Jekyll Island Recommendations

[Joe Hellrung]

Heading to Jekyll Island in early May with my wife.  Of the four courses on the Island, any recommendations as to which we should play?  We probably have time for one round.  Thanks for the advice.

[Anthony Gholz]

Joe:


Skip JI and head over to St Simons Island and play Sea Island's Seaside course.  Originally a Travis (1928) and Alison (1928-29) combination its now Travis, Alison, and Fazio.  Great piece of low country seascape and Alison's 9 is still 90% intact.


You may have to stay in a Sea Island property so check their website, but you won't regret it.


Tony

[Joe Hellrung]

Thanks Tony!

Joe:


Skip JI and head over to St Simons Island and play Sea Island's Seaside course.  Originally a Travis (1928) and Alison (1928-29) combination its now Travis, Alison, and Fazio.  Great piece of low country seascape and Alison's 9 is still 90% intact.


You may have to stay in a Sea Island property so check their website, but you won't regret it.


Tony

[Mark Pritchett]

Great Dunes is a lot of fun and definitely worth a trip around. 


Of the others, Oleander by Dick Wilson is a solid choice. 

[Howard Riefs]

I'd recommend that you give Dan Hogan a call at Brunswick CC.  Great set of greens on a recently restored Ross course.


http://www.golfclubatlas.com/forum/index.php/topic,49870.msg

[Joe Hellrung]

Thanks for another great set of recommendations.  I have emailed Dan and hope he can find us a tee time.  Sounds like my kind of track. 

I'd recommend that you give Dan Hogan a call at Brunswick CC.  Great set of greens on a recently restored Ross course.


http://www.golfclubatlas.com/forum/index.php/topic,49870.msg

[Richard Hetzel]

Great Dunes is a lot of fun and definitely worth a trip around. 


Of the others, Oleander by Dick Wilson is a solid choice.

I second these 2 choices. Pine Lakes is Ok too but you can skip Indian Mound as it is fairly pedestrian Joe Lee design. All of these area great walking golf courses. I bet you could play 9 holes on Great Dunes in an hour, maybe a bit more. It's typically the least favorite of the golf courses on Jekyll Island. I think it gets the 9 hole traffic because I believe that the main clubhouse for the other 3 courses do not offer a 9 hole rate. If you want pics I can email you pics from all 4.


I would love to see a proper restoration of Oleander, it would be ideal for a redo!

[Richard Hetzel]

I'd recommend that you give Dan Hogan a call at Brunswick CC.  Great set of greens on a recently restored Ross course.


http://www.golfclubatlas.com/forum/index.php/topic,49870.msg

The green complexes are GREAT, but the course is flatter than FLAT.

[Daniel Jones]

I played the Great Dunes a week or so ago and it was an absolute blast. I could have played 1-6 over and over again... Here's the approach and green on the awesome 5th.. Oh and the electric car rental/pizza joint next door is pretty great too.

[Tim Gavrich]

I second the recommendation of Brunswick CC. It's delightful, and an example of how a flat golf course does not have to be boring.

[Richard Hetzel]

I second the recommendation of Brunswick CC. It's delightful, and an example of how a flat golf course does not have to be boring.

Exactly. It is only boring until you get to the greens, then it is pretty awesome!

[Mark Pritchett]

Thanks for posting the pics Daniel, I love Great Dunes.  The 5th is something else indeed!

[Richard Hetzel]

Here a few green shots from Brunswick CC. Be sure and check out the original Donald Ross architectural drawings hanging in the clubhouse as well.

[Tom Ferrell]

I am a native of South Georgia and have played literally hundreds of rounds at all of the Jekyll/Sea Island/Brunswick courses - and others nearby.


1. Be prepared to drop some real dough if you head over to play at Sea Island. I agree that Seaside is really, really (REALLY!) good, but it comes at a price.


2. The Great Dunes course is SO WORTH IT.  The first six holes are magnificent, and the others aren't bad.  If the state just put a little bit of money into a renovation, this could be a museum-quality golf course.  The little tiny round greens are just a shame.  But play it (maybe a couple of times).


3. I agree that Oleander and Pine Lakes are the best of the three 18-hole layouts. Oleander was once the site of final-stage PGA TOUR qualifying.


4. Brunswick CC - yes, Yes, YES!  Play it for sure.  The work that Love's team did down there is outstanding.  Great day of golf at BCC!


5. Just down I-95 in scenic St. Mary's GA (that's where you catch the ferry to go to Cumberland Island, which is a side trip you may want to consider - absolutely beautiful) is Osprey Cove GC.  Nice little Mark McCumber course.  Hidden gem status and site of several GSGA championships.


6. My hometown of Waycross, GA is about an hour inland from Jekyll.  Okefenokee CC, where I maintain a non-resident membership to this day, is yet another Joe Lee design BUT is built on incredible sandy soil on the banks of the Satilla River (which actually comes into play on a couple of holes).  There is a good 40 feet or so of elevation on this course - rare in coastal Georgia.  IMO, it showcases the best that Joe Lee could do.  Very good.  I think it's worth the drive.  Side note: I got hooked on GCA by spending many an afternoon with Gentelman Joe and his associate Rocky Rocquemore during construction of Okefenokee. I was completely absorbed in golf at the time, a 13-year-old who wanted to know how ALL of it worked.  And they were willing to let me tag along.


