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    Kiawah Golf: The Game's Elegant Island
    Kiawah Golf: The Game's Elegant Island
    Kiawah Golf: The Game's Elegant Island
    Ebook150 pages1 hour

    Kiawah Golf: The Game's Elegant Island

    By Joel Zuckerman and Pete Dye

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    About this ebook

    On the sun-drenched South Carolina coast, just forty-five minutes from the enchanting city of Charleston, lies one of the nation's most beloved barrier islands--a dazzling, miles-long beach; deep green foliage; massive, centuries-old hardwoods; sparkling marshland leading to the horizon; a dizzying array of birdlife amidst all manner of flora and fauna. And then there's the golf.

    Kiawah first came to the public's consciousness back in 1991, when its bellwether Ocean Course served as host venue for the Ryder Cup Matches, still remembered as among the most thrilling golf competitions ever played. Now, a generation later, Kiawah and the Ocean Course return to the spotlight as the host of the 2012 PGA Championship, the first Major Championship to ever be contested in the golf-mad, golf-rich state