Harbour Town Golf Links

Harbour Town Golf Links at Sea Pines Resort is one of those places where golf course architecture and the landscape seem to have reached an understanding. Pete Dye designed it with help from Jack Nicklaus, and when it opened in 1969, it offered a different idea of what a modern golf course could be. Length was hardly the whole point. Position mattered. Angles mattered. And the maritime forest of Hilton Head Island was very much part of the conversation. This photographic series looks at Harbour Town following the restoration and enhancement work led by Davis Love III and Love Golf Design. The work respected Dye’s original intentions while improving playability, restoring natural features, opening sightlines and allowing the course to feel like itself again. Photographically, Harbour Town gives you plenty to work with. Fairways disappear into pine forest, native vegetation crowds the edges, and coastal light can make the same hole look entirely different from one hour to the next. Then there is the lighthouse, sitting beside the 18th green as if it has always belonged there. The photographs are less about documenting a famous golf course than capturing its character — the relationship between the holes, the trees, the water, the light and the details that make the place work. Harbour Town has been photographed and written about for decades, but it still manages to reveal something new when you slow down and look closely. One photograph from the series was selected for the cover of Links Magazine, which seemed fitting. Harbour Town has always had a story to tell. The trick is simply getting out of the way and letting the place tell it.