Eagle’s Pointe Golf Club

Just like the incongruity of long-hitting Davis Love III’s five Heritage victories at one of the tightest courses on the PGA TOUR, his signature design at Eagle's Pointe Golf Club might surprise the first-time player. For a guy known for his Lowcountry roots ad booming drives, Love’s layout at Eagle’s Pointe is a more traditional-style course that favors placement over length.

Oh, you can still hit driver on most holes to generous fairways. But putting your drives in the right position to hit your approach shot close enough to make some putts on the massive greens is the key to scoring on a course where you can have the round of your life.

“It’s easy to make a difficult golf course,” said Love III shortly after opening Eagle’s Pointe in 1999. “The trick is to make a golf course that everybody can play, and will want to come back and play again. You have to find a balance. You have to use every club in the bag here, and every time you play, you need to see something a little bit different.”

Love has succeeded in all of those goals at Eagle’s Pointe, especially with regard to balance and variety. The par-5 second is reachable for the longer hitters and the par-4 sixth will tempt you try to drive it. But both are fraught with danger near the greens in the form of mounding, strategically placed bunkers, and drop-offs into water and woodlands close by.

Then there are the two toughest holes, through the turn at #9 and 10, a long par-4 (with a big oak tree right in the middle of the fairway) and longest par-5 (with water down the left side on the approach) that play generally into the prevailing breezes, forcing a long-iron approach. Each of the four sneaky-tough par-3s will likely bring a different club out of your bag on the tee box (here’s a tip, always use at least one extra club at the shortest of the par-3s, the 11th that plays out to Highway 278 and features the only significant forced-carry on the course). And the finishing trio of par-4s is as good as you’ll find anywhere.

Director of Golf Bill Layman, who has been at Eagle’s Pointe, and sister course Crescent Pointe since before they opened, loves the way the course has been designed to “allow players to take advantage of their strengths. The big hitters can attack the par-5s, but while those with accurate short games can save strokes around the greens. And with the size of the greens, putting will always be at a premium.”

If the fact that you probably played every club in your bag on this decidedly non-Lowcountry-style layout isn’t enough to bring you back, maybe the thought of how close you came to that career round will keep you in love with this Davis Love III signature creation.

For more information, or to book a tee time at Eagle's Pointe Golf Club, visit www.eaglespointegolf.com or call (888) 325-1833 or (843) 757-5900 24-hours-a-day.