So long, Ocean Course – say hello to Atlantic Dunes

Nearly a full year in the making, the overhaul of Sea Pines Resort’s Ocean Course now has a firm opening date — along with a new name.

Resort officials rechristened the course last week as Atlantic Dunes by Davis Love III, with the first tee times available Oct. 3. A formal grand opening will take place on Oct. 9.

“It’s a brand new golf course, a total reconstruction of the Ocean Course,” said Cary Corbitt, the resort’s vice president for sports and operations. “We thought the right thing to do would be to rename it.”

The resort took the same approach nearly a decade ago when Pete Dye was brought in to rebuild the old Sea Marsh course. The result was Heron Point by Pete Dye, which after recent tweaks was named South Carolina’s “Golf Course of the Year” for 2015.

Of course, that layout didn’t carry the history of the Ocean Course, which holds the distinction of being Hilton Head Island’s very first golf course when George Cobb’s original design opened in 1962. It didn’t take long for island developers to learn golf could become a compelling draw.

“We understand the Ocean Course has a little more history,” Corbitt said Monday. “But it’s a new day. The name is very befitting of what this golf course is.”

The $10 million, down-to-the-foundation overhaul features more of a sand-and-water motif than either Cobb’s design or renovations by Mark McCumber in 1995. Even though just one hole comes close to the ocean, Love and co-designers Mark Love and Scot Sherman accomplish the theme via sandy waste areas, native grasses and planks built in to bunker areas.

Corbitt said a name change has been bandied around since last December, though the decision to actually do it didn’t come until the spring. Then it was a matter of finding the right name, which wasn’t finalized until last week.

“We dwelled over many, many recommendations,” he said, noting that suggestions came from resort employees, property owners and others.

Just how many suggestions did they have to sift through? “You don’t want to know,” Corbitt said with a laugh.

The list was whittled to five names, he said, and Atlantic Dunes was the one that “resonated with most everybody.”

Corbitt declined to identify the other finalists.

“I don’t want to get into any controversy,” he said. “This one is befitting the golf course and we’re going to leave it at that. I will say that once we did center on this name, everybody has kind of wrapped their arms around it.”

The new course now is completely grassed, with enough time since then for all the new sprigs to take hold. All that’s left is some decorative landscaping around the dunes areas, along with completing a short-game practice area at the adjacent learning center.

“We’re in pretty good shape,” Corbitt said. “It’s not like we’ll have a washout that can set us back. We’re pretty well set for where we wanted to be at this stage. We feel pretty confident (about the opening dates), and normal weather is anticipated.”

MacCurrach Golf Construction managed the project, completing a trilogy of Sea Pines projects in recent years that started with tweaking Heron Point two years ago and followed with upgrades at Harbour Town.

This story was originally published July 18, 2016 at 8:17 PM with the headline "So long, Ocean Course – say hello to Atlantic Dunes."