Overview
Named the top island in the continental U.S. (Travel + Leisure, 2018), Long Cove Club on Hilton Head Island offers a spectacular Lowcountry setting. This majestic golf course weaves through century-old live oak trees dripping with Spanish moss, stately Carolina pines, and stunning saltwater marshes.
1981: Long Cove Club was Bobby Weed’s first official assignment with Pete Dye. This experience launched Weed’s career in design, construction, a 40-year close friendship with Dye, and was the genesis of Bobby Weed Golf Design.
2018: Weed proudly returned to Hilton Head Island to oversee a comprehensive renovation of Long Cove Club’s award-winning layout.
2019: On the heels of BWGD’s successful restoration, the firm was again hired to conduct planning and advisory services for Long Cove Club.
Awards
2021 Golfweek
Top 200 Residential Courses in the U.S., No. 18
2019 Golf Digest
Second Greatest 100 Golf Courses in the U.S., No. 168
2018 GolfWeek
America's Top 100 Modern Golf Courses, No. 79
Challenge
Fashioned out of the South Carolina marshes, oak hammocks and fresh water lagoons, Long Cove Club was designed to be a forward-thinking, private residential community with world-class golf. After designing nearby Harbour Town Golf Links, Dye was hired as the golf course architect and Weed was appointed construction supervisor.
Weed recalls, “Southern summers can be brutally hot. No-see-ums are relentless. Little (if any) infrastructure is already in place at new developments. Long construction hours are the norm. Building golf courses is not for the faint of heart.”
While these obstacles may have dissuaded others, Weed relished the opportunity to work alongside Dye and a passionate team of golf junkies every day and some say, the most talented golf course construction crew ever assembled.
Their enthusiasm for building a beautiful and progressive 7,026 yard, par-71 golf course was unmatched. Long Cove Club would also become wonderfully adaptable with multiple tee boxes, pin locations and frequent wind changes, which provided a different playing experience every day.
Approach
In 2018, BWGD carefully embarked on golf course renovations including:
- Refurbishing all bunkers and native waste areas with new drain lines, sand and coquina shell material
- Re-grassing TifEagle Ultradwarf greens and Celebration bermudagrass fairways
- Replacing corroded metal lake connectors and drain lines throughout the golf course
- Reconstructing original bulkheads suing the detail from 1981
- Repair and overlay of cart paths
- Select tree removal and landscaping
Solution
With its original features, innovative land plan and colorful history, Long Cove Club is perhaps one of the most significant courses in the timeline of golf course design.
Constructed right after TPC Sawgrass, Long Cove Club represents a “time-machine” into Dye and Weed’s work during one of the most productive periods of their careers.
The original construction crew of Long Cove Club is touted as one of the most eccentric and legendary in the modern era. Directed by Weed, a crew of college graduates, interns and low-handicap players worked on this project. Many Long Cove Club alumni later embarked on their own successful golf design careers, including Weed, P.B. Dye, Tom Doak, Ron Farris and Scott Pool.
70% Increase in Course Bookings
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