An Complete Overview on Kiawah Island

Regularly blasted by the 'inveterate rage' of the wild Atlantic, Kiawah Island is Pete Dye's American answer to the links courses of the British Isles - with a dash of southern comfort thrown in.

Although the Ocean Course at Kiawah Island only opened officially in mid 1991, it has already attracted a huge amount of attention. This is partly because of its spectacular setting on the Atlantic shore, but chiefly because it was awarded the 1991 Ryder Cup match between Europe and the USA.

The Ocean Course is built on land that golf architects dream about - a 200 acre finger of coastline on an island off South Carolina. The land is rich in wetlands, marshlands and sand dunes, with dozens of types of seaside grasses and springy sand-based turf. And, of course, it is rarely without a wind.

When Pete Dye, the American-born designer, first saw it he rubbed his eyes and said, 'If this doesn't turn out to be a good golf course, I should be shot. You don't need to do anything but build a golf course. Everything is here.'

Kiawah Island is a half hour drive south of Charleston. A soldier billeted there during the War of Independence wrote, 'The air is salubrious and rendered exceedingly soft by the salt vapour that rises from the sea. This island is divided from the mainland by a river on the north and blasted with inveterate rage by the Atlantic Ocean on the south. At low water it exhibits the finest beach in the south.'