There's no single 'best' Hilton Head course — there's the best course for your group. Start with the lay of the land, then let the finder narrow twelve options to your three.
Pete Dye · $550 · S-tier
Robert Trent Jones · $245 · S-tier
Jack Nicklaus · $350 · S-tier
Pete Dye · $250 · S-tier
Davis Love III · $230 · A-tier
Arthur Hills · $210 · A-tier
George Fazio · $210 · A-tier
Trent Jones / Cobb / Dye · $185 · A-tier
Arthur Hills / Robert Cupp · $165 · B-tier
Rees Jones · $160 · B-tier
George Cobb / Willard Byrd · $175 · B-tier
Clyde Johnston · $140 · B-tier
Five answers. We rank the 12 Hilton Head + Bluffton courses for your group and budget.
Robert Trent Jones · $245
Pete Dye · $250
Arthur Hills · $210
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At the top sits Harbour Town Golf Links, the Pete Dye design that hosts the RBC Heritage each April. Other courses carry names like Robert Trent Jones, George Fazio, and Arthur Hills, and Bluffton's May River at Palmetto Bluff is a Jack Nicklaus signature. The finder weights this as course 'tier.'
Some courses welcome any public booking; others give priority (or better rates) to guests of the affiliated resort, and a couple are private. If you're not staying inside Sea Pines or Palmetto Dunes, filter the quiz to public-play so you only see what you can actually book.
The views are part of the round. A few holes touch the Atlantic or Calibogue Sound, many wind through salt marsh, and others run under live oaks and Lowcountry pines. Tell the quiz what you came to see and it favors courses that deliver it.
Counting the island and immediately neighboring Bluffton, there are about a dozen courses commonly played on a Hilton Head golf trip — a mix of resort, semi-private, and public layouts. The map above pins all twelve we track, with designer, location, and green fee for each.
By reputation and ranking it's Harbour Town Golf Links — the RBC Heritage host with the iconic lighthouse 18th. But the 'best' course for your trip depends on your handicap, budget, and what you want to see. That's exactly what the quiz above sorts out, returning a three-course lineup tuned to your group.
Several courses take public tee times directly; others prioritize resort guests or offer them better rates, and a couple are private clubs. Set the access filter in the quiz to 'public-play only' and it drops anything you'd need a resort stay to book.
Generally the resort and value-tier courses play more forgiving than the championship layouts — wider corridors, fewer forced carries, and friendlier green complexes. Set your handicap band to 19+ in the quiz and it nudges its picks toward the more playable tracks while still keeping the scenery you asked for.
Most courses run roughly $100–$250 in season including cart; premium tracks like Harbour Town climb past $300 in peak weeks. Twilight, winter, and summer-afternoon rates are meaningfully cheaper. Each pin on the map shows the course's peak green fee.
Three minutes of questions. One business day until we come back with a quote. No sales pitch. The trip gets built for you, not for whatever the algorithm happens to be boosting this week.
