Robber's Row at Port Royal Golf Club
HILTON HEAD ISLAND, S.C. -- The Robber's Row course at Port Royal Golf Club has had many lives. It was a commercial district and military stronghold during the Civil War. It was a homestead after that. Now, it's an 18-hole golf course that itself has had two chapters, first designed in the 1960s and freshened up by Pete Dye in 1994.
The golf course itself is narrow, hemmed in by live oak trees that most likely were around to stand over Civil War commerce. But those trees don't just provide shade, they add a third dimension to your golf game. Before you draw back your club, look up. Is your ball going to ping-pong through some branches? Best rethink that shot.
Adding to the golf course are the challenges of sharply lipped bunkers and greens ringed with sand to require a precise approach shot. As for your putter, you'll have to be confident to roll that ball along the slopes and undulations that beset most greens.
Robber's Row is a course that requires more than a driver and iron, but shaped shots, long irons off the tee and a few well-executed sand shots. It's a rare course that combines Southern beauty, Civil War history and holes brimming with personality.
