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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
FOR MORE INFORMATION, CONTACT:
Shannon Odom
Charleston Golf, Inc.
Telephone: 843-805-3067
or 800-774-4444
CHARLESTON RANKS NEAR THE TOP
OF AMERICA’S ‘BEST GOLF CITIES’
CHARLESTON, S.C. – When Golf Digest published its latest ranking of the best – and worst – golf cities in America, the rest of the nation discovered what Lowcountry residents have long known. That is, simply, that Charleston, America’s “first” city when it comes to golf, is also among the nation’s best.
According to Golf Digest, the greater Charleston area, including North Charleston, is the sixth best golf town in America. Further, of the top 24 ranking metropolitan areas in the poll, Charleston-North Charleston was the only one with a population of more than 500,000. Jamestown, N.Y., with a population of 139,750, ranked first.
Wilmington, N.C., ranked eighth, and Myrtle Beach, 12th, were the only other cities in the Carolinas to crack the top 20. And in the Southeast, the Charleston area ranked behind only Panama City, Fla., which was third overall.
The complete list of 314 cities and towns was published in the November 2002 issue of the magazine billed as “The No. 1 Golf Publication” with circulation of more than 1.5 million monthly. The study, which commissioned a team of three Oklahoma State University geography professors, was based on specific criteria – courses per capita, average green fee, weather and average star rating/value rating of the latest Places to Play, a Golf Digest readership survey rating public-access courses across the country.
“This is a tremendous honor for our area, to be recognized among the very best in golf by a national publication such as Golf Digest,” said Shannon Odom, general manager of Charleston Golf, Inc., the marketing and sales organization representing 20 public-access courses in the metropolitan area that includes Charleston, North Charleston and Mount Pleasant. “In this area, we are fortunate to have a number of high quality golf courses that are both affordable and uncrowded and we are blessed with a year-round climate that allows us to enjoy these same courses 12 months a year.”
It makes sense that one of the country’s most historic cities can trace its golf roots to the mid-1700s, when ships sailing into Charleston Harbor regularly listed “goof sticks and balls” on their manifests. In fact, Charleston has been called the birthplace of golf in America. The South Carolina Golf Club – now chartered as the Country Club of Charleston – was founded in 1786 and has been recognized by no less an authority than GOLF Magazine as the nation’s first golf club.
However, the nation’s first golf club did not enjoy the nation’s first golf course. In fact, the South Carolina Golf Club had no course at all. The club, which met at Williams’ coffee house, played its favorite game on the public area known as Harleston Green, sharing the space with horses, carriages, children at play and everyday folk. By 1795, the club had its own clubhouse at Harleston Green, but still no course of its own.
Today, Lowcountry golfers have literally dozens of courses waiting to challenge and delight them. Among these are some of the best layouts the game has to offer, created by a literal "who’s who” list of architects – Dye, Fazio, Nicklaus, Palmer, Player, Raynor, Jones (both father Robert Trent Sr. and son Rees) and more. And the best part is, the great majority of golf courses in the Charleston area are open to public play at prices that make them a good value in today’s marketplace.
The Golf Digest ranking of America’s best golf towns set the average price of a round in the Charleston area at $68.72. By comparison, the average price in Myrtle Beach was nearly one-third higher at $88.40.
The Charleston area also ranked high, 13th overall, in the courses-per-capita category, despite having the highest population base of any of the top 24 ranking cities. But the area’s highest statistical ranking came in the “star” category derived from the magazine’s Places to Play survey. A survey open to the general readership, the latest Places to Play reflected the opinions of some 20,000 readers regarding roughly 6,500 different courses. Readers reviewed “courses they played over the previous year and rated them using a five-point scale for five separate criteria: the overall golf experience, the value for the money, the standard of service at the facility, the overall conditioning of the course and the normal pace of play for an 18-hole round of golf. In addition, readers were invited to write comments on their experiences at each of the courses they rated -- both the good and the bad,” according to the magazine.
The top 200 courses in each of four categories – value, service, conditioning and pace of play – received special recognition.
Overall, fewer than five percent of the courses reviewed by readers received four-star or better ratings. However, the Charleston area far surpassed that percentage, with 10, or roughly half, of its public-access courses receiving at least four stars, and that was without the latest additions to the area’s lineup – RiverTowne Country Club in Mount Pleasant and Wescott Plantation in North Charleston – having yet been rated.
Kiawah Island’s Ocean Course, site of the 1991 Ryder Cup Matches, led all local area courses with five stars, the only five-star rating earned by a course in South Carolina and one of only 12 nationally. Three other courses – Wild Dunes Links on the Isle of Palms and Kiawah’s Cougar Point and Osprey Point courses – earned 4.5 stars. Six area courses earning four stars included: Turtle Point at Kiawah Island Resort, the Harbor Course at Wild Dunes Resort, Crowfield Plantation, Pine Forest Country Club and Seabrook Island Resort’s Ocean Winds and Crooked Oaks.
Kiawah’s Oak Point, Charleston National, Coosaw Creek and Dunes West received 3.5 stars. Legend Oaks and the Links at Stono Ferry earned three-star ratings.
The Ocean Course was honored separately for its course condition. Crowfield was named as one of the top 150 values in North America. And Kiawah’s Cougar Point, Osprey Point, Turtle Point and Oak Point, as well as Wild Dunes’ Harbor Course were honored for pace of play.
Complete Places to Play rankings and information can be found at www.golfdigest.com/courses. Places to Play rankings are strictly a reflection of reader’s opinions and are not associated with Golf Digest’s biennial ranking of “America’s 100 Greatest Courses,” which are selected by a selected panel of experts based upon a completely separate and different set of criteria.
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