The Resurrection of Rose Hill Golf Club outside of Hilton Head

I’ve been writing about golf in Hilton Head and the surrounding area for more than a dozen years. If I had a sawbuck for every time I craned my neck rightward while heading east towards the island on US 278, to see what was doing at Rose Hill Golf Club while passing by, by now I would have accumulated enough dough to pay the green fees at Harbour Town every day for a month. But it wasn’t until just recently that I actually turned into Rose Hill itself, slipped into soft-spikes, and took the traditional four-hour tour. It was a pleasant revelation to find this recently-reopened layout cleverly routed, fairly challenging while still user-friendly, albeit still slightly rough-around-the-edges.

Immediately after commencing this golf-writing gig all those years ago, I was like the proverbial kid in the candy store. First it was off to Harbour Town Golf Links, then Long Cove. Colleton River, Haig Point and Secession Golf Club soon followed, as I figured I better make hay while the sun shone - there was no guarantee the job would be permanent, or even long-term. As I made my way from one premium club to the next, Rose Hill, though just off the highway, was also off the radar. When the golf club closed its doors back in 2006, my first notion was “C’est la vie,” thinking the chance to play there had been permanently squandered.

Thankfully, Rose Hill reopened under new management a year or so ago. It’s no easy task to resurrect a long-moribund golf course, with grass growing head-high, and trees sprouting from dispossessed, hardscrabbled bunkers. But Head Professional Jimmy Powell, and the superintendent and his hardworking crew are doing just that. The decision was made to close down nine of the original 27 holes, and leave intact what management considers the best 18. In terms of conditioning, there’s still a ways to go, but the golf course is definitely moving in the right direction. It is becoming an increasingly viable option in the rich stable of daily-fee golf courses in Bluffton.