# Moss Creek Golf Club North Course vs. Palmetto Dunes - Arthur Hills Course: The Hilton Head Island Choice

Source: https://thecourserankings.com/blog/moss-creek-golf-club-north-course-vs-palmetto-dunes-arthur-hills-course/

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Course Comparisons / South Carolina


A deep sand bunker guarding a green. Photo: Santeri Viinamäki, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Two Arthur Hills era Lowcountry problems, solved in opposite directions. Moss Creek North is Tom Fazio's private shot maker's course from 1978, short, tight, and defended by water and trees, open only to members and their guests. The Arthur Hills Course at Palmetto Dunes is the resort side of the island, a 1986 Hills design that wanders partly off the resort property through the Leamington community, surprising guests who expected a standard resort loop. A visitor to Hilton Head will likely play the Hills Course. A member's guest gets the rarer ticket. The comparison is really about what each kind of access buys you on this island.

## Moss Creek North: Devil's Elbow

Locals call the North Course Devil's Elbow North, and the nickname earns itself. Fazio designed it in 1978 as the second championship course at Moss Creek, a private 36 hole club on Hilton Head Island in Beaufort County. It plays par 72 at 6,510 yards, with a 72.3 rating and a 134 slope from the championship tees. Read the slope. At 6,510 yards, a 134 slope means the trouble is not length. GolfPass describes it plainly, a shot maker's course, short and tight, with elevated greens surrounded by water or signature trees. Every miss here has a specific address. A loose drive does not find a wider part of the rough. It finds a tree line, a lagoon, a green perched above you with water guarding the short side.

John Fought updated the North Course in a renovation running from March to August 2025, which tells you the membership still invests in Fazio's 1978 intent rather than softening it. Private clubs can protect a demanding course in a way resorts cannot. Members learn the angles over years. The tightness that would frustrate a once a year visitor becomes the local game's texture.

## Palmetto Dunes Hills Course: the resort round with a twist

The Hills Course opened in 1986 as the third of three courses at Palmetto Dunes Oceanfront Resort. Its defining quirk is in the record. It plays partly off the resort property, through the Leamington community, with off resort holes most guests do not expect. That routing gives the round a split personality, in a good way. The resort holes deliver the Lowcountry lagoon golf Hills built his name on. The Leamington stretch feels like slipping out a side door into a neighborhood course, quieter and more local than the resort front nine led you to expect. Hills knew lagoon design as well as anyone working the Southeast coast in the 1980s, and the water here is a design language rather than a hazard count.

In [our Hilton Head Island town ranking](/blog/the-best-golf-courses-in-hilton-head-island-sc/) the two courses sit in different arguments. Moss Creek North argues for the island's private depth. The Hills Course argues that Hilton Head resort golf, done by a good architect, is better than its reputation. Both arguments are true, which is why this island stays crowded.

On the golf, shot for shot, Moss Creek North is the sterner and more interesting test. Elevated greens, water or trees on the misses, a 134 slope in a 6,510 yard coat. Concede the other side's best point honestly, though. The Hills Course gives a visiting golfer a full Lowcountry Hills design, lagoon golf with an odd, enjoyable detour through Leamington, with nothing more exclusive than a resort booking. It also plays as part of a three course resort stay, which is how most golfers actually experience Hilton Head. Those golfers are not settling. They are playing the island's public facing version of itself, and Hills made that version well.

The verdict splits by your ticket. With a member invitation to Moss Creek, take it, and play the North Course ready to aim at the fat side of small, elevated targets all day. Booking your own trip, take the Palmetto Dunes Hills Course as your Lowcountry round and spend the confidence you save on the island's bigger names elsewhere in [the South Carolina state ranking](/blog/the-5-best-golf-courses-in-south-carolina/). Devil's Elbow is the better course. The Hills Course is the better plan for almost everyone reading this.

**Reader responses are open.** Please cite a specific hole, a price, or a round you have played.