As usual, I enter a thread that has long since seen its discussion wane. It's been a crazy, largely golf-less spring. what can I say?
As the resident GCA mid-handicap player, my hard course bar will always be Wolf Run; may it rest in peace. On that course, I felt that I needed to focus on every tee shot and approach to avoid a lost ball. Every. Single. One. When I played Kiawah Ocean in 2018, I did not feel that way at all. Is there a lot of danger around Kiawah? Yes. However, most of the fairways are pretty wide, and here is a right place to miss and a wrong place to miss, and it depends on what shot you want to attempt.
Yes, we had a lighter breeze during my round. We were with the wind 1-4, then 15-18; with 6-13 into it. And yes, there were a few shots where you really needed to focus. But at no point did I feel this course was nearly as overbearing as Wolf Run was. And hole for hole, I played much better golf at Wolf Run than I did at Kiawah.
For me, Kiawah Ocean is classic Dye at its best, in an incredible environment. Would I like the course as much if it were in-land? I doubt know, and that ultimately doesn't matter. You ARE by the ocean, and you hear it from every hole. There are plenty of interesting shots. The greens were a bit on the slower side, but that's done with reason; it's a resort course for most of its existence. As my caddie said, "If they were much quicker, we'd by here all day".
Would I plop rack rate again to play it? Probably not. However, seeing it again during the PGA had me really thinking about it. The current state of my game though would suggest I should come back another time.