My week in Kiawah

[Shankyouverymuch]

tldr: I went to Kiawah for a week and it was fun.

 

The family trip to Kiawah got cancelled last year for obvious reasons.  But there were still many questions this year. My daughter and husband live in Canada and their attendance seemed very unlikely until the slight ease on border restrictions about two weeks before we left. Even still, my son in law who is Canadian had to fly into the US while my daughter who has privileges on both sides was able to drive. We ended up with 12 people in the place we stayed but there was plenty of room.

     I was able to get three rounds in for the week.  Monday my SIL, myself and two friends drove into Charleston to play The Muni. I had played there before but I knew it was redone and also just made the top 30 muni's in the country list on Golf.com so I was pretty excited to play there again. The morning started out strange as we were milling around the first tee. I was behind the cart fiddling in my bag when my phone which was in the cart made some weird beep/buzz noise. Turns out it had somehow dialed Charleston 911. Not good LOL! I shot 96 at The Muni. However, I was somewhat disappointed with the course. It seemed like the redesign was just to elevate every green into a 5-10 foot high plateau. Then there were sandtraps at the bottom of every greenside falloff. Basically if you missed the green either side or back you were looking at a British Open style bunker shot over a 10 foot hill. The sand was not very soft so try that with a muddy tight lie. Yuck. Highlight was #9 which had a temporary tee making the hole about 280. I ended up driving the green to about 18 feet. Lipped out the eagle putt for a tap in bird.

     Wednesday my I took my SIL to Turtle Point which is right on the Island. Turtle is fairly pricey at $210 each for the round. We started out as a twosome. There was another two in front of us and then a threesome. The threesome was pretty slow and both of us twosomes were waiting every shot. They offered to pair up to slow us down a bit so we did. Ended up being a great day as they were both great guys and we had a lot of fun. Turtle Point is absolutely beautiful as you would expect. Maybe some of the smoothest greens I have ever played on. On one par three I put my tee shot to about three feet and my SIL was about 15 feet. There was an older gentleman walking his dog and he said nice shots. I said it looks like we know what we are doing. He must have been an East Coaster as he replied with a dry "yeah for now" . He was actually correct as I missed my putt. Dang it! I ended up shooting 96 at Turtle.

   Friday was the day I was really looking forward to as I was going out to The Ocean Course as a single. This was my third time playing The Ocean Course I was paired up with three other guys who turned out to be a father, son and SIL. Also really good guys and I enjoyed their company while playing. It is always nice to play well when you are at a nice course and I was so happy with my game Friday. I was ripping drives all day. I parred the first three holes, ended up with 5 pars on the front but unfortunately three doubles and one bogey for a 43 on the front. I played a bit worse on the back and need a par on 18 to break 90. I hit a decent drive left rough and then put a six iron the green and had an easy two putt par to finish at 89. That course was exhausting to walk in 90+ degrees. I was about done by hole 14 but powered through as I wanted to break 90. The caddies were fun to have with you and it really helps to have them reading greens for you. One cool side note, the pathways are all made from crushed shells. The material is dredged up and trucked in. The caddie said he has found many shark teeth in the pathways and even found one the day I played.

   On a crazy side note, one girl that was staying with us got bitten by a stingray at the beach. It was bleeding pretty bad at first and Beach Patrol was called in. They had her soak her foot in scalding water for several hours to draw out the toxin. She was sore but fine the next day.  I am going to try and upload some photos later as my phone was not cooperating.

    

 

[DandyDon]

Not gonna lie, despised Turtle Point.....Maybe my least favorite Nicklaus Course.  

[Roody]

Was one of your caddies Willy? I've played Ocean twice and gotten Willy both times as a caddie, and he was great. 

 

Glad you enjoyed it. 

[vandyfan]

You were 7 shots better on the Ocean Course vs Charleston Muni? How is that possible?

 

Also, I agree with the Turtle Point comment above AND I though Cougar Point stunk as well (you can see water on 3 holes and the rest of the course just goes between houses...could have been anywhere in Florida/SC/GA). Kiawah's "portfolio" is actually pretty weak on the whole when you figure in how much all the golf courses cost to play. 

[Robber6656]

Stingrays don't bite. She must have stepped on it. 

 

I've heard the greens on the Muni are very firm from the renovation so I'm sure they are difficult to hold. Will be for a few years. I thought and still think the Ocean course is extremely overrated and way over priced.

