Palmetto Bluff is getting a new golf course next year. Here’s who will design it

A second golf course is being planned for Palmetto Bluff, Bluffton’s largest private residential community.

South Street Partners, the owners of Palmetto Bluff, have commissioned King-Collins Golf Course Design to design the new course. This will be the first golf project at the lowcountry community since the last course — the Jack Nicklaus Signature May River Golf Course — was built in 2005.

“It is truly an honor to receive this commission, and we look forward to delivering one of the most unique playing experiences anywhere in the United States at Palmetto Bluff,” said Rob Collins, the principal designer of King-Collins.

The new course will be a par 36 featuring nine reversible holes varying from par 3, par 4 and par 5. The course will feature multiple tee boxes allowing the length of the course to vary from 1,000 yards to 3,100 yards depending on how the course is set up.

The course will be located at the Crossroads neighborhood on the road headed toward the future Anson Village and run along Palmetto Bluff’s inland waterway allowing the course to be accessible by boat.

King-Collins says they take an unconventional approach to golf course design by rejecting the traditional assumptions about location, length and the configure of golf holes. While they do start with a plan, they don’t let the plan override the natural features of the course and instead focus on the natural details of the course.

“We are very fluid in our process and create very distinctive, interesting features in the field,” said Collins. “A lot of our design work occurs in the field and comes naturally out of the dirt.”

The location at Palmetto Bluff allows the builders to cut up to 15 feet into the ground — a feature that’s rare in the lowcountry where 3- to 4-foot cuts will hit groundwater, according to Collins.

“That means that we can transform this site into something that is very dramatic and incredibly beautiful to look at,” said Collins.

The combination of abundant sand and the low water table, the course will feature sand dunes as a focal point. The course is going to play over, around and in between the dunes.

Construction for the course is projected to begin in the first quarter of 2023 and finish by the end of 2023.

An opening date has not been set, because it’s reliant on factors like when the grass finishes growing.

The new course will be much denser than the Jack Nicklaus Signature May River Golf Course by avoiding long transitions between holes and having close transitions from green to tee. Collins described the course as more ground game focused.

King-Collins is known for their brand of “fun, inventive, quick golf,” said South Street in a press release. Another course designed by King Collins — Sweetens Cove outside of Chattanooga, Tennessee — sells out its tee times for the year in a matter of minutes, according to the release.

“People who’ve played it are saying it’s not like any other golf course in the world.”

This story was originally published September 9, 2022 at 11:14 AM.