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.
![Just trying to pick out the fairway from the back tees is intimidating on the 472-yard, par-5 14th hole at Robber's Row at Port Royal Golf Club.](/departments/photo-galleries/images/small/34185.jpg)
![Sand and overhanging branches put perils on the ground and in the air, including the 11th hole, at Robber's Row at Port Royal Golf Club.](/departments/photo-galleries/images/small/34186.jpg)
![The approach to the ninth hole at Robber's Row at Port Royal Golf Club puts water and mounds in your way.](/departments/photo-galleries/images/small/34187.jpg)
![Sand nearly surrounds the elevated green on the par-3 15th hole at Robber's Row at Port Royal Golf Club.](/departments/photo-galleries/images/small/34188.jpg)
![If you wander a little too far left on the par-4 17th at Robber's Row at Port Royal Golf Club, you'll have to send your shot between an elevated lip on a bunker and overhanging branches.](/departments/photo-galleries/images/small/34189.jpg)
![There's a bit of a water carry on the way to a narrow chute for your drive on the 425-yard, par-4 17th hole at Robber's Row at Port Royal Golf Club.](/departments/photo-galleries/images/small/34190.jpg)
![The approach on the par-5 second hole at Robber's Row at Port Royal Golf Club brings bunkers into the fairway.](/departments/photo-galleries/images/small/34191.jpg)
![There isn't a lot of room for your drive on the short par-4 third hole at Robber's Row at Port Royal Golf Club. Maybe a fairway wood is a better idea off the tee.](/departments/photo-galleries/images/small/34192.jpg)
![The par-3 fourth hole at Robber's Row at Port Royal Golf Club puts most of the trouble on the left with sand and water.](/departments/photo-galleries/images/small/34193.jpg)
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