Golf Magazine recently released the game's most prestigious listing of the best courses in America. And while the Jack Nicklaus Signature course at Colleton River Plantation has been on the list since 1993, it was the newest arrival that sparked the most interest.
    
The 1999 Golf Magazine Top 100 Golf Courses in the U.S. ranking included our Pete Dye Course, offering Colleton River Plantation the unique distinction
of being the first and only private golf community in the world with two courses on the same Top 100 list.  And the fact that Pete's course made the list just six months after it opened for play is remarkable. It's a tribute to designers Jack Nicklaus and Pete Dye, and to their dramatic and superbly playable courses along the unspoiled river and salt marshes of Colleton River Plantation.

A home site at Colleton River offers you not just membership, but entry into a special way of life. Playing the Jack Nicklaus course in the morning and the Pete Dye course in the afternoon is, as one of our members said, "the stuff of dreams."

The extraordinary Pete Dye has had a long and eminently successful association with the Lowcountry. Just over 30 years ago, Pete and a young Jack Nicklaus put the finishing touches on the now world famous Harbour Town Golf Links. Twelve years later, Dye drove the first ball on Long Cove, his second Hilton Head Island design. Both rank among America's top 100 courses.

At age 72 and rounding out a fabled career, Pete Dye created what promises to be one of his greatest works at Colleton River Plantation. Dye and Nicklaus are together again after all these years. Pete's new masterpiece lies near the Nicklaus Signature layout built just a few years earlier. It is a superlative effort that defies comparison.

When you speak of Pete Dye, you talk in terms of a legacy. The Tournament Player's Course at Sawgrass, Crooked Stick, Black Wolf Run and dozens of others have established an unsurpassed standard of excellence. Dye has seven of his designs rated among the top 20 modern courses in America and 14 among the top 100.

It's fun to watch Pete Dye at work, offering as he does a new definition of hands-on. During the blazingly hot summer of 1998, the artist could be found working on his new design on an almost daily basis. He is no stranger to climbing about earth-moving equipment, favors a surveyor's measuring stick and is often seen with a shovel in his hands. It is a sight to behold......As is the artistry of his Colleton River course.

AWARDS-The Dye course at Colleton River Plantation has been honored by:

Golf Magazine for one of the Top 100 Greatest Courses in the U.S., just six months after the course opened for play.

The Dye Clubhouse at Colleton River is impeccably, unobtrusively elegant, a perfect rendezvous point day or night for dining, socializing or recounting, hole by hole, your most recent Pete Dye conquest.

Every hole at Colleton River’s Pete Dye Course has its own, distinctive character in terms of playability, shot-making and aesthetics. Holes 2 through 8 cut through beautiful stands of live oaks dotted by several fresh water ponds. With one exception – the par-three 3rd hole – these 9 holes are relatively low-profile with a moderate amount of contouring and bunkering. Holes 1 and 9, and 10 through 18 have an open, breezy feel with long, panoramic views of the Lowcountry and more pronounced movement in the wide open terrain. Elevated tees and landing areas, sloped fairways and added earthwork - in the form of humps, swales, hollows and bunkers - provide a distinctly different test of golf on the closing nine.

Colleton River Plantation also features THE classic Jack Nicklaus Signature Golf Course.  Along with its classic strategic design and ever-changing coastal breezes, Colleton River’s most striking and engaging characteristic is its magnificent variety of playing experiences as it winds its way through one of the most exceptional natural settings in the Carolina Lowcountry.

Beginning its journey through forests of specimen live oaks, towering pines and magnolias on holes one and two, the course rambles through lush meadowlands on the par-5 third to the tranquility of the tidal marshes and subtropical palmettos on holes four and five. It repeats this pattern three times before bursting out of the protective environs of the interior on the unique par-five 14th to its finale on a wonderful stretch of wind-swept dunes bordering the Colleton River.    
      
In utilizing the principles of classic design at Colleton River, Jack Nicklaus created a layout that places a premium on strategy and shot making, and strikes a proper balance between challenge and playability. Heroic carries over hazards, penal bunkers and multi-tiered putting surfaces are notably absent, while open approaches to gently contoured greens, alternate routes of play and ample bailout areas are the norm.
AWARDS- The Nicklaus Course at Colleton River Plantation has been honored by:

Golf Digest for the Best New Private Course in America, 1993
Golf Magazine for one of the Top 100 Greatest Courses in the U.S.
Golf & Travel for one of America's Top 100 Modern Courses
Golf Week for the Top Rated Course in South Carolina
Crittenden GOLF Inc. for "Best Private Clubhouse" of its size

The Nicklaus Clubhouse
       Colleton River regularly makes "best of the best" lists in a variety of publications. In 1993, the Jack Nicklaus Signature course was named "Best New Private Course in America" by Golf Digest. Two years later it was named one of the "100 Greatest Courses in the United States" by Golf Magazine. So it seems only fitting that the Colleton River Clubhouse now comes in for its share of recognition--recently named as the "Best Private Clubhouse in America" by Crittenden Golf, Inc. A 30,000 square foot testament to taste and luxury, it is the centerpiece of social life for members and their guests, and must be experienced to be appreciated.