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Okay. You’ve been bitten by the golf bug, watched future golf hall of famer Rory McIlroy capture the career Grand Slam this past April and now you are thinking seriously about road tripping it to a practice round of the 2026 Masters Tournament (or even attend the Augusta National Women’s Amateur a week or two earlier at Augusta National). Maybe you have thoughts of making it a fortnight vacation and taking in a day or two at the RBC Heritage at Harbour Town across the border in South Carolina the following week. But the lure of your own personal links also has you dreading the break up of a burgeoning practice/playing routine … not to mention the possibility of breaking the bank.
Sure, you can plunk down a fortune and try to weasel your way into a long-term hotel or B&B stay in Augusta or Hilton Head and stay holed up in in room with a coffee maker glued to the TV while your putting stroke goes into sleep mode. Or you can book a much more affordable trip to centrally located Santee Cooper Golf Country where outdoor activities abound and your game can be honed while staying in variety of top-notch accommodations. These include golf villas, golf townhouses, hotels, cabins, campgrounds and even fish camps surrounding a nice selection of championship golf courses.
The reality of having your cake and eating it too begins within two hours of driving distance from Augusta and even less than that to Hilton Head—with the ideal spot to start being at the Santee Cooper Golf Resort conveniently located of I-95 in central South Carolina.
Over the years, golf has been intertwined with world-class fishing in the Santee region—one accentuated by green fairways and blue fresh-water bodies. Recently, however, the land game has taken over a more substantial role for sportsmen in the state’s lakes region with no less than 13 courses serving the transient golfer. Where bragging-sized bass and monster catfish were once the talk of this quaint resort town, birdies and eagles have transformed the fertile fishing ground into more of a dual air-and-sea assault.
There are still great fishing spots around Santee, but according to local promoters, they have been focusing more on the golf lately.
Play the winding fairways around Santee and you will discover that each of layout has been designed for maximum enjoyment and thrilling challenge. You can test your skills on classic tree-lined layouts, traverse dramatic elevation changes and soak up views of beautiful Lake Marion.
Santee Cooper Country actually spreads out across five South Carolina counties (Orangeburg, Berkeley, Calhoun, Clarendon and Sumter) sporting two lakes (Marion and Moultrie), two rivers, two canals and a vast swamp that combined form 450 miles of shoreline. It is around these inland waterways that golf courses of a wide variety have flourished within a 45-minute drive of central Santee.
It’s true, Santee has become a preferred golfing vacation destination with holes of unique challenges and features with bunkers, bumps, twist, turns, humps and sloping greens. Golf packages with quality accommodations are available year-round for events, groups and individual players. The rolling greens hills and mossy oaks spanning across hundreds of acres and glassy ponds create an ideal setting for the game.
A good place to look when setting up your value-laden golf package to the region is at Santee Cooper Golf & Travel (www.santeecoopergolf.com). According to the friendly folks there, Santee is indeed the best-valued golf vacation on the East Coast.
“And we are right at the entrance to Santee where golf is No. 1,” says Teet Breland, marketing director for the resort. “If you are looking for a big golf destination but you want it in a laid-back atmosphere, this is your place.”
Featured golf courses in the region include the George Cobb designed Santee Cooper Country Club, perennial favorite Lake Marion Golf Course, the Tom Jackson designed Wyboo Golf Club, the Players Course at Wyboo, Santee National Golf Club and Orangeburg Country Club among others. Of course Cobb, who started the Santee Cooper craze with his 1967 routing of Santee Cooper Country Club hard along Lake Marion, is also well known for his par-3 course design at Augusta National as well as his Quail Hollow creation that hosted this past year’s PGA Championship in Charlotte, North Carolina.
But it is the stay-and-play oasis on the campus of Lake Marion Golf Club that may be the biggest force in the region. Due to an overwhelming demand for quality, on-course lodging in the area, 10 Lake Marion golf townhouses were added in the past decade to 24 existing golf villas, all outfitted with updated decor. Other amenities of the complex include a hospitality center, a pool, a fully stocked pro shop, a lighted driving range, practice chipping and putting greens and the latest extravaganza: a unique 18-hole putting course known as the “Palmetto Traverse.”
Considered South Carolina’s largest 18-hole putting course, the Traverse is a 35,000-square-foot, natural grass putting experience open to the public year-round for a nominal charge. Designed by North Carolinean Kris Spence a few years back, it is challenging for the serious putter and great fun for those just trying their hand at the game’s most important stroke-saving aspect. Lighted until 11 p.m. each evening, the Traverse is also a favorite of package players looking to infuse even more excitement into their already Southern hospitality filled golf trip.
As Sandy Heineman, a visiting golfer in town with her eight-player golf group from Calabash, North Carolina, put it, “We love it. The camaraderie we develop out on the big courses and then out on the Palmetto Traverse keeps us coming back. At first we didn’t know what it was, until they explained it to us. Now we go out there and have mini tournaments. We can even play when it gets dark because of the lights.”
And so grows the legend of Santee Cooper Golf as it becomes more and more popular with every new wrinkle it concocts…and there are even plans on the drawing board for a nine-hole short course at Lake Marion.
Who knows? Maybe a future trip through Santee Cooper on the way to Augusta (or in the middle or back) will have a few more fairway adventures to hook you like an unsuspecting 10-pound bass. Stay tuned.
