County Rankings / South Carolina

The Best Golf Courses in Charleston County, South Carolina

Charleston County has 22 courses and one of them hosted a Ryder Cup the players still describe with a wince. The county runs from the barrier islands to the marshes west of the Ashley River, and its golf divides cleanly: Kiawah's resort and private enclave, the old Charleston clubs on James Island, and a ring of public golf that punches above its price. We score the golf first, then the day, then what it costs you, and the full state picture sits in the South Carolina ranking. Here is the county, best first.

1The Ocean Course

Kiawah's Ocean Course is the county's ceiling and the state's hardest famous test, a Pete Dye oceanfront layout built for the 1991 Ryder Cup and still hosting major championships a generation later. Wind is the architecture. Every hole sits exposed to the Atlantic, the closing stretch plays straight into it, and no lead has ever felt safe here. It wins this list on the strength of the ground and the moments it has produced, and it is not particularly close.

2Country Club of Charleston

Seth Raynor's 1925 design on James Island is the county's architectural treasure. The par-3 11th, a Redan, is a famous Raynor template, all tilt and consequence. The club hosted the 2019 U.S. Women's Open, won by Jeongeun Lee6, and Kyle Franz's restoration work in the 2020s sharpened the Raynor bones. Private, and the private round to chase in this county: estimates put membership in the highest tier, and the golf justifies the envy.

3Kiawah Island River Course

Tom Fazio's 1995 championship course for the private Kiawah Island Club, routed along the Kiawah River through marsh and oak. It has hosted USGA and collegiate events, and the clubhouse overlooks the river finishing holes. Where the Ocean Course is elemental, the River Course is composed, a members' championship test with the Lowcountry arranged beautifully around it.

4Briar's Creek

Rees Jones built Briar's Creek in 2001 on Johns Island as a golf-only club: no homes on the course, a wetlands preserve setting, an elite practice facility and a membership that includes tour players. The low-density model means the golf is the entire point. Consistently ranked among South Carolina's best private courses, with costs in the highest estimate tier.

5Bulls Bay Golf Club

Mike Strantz moved a small mountain's worth of earth on former farmland in Awendaw in 2002 and built the least Lowcountry-looking course in the Lowcountry, links-style holes running toward the Bulls Bay marsh under a hilltop clubhouse. Strantz's bold shaping divides golfers everywhere he worked. Here the scale works: this is his Lowcountry statement, and it holds up.

6Kiawah Island Cassique Course

Tom Watson's first American design, opened in 2000 for the Kiawah Island Club, styled as a links with manufactured dunes along the Kiawah River and marsh. Watson consulted on playability for members, and Cassique plays friendlier than its sibling River Course while keeping the same private standard. Members-only, highest estimate tier.

7Kiawah Turtle Point

Jack Nicklaus's 1981 design at the resort, renovated by Nicklaus in 2016. Three holes play along the Atlantic, which separates it from the inland resort courses. One of Nicklaus's early resort designs, and still the second round most Kiawah guests should book after the Ocean Course.

8Charleston Municipal Golf Course

The county's best story. A city course on James Island with origins in 1929, rebuilt by city golf architect Troy Miller and reopened in 2020 around Seth Raynor template holes, including a Redan and a double plateau green. It plays par 72 at 6,565 yards with a 137 slope from the blues, at municipal rates. The Muni is a nationally noted revival, and dollar for dollar it is the best value in this entire ranking.

9Kiawah Osprey Point

Fazio's 1988 resort course through maritime forest, marsh and lagoons, generally the most playable of the Kiawah resort courses after Oak Point, at roughly half the Ocean Course fee. The popular second round on Kiawah trips, and a fair one: scenic Lowcountry routing without the Ocean Course's punishment.

10Kiawah Cougar Point

Gary Player's original 1976 design, the oldest golf lineage at the resort, rebuilt by Player in 2019 along the Kiawah River and marsh. The rebuild modernized his seventies routing while keeping the river views that define the closing holes.

11Wild Dunes Links Course

The Isle of Palms resort anchor, an oceanfront Tom Fazio design with a finishing stretch along the Atlantic that has been Charleston's resort postcard for decades. Conditioning and crowds vary with the season, but the closing holes earn their fame.

12Charleston National Country Club

Rees Jones in Mount Pleasant, semi-public, playing par 72 at 7,100 yards with a 74.6 rating and 136 slope through marsh and Intracoastal holes. On numbers alone it is one of the harder public tests in the county, and it rarely gets mentioned that way. It should.

13Links at Stono Ferry

Ron Garl's 1989 design in Hollywood, on ground where the Battle of Stono Ferry was fought in 1779. Par 72, 6,756 yards, and the signature par-3 14th plays from the jetty of a former river crossing, over a slice of the Stono River. The most characterful public round in the county's western half.

14Patriots Point Links

Willard Byrd's 1979 course at Mount Pleasant, par 72 at 6,955 yards, with harbor views on nearly every hole and the downtown skyline across the water, next to the USS Yorktown. The golf is honest rather than great. The setting, at public prices, is unmatched in the county.

15Dunes West Golf & River Club

Arthur Hills's 1991 Mount Pleasant design in a Wando River marsh setting, semi-private, par 72 at 6,859 yards. The par-4 18th finishes on a dual green split by the marshes of Wagner Creek, a closer with genuine personality.

16Kiawah Oak Point

Clyde Johnston's 1997 Scottish-style design on Johns Island, acquired as Kiawah's fifth course and priced at the lowest resort point. River and marsh holes, real Lowcountry golf, and the smart budget play for resort guests.

The back of the list is ordinary, and there is no shame in naming it so. Rivertowne Country Club in Mount Pleasant offers a solid modern community course. Seabrook Island's Crooked Oaks and Ocean Winds serve their island's residents and guests well, Ocean Winds holding the better of the two settings. Wild Dunes Harbor Course is the resort's inland second act, tighter and quirkier than its Links sibling. Snee Farm Country Club is a comfortable Mount Pleasant members' course. Shadowmoss rounds out the 22 as a West Ashley neighborhood staple. A county whose floor is this playable, and whose ceiling is the Ocean Course at full tide, does not need to exaggerate anything.