Ocean Winds at Seabrook Island Resort

Played Crooked Oaks on 11/9/2020. Here's the "low down".
Layout is excellent with plenty of diversity in the holes. Lots of marshes, creeks and ponds. Beautiful course cut through the low country topography. Course was in outstanding shape on all fronts (greens, tees and fairways). Mature Bermuda greens that rolled true, held shots well and were rolling around 10 - 10.5 on the stimp. Pace of play was perfect 4 - 4:15 at hours.
Practice area is only about 300 - 400 yards off the ocean so it's windy all day, every day. Pro shop staff is borderline surly with a "I could care less attitude". Food in the clubhouse mediocre at best and yes, it's a resort so it's overpriced. Cart girl was very friendly and efficient with a well stocked cart (food and beverage). Better to buy food off the cart than from the clubhouse. We played both courses and strongly prefered Crooked Oaks over Ocean Winds.

This is somewhat of a novelty type track. The course was renovated this year and just reopened in early October 2020. The greens are still struggling to recover as a few are spotty with bare patches. The front nine is non descript as it winds through the neighborhoods of Seabrook Island. The back nine makes it's way out to the ocean with a few holes cut along the beach. It's scenic and always windy but seems to be built for those vacation golfers that want a "beach experience". If you're a golf purist the Crooked Oaks course is a much better option. The signature par 3 on the back nine is a good hole and a photo op as well. The course was in OK shape but certainly not worth the $180 greens fee that was posted. Pro shop staff is not NOT friendly and borderline surly at best. Don't expect good service for your $180 greens fee. Seems to be a clear lack of management leadership in the clubhouse. Surly pro shop staff and mediocre food and service in the men's grill. Bring your own food and beverage. If you're looking for outstanding service you'll have to venture over to Kiawah Island.

I would not return to Seabrook since it is way too sleepy for me and my buddy. For families, I am sure it is great...and for Dad to sneak out and play 18, it's great. Course was in fantastic shape, tee to green. Range, putting and chipping areas were good. Staff was friendly for the most part. The layout was decent and somewhat challenging with a lot of marsh, but not memorable. Could only see the ocean from 1 hole, but could hear it though out the round. I would never pay the $150+ rack rates, but for a stay and play or a deal, you will enjoy it. Watch out for the alligators!

I would not return to Seabrook since it is way too sleepy for me and my buddy that went. For families, I am sure it is great...and for Dad to sneak out and play 18, this is a great course. It was in excellent condition, tee to green. Pro shop was well stocked and staff was friendly for the most part. Range, putting green and chipping areas were all above average. We enjoyed the course but it was not a tremendously memorable course. And the rack rates are way to high in my opinion...if you can get a deal as we did, then go for it. I would not pay $100+ for it.

First time playing the course. Our foursome traveled in from VA spent $750. on golf, purchased a few hundred dollars in the pro shop and were treated like the staff was doing us a favor! Extremely unfriendly. We belong to several private clubs in VA and NC and were shocked by the poor customer service.

We did enjoy the course. The grass was in great shape!

We only payed $50 because our foursome all had Charleston Tee Time discount books. Normally it is about $150. What a wonderful course. Beautiful layout and the greens were SUPER fast. Unfortunately I had one of those days where nothing was going where I wanted it to go. This is a tight course so not playing well was greatly exaggerated.. Still had a great day though.

I have played Seabrook (both 18s) several times. While the course is usually in really good condition (especially for a resort course), today the Ocean side is in fantastic condition. The greens were clearly verticut and aerated a few weeks ago, but they are rolling smooth and the fairways are immaculate. Kudos to Seabrook for keeping this as a great course to play in the area.

What an amazing course - beautiful everywhere and fun to play. I can’t wait to go back!

This course has a classic look and feel, not overly manipulated to create the holes. The greens were in perfect condition and rolling very fast. This underrated gem is on par (or better) than most of the neighboring Kiawah courses that are better known.

This course was the prettiest course we ever played. Very challenging, greens very fast, but fair. Not alot of breaks on the greens, but speed is the issue. It helped to have the GPS in the cart to see what we were hitting into. Great layout, southern charm. Clubhouse staff and starter were very friendly. Private course conditions.

When I was researching courses to play in South Carolina, one of the first thoughts I had was wanting to play on a barrier island. As I was scanning reviews and pictures of courses I ran into a picture of a sign that read “please don’t feed the alligators.” It was at this point that the courtship between the Ocean Winds course at Seabrook Island Resort began.

Ocean Winds, perhaps surprisingly, doesn’t offer a ton of ocean views, but it doesn’t promise that. What it implies, and delivers on, is stiff ocean breezes as you work your way around the course. This is especially true of the back nine which is far more open – both in the width of the fairways and the vegetation around them – than the front.

Indeed, the front and back nine’s are quite different. The front has numerous dense stands of tall trees and very narrow fairways, especially (at least the way I play) in the landing areas. Being a little bit off could easily leave you in the woods, likely in a place dense enough to require a pitch out rather than a recovery shot. Between the distance lost on the shot that hit the trees and the often necessary escape shot, bogeys come easy should you misfire on a tee shot.

The tradeoff is that it’s a beautiful stroll filled with wildlife, we saw deer on multiple holes for example, through some pretty straight forward (literally and figuratively) holes. Without a lot of angles or elevation changes, you can rely on your stock club length and a mistake is never compounded by leaving yourself short sided on a dogleg.

While the fairways on the back are still a bit narrow, the landing areas open up more than on the front. More significantly though, there are far fewer trees and as such this side of the track is more forgiving to a slightly wayward tee shot.

This does not mean the course suddenly get easy, however. The open spaces invite winds coming off the ocean and those breezes seldom decline to attend. A slight fade can turn into a slice fairly quickly by catching a prevailing wind. The good news is that recovery is much more likely, even for significantly more unwieldly shots.

There are relatively few bunkers on this course, not really needed because of the tree and wind protection. However, there is a decent amount of water to keep you honest as you move your way around. We found the course to be in very good condition.

I found the staff to be quite attentive as well as being very friendly. This included a 10-15 minute “tutorial” in the pro-shop on different grass types and how to properly care for the course (e.g. divots and ball makrs on the green) while you are playing on each type. This may have been the most instructive 15 minutes of my trip! Also, not overly surprisingly based on the “do not feed” sign… we found the gators to be, if not friendly, at least not overly aggressive.

Overall the experience at Seabrook Island was really good. I’d certainly enjoy returning and playing the Oaks course as well.

GREAT place. It was a perfect day...course was oerfect. Greens were receptive and true. Cant wait to play again