Obviously explore Millionaire's Village on Jekyll Island.  The oaks with their spanish moss - just gorgeous.  Fort Frederica on Saint Simons is a fascinating piece of colonial history.  Again, Cumberland is one of the great wild places. 


Enjoy!  PM me your email, and I'll send you a story I wrote on the Golden Isles for Colorado AvidGolfer magazine.

[Mike_Young]

Just drive to Jekyll and play Great Dunes.  Don't let JI be your impression of the golden isles...nice place but so much more to do at SSI....and play BCC...

[Richard Hetzel]

Just drive to Jekyll and play Great Dunes.  Don't let JI be your impression of the golden isles...nice place but so much more to do at SSI....and play BCC...

Jekyll is a place kinda stuck in the 1960's. It's a place you go to get away from everything. It sure isn't like Hilton Head or anything like that. Although they have done (and are doing) a lot of renovations to the island, they are bound by state law that limits developing no more than 35% of the land on Jekyll. Developers want in there, but many residents do not. In fact when you buy a home, you can't buy the land (just the house), as it comes with an automatically renewed 100 year lease each year. I enjoy Jekyll for what is and what it is not.

[A.G._Crockett]

The Brunswick and St. Simons recommendations are fine, but don't give up on the Jekyll courses quite so easily. 

I haven't been to Jekyll in a number of years now, so I don't know the current conditions, but the three 18 hole courses are all worth a play.  Pine Lakes has been renovated and is likely to be in the best shape.  Oleander is probably the best test of golf.  Indian Mound has some pretty funky greens, but is the most scenic of the three and is a short but very good layout.  As mentioned, the Great Dunes course is pretty cool; great way to spend a couple of hours after an 18 hole round on one of the others.  I don't think you'll see anything like Great Dunes anywhere else.

Jekyll is a GREAT public venue; three very solid courses all playing out of one clubhouse, with a very good practice facility and very nice people at great rates.  While none of the three courses are going to make anybody's Top 100, I don't think you'll come off of any of them sorry that you saw them, and I don't think any of the other options that have been offered are necessarily destination courses, either.  I've played pretty much everything in the area, both public and private, I might add.

Voltaire, I think, said something to the effect of the perfect being the enemy of the good.  NOT playing the Jekyll courses in hopes of finding something else in the area that would just blow you away would be under that heading.

[Richard Hetzel]

I always wondered why the Jekyll Island Authority chose to renovate the Pine Lakes course rather than the Oleander course? Pine Lakes is a much, much better golf course after so much tree removal. I think that Dick Wilson's Oleander has a TON of potential. Here are a few Pine Lakes pictures to keep this thread alive.

[A.G._Crockett]

Richard,
I think the renovation at Pine Lakes was about drainage; they raised the entire golf course several feet.  They also did all of the other stuff, too; trees, bunkers, turf upgrades, etc., but it was really about drainage.  Oleander needs it, but not as badly as Pine Lakes did.

I believe that there was a plan to do the same sort of work at Oleander, but it got derailed at some point.  I don't know if that was a revenue issue from the downturn in rounds played, or if it had to do with the issues surrounding what was going to happen to the island as a whole; I also don't know if it is still on the board for some future date.

I'm headed down there the first week of June for 4 days of golf; first time in about 10 years.  I'm really looking forward to it; I just love the place.

[Mike_Young]

AG,
I agree that there is potential at JI and I agree with the staement regarding perfect being the enemy of good.  A few of us went over for a tourney last year at JI..made it thru the first day hoping the next course would be in better shape.  We left the next day after 4 or 5 holes....I have found and have had others say you just never know what shape it will be in...
Hope NC is going well for ya..

[Stephen Northrup]

Brunswick CC is an excellent choice -- greens are fantastic and the vibe is low-key. If money is no object, then Seaside -- make time for lunch in the lockerroom and a drink at the Lodge afterwards.

[Richard Hetzel]

AG,
I agree that there is potential at JI and I agree with the staement regarding perfect being the enemy of good.  A few of us went over for a tourney last year at JI..made it thru the first day hoping the next course would be in better shape.  We left the next day after 4 or 5 holes....I have found and have had others say you just never know what shape it will be in...
Hope NC is going well for ya..

Agreed, you can never tell about what the conditions will be until you show up. One has to wonder if it is a budget thing, or a superintendent who doesn't know what they are doing. I would bet it is more of a budgetary thing, one would think 3.5 courses is a lot to take care of.

[Joe Hellrung]

I just want to thank everyone for the recommendations.  My wife and I had a great time playing Brunswick CC.  It was a fun course for her (she plays a couple times a year) and a fair test for me.  The greens were in fantastic shape, and certainly some of the most fun I've played.  Mr. Hogan and his staff do a great job. 


I've got some pictures I'd like to post, but can't seem to make it work.  I've posted photos to my blog if you want to see them.