Turtle Point Golf Course, Kiawah Island, SC

For our third day of golf while vacationing on Kiawah Island we chose Turtle Point. Located between Osprey and Cougar about midway out the island, Turtle was touted as the most challenging of the three. It also listed three holes on the ocean giving players a sense of what the famous Ocean Course would have in store. Sticking with our 9:30am tee time and being treated to a glorious day of full sunshine and warm temperatures, we were looking forward to getting out there.

Arriving at the course one of the things you see is the Learning Center. Kiawah offers a lot of golf lesson & play packages with most of the instruction happening here at the center. Like the other two courses, we had ample time to warm up on the nicely maintained driving range and putting green. Right off the bat though I noticed that the putting surface here was even harder and faster than the previous courses so putting was going to be a challenge!

We played our round without seeing another set of golfers on the course - no pressure from either side. There were a lot of people getting ready for an outing when we were wrapping up, but they never impacted us or the pace of play. Overall, this course wasn't as nice as the other two...a combination of the landscaping not being as lush and beautiful as Osprey and the course layout not as unique as Cougar. We all had our worse rounds on this course - the putting didn't help with everyone struggling on the read and the surface. But it was more than that - the houses surrounding this course were obviously much older and smaller; not possessing the charm and Southern flair of the ones on Cougar and Osprey. And the holes on the ocean were alongside the ocean but hidden from view by the high sand dunes. We missed any really beautiful, picturesque scenes that might have bolstered our opinion of the course. We'd rank this one a distant third and probably wouldn't play it again unless the price was much, much less.

I added pictures here of one of the holes paralleling the ocean and a view of the ocean if you climbed up the sand dune (where you were allowed to do so).

Osprey Point Golf Course, Kaiwah Island, South Carolina

For our second round of golf we had a morning tee time at Osprey Point. Rated harder and longer than Cougar Point, it was a natural progression. Located halfway out the island, Osprey was significantly more picturesque with wide open fairways and lots and lots of water and these signs all over:

I have to say, there are a lot of gators in South Carolina!! But there are even more birds. Big ones.

When we checked in we got all kinds of information from the men working there...including Tom & Jerry (no kidding) in the pro shop. Tom told me I'd probably love the course since it's the 7th best course for women players in the country (excellent)! He was right...loved this course!! Might be a top three for me. We teed off at 9:30am - an hour after the foursome before us and two hours before the next scheduled group. We never saw another single golfer on the course allowing a leisurely round. The rough on this course wasn't as dense as on Cougar making it easier to find and hit your ball from the spongy surface. The course was in perfect condition with lots of challenging designs and perplexing greens. The rate was the same as Cougar but I at least felt this one was much more deserving of the $200 fee. I'd highly recommend this course.

Cougar Point Golf Course, Kiawah Island, South Carolina

We decided early on that this would be a food, wine and experience blog...so this post has nothing to do with food or wine unless you count a very good toasted bagel at the snack shop. But it has to do with golf. This is our first trip to Kiawah Island. We've booked three tee times at courses here on the island. Cougar Point, the course the winds around our rental house (our back deck looks out at the 11th hole close to the green), Osprey Point and Turtle Point.

Yesterday we played Cougar Point...largely considered the most forgiving and fun of the island options. There aren't that many people down here this week being off season. We had already noticed that the course wasn't crowded at all. This proved to be true. We had no pressure from people behind us other than a super fast, long ball hitting duo that played through everyone.

The temperature was balmy in the mid 80s with pretty thick cloud cover up until the 16th hole or so. The course itself is very picturesque with lots of water and views of the Kiawah River and low lands. The rough is an interesting, spongy thick ground cover that can swallow up your ball quickly and make finding it challenging. It's a Gary Player design that plays 6212 yards from the men's standard tees (6875 from the tournament tees and 4776 from the women's). The bunkers are enormous but with soft, fine sand that hitting out of wasn't overly problematic once you got used to the consistency.