men and women...

 and a collared shirt must be worn. Metal spiked shoes are not allowed.

An estimated 38,000 rounds of golf are played at Harbour Town every year. The fairways are Bermuda grass, and the greens are Tifeagle. In 2007 Golf Digest ranked Harbour Town Golf Links as the 15th best public course in the country.

Course information

The course is a par 71 from all three sets of tees. From the back tees, or heritage tees, the course measures 6,973 yards with a slope rating
Slope rating
The slope rating of a golf course is a measure of its difficulty for bogey golfers. The term comes from the fact that when playing on more difficult courses, players' scores will rise more quickly than their handicaps would predict. The "slope rating" of a course thus predicts that rise...

 of 75.2/146. From the men's (champion) tees, the course measures 6,603 yards and has a slope rating of 72.9/139. From the men's (white) tees the course measures 6,119 yards and has a slope rating of 69.9/130. From the women's (green) tees, the course measures 5,208 yards with a slope rating of 70.7/124.

The course can be considered as quite short by today's standards of golf, but it requires shots that are perfectly positioned, arrow-straight accuracy, and consistency from the player. In fact, many of the holes are shorter than average, so professionals usually find themselves relying on their wedges to shoot low scores.

The signature hole on the golf course is the eighteenth hole. While it is not the number one handicap
Golf handicap
A handicap is a numerical measure of an amateur golfer's playing ability based on the tees played for a given course. It is used to calculate a net score from the number of strokes actually played, thus allowing players of different proficiency to play against each other on somewhat equal terms...

 hole (meaning it provides the greatest difference between a scratch and bogey golfer), it is a challenging 478 yard par 4. The tee shot is to a wide fairway landing area. From there, the player must hit an accurate shot with his or her long iron over Calibogue Sound. Most players will aim their shot at the famous red-and-white lighthouse beyond the course, however out of bounds
Out of bounds
Out of bounds is the area outside the boundaries of a sport's field of playOut of Bounds may also refer to:* Out of Bounds , a movie starring Anthony Michael Hall...

 lurks along the right and the sound captures any ball hit too far to the left.

A customary tradition is that, when a player wins The Heritage tournament (and usually on the eighteenth hole), the boats lined up in Calibogue Sound toot their horns
Horn (acoustic)
A horn is a tapered sound guide designed to provide an acoustic impedance match between a sound source and free air. This has the effect of maximizing the efficiency with which sound waves from the particular source are transferred to the air...

 to the winner.

It is the featured course in the DOS
DOS
DOS, short for "Disk Operating System", is an acronym for several closely related operating systems that dominated the IBM PC compatible market between 1981 and 1995, or until about 2000 if one includes the partially DOS-based Microsoft Windows versions 95, 98, and Millennium Edition.Related...

 game Links 386
Links (computer game)
Links was the name of a series of golf simulation computer games, first developed by Access Software, and then later by Microsoft Game Studios after Microsoft acquired Access Software. The line of golf games was a flagship brand for Access, and the series spanned several years: from 1990 to 2003...

 by Access Software and present in Tiger Woods PGA Tour 07
Tiger Woods PGA Tour 07
Tiger Woods PGA Tour 07 is the fourth-to-latest golfing video game in the Tiger Woods PGA Tour series from Electronic Arts. It was released on October 12, 2006 for PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, PlayStation Portable, Xbox, Xbox 360, and PC. It was released on March 13, 2007 for the Wii...

onward.

External links



32°10′20"N 80°44′53"W
The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
x
OK