[miamistomp]

 Yep- Stingrays sting

 

I heard the Crocodile Hunter 's family sued Coppertone

 

 

It didn't protect him from harmful rays .....

[pseudoswede]

On 7/23/2021 at 2:15 PM, Robber6656 said:

Stingrays don't bite. She must have stepped on it. 

 

Yes, most likely a sting. However, when my daughter was 4 (I was holding her in the water while surrounded by stingrays), a stingray thought her leg was food. She screamed bloody murder, and, of course, we freaked out because we thought she was stung. When we got her into the boat, there were two semi-circular "hickeys" on her leg just above her ankle; you could see the small indentations made by the stingray "teeth". It broke the skin just enough to cause light bleeding.

Edited July 26, 2021 by pseudoswede

[North Butte]

On 7/23/2021 at 11:54 AM, blackbdmillsaps said:

You were 7 shots better on the Ocean Course vs Charleston Muni? How is that possible?

 

Also, I agree with the Turtle Point comment above AND I though Cougar Point stunk as well (you can see water on 3 holes and the rest of the course just goes between houses...could have been anywhere in Florida/SC/GA). Kiawah's "portfolio" is actually pretty weak on the whole when you figure in how much all the golf courses cost to play. 

I love me some Ocean Course but can't for the life of me figure out why people go to Kiawah Island and pay, what is it now, upwards of $250 for a nicely manicured, run of the mill Nicklaus/Fazio/whatever resort course when the Ocean Course is just a couple miles down the road (a very lovely couple of miles drive it is, too). If Osprey or whatever is worth $250 then the green fee ought to be $1,000 or more at the Ocean Course. 

[Primo1868]

Wild story about the stingray!

[dcmidnight]

On 7/23/2021 at 4:15 PM, Robber6656 said:

Stingrays don't bite. She must have stepped on it. 

 

Yep, been doing a lot of flats fishing the last few years in the Keys/Bahamas and one of the first things they teach you is to shuffle your feet out there. If you scare one away it will probably go away - if you step on it though, you're F'd. Another reason to wear pants/rash guards too though with our boots LOL. Damn that must have hurt though, I've heard the pain is excruciating.

[Shankyouverymuch]

On 9/17/2021 at 2:52 PM, Primo1868 said:

Wild story about the stingray!

It got wilder!  She had been having some residual pain and swelling two months later. She ended up having surgery to remove the tip of the barb. 

[putterboy75]

 

On 7/23/2021 at 11:54 AM, blackbdmillsaps said:

You were 7 shots better on the Ocean Course vs Charleston Muni? How is that possible?

 

Also, I agree with the Turtle Point comment above AND I though Cougar Point stunk as well (you can see water on 3 holes and the rest of the course just goes between houses...could have been anywhere in Florida/SC/GA). Kiawah's "portfolio" is actually pretty weak on the whole when you figure in how much all the golf courses cost to play. 

 

Totally believe that and actually would have guessed it after playing both many times this year. Charleston Muni is slightly tricked up IMO, my reason is that the course intends to replicate many of C.B. & Raynor's template holes (which exist for real down the street at CCC,) but the scale isn't large enough to make the green surfaces enough to handle the extreme contours within each. I'd say some of the holes at the Muni are actually unfair and I can't imagine they have a lot of pin-able hole locations. I've hit really good approach shots all day there and scored downright terrible. The greens are usually rock hard too so you have to really play the ground game on many holes.

 

Ocean Course is tough, don't get me wrong, but like any Dye course, play it from the right tees and maybe get lucky with a little less wind that day.... and you can score. Especially if you have a great caddie (which most of them are I think)  which is a 5 - 10 shot improvement over going with out one. I actually had one of the best rounds of my life at the Ocean, no wind that day and just generally play better anyway on big time courses.

[Roody]

6 hours ago, putterboy75 said:

Ocean Course is tough, don't get me wrong, but like any Dye course, play it from the right tees and maybe get lucky with a little less wind that day.... and you can score. Especially if you have a great caddie (which most of them are I think)  which is a 5 - 10 shot improvement over going with out one. I actually had one of the best rounds of my life at the Ocean, no wind that day and just generally play better anyway on big time courses.

 

I've played it twice. First time was with very mild winds. Second time was 35-40 mph winds for the entire round. I actually shot better in the high winds. Much of that success is owed to the caddie who was giving us great wind-adjusted yardages. Sometimes 4 clubs up or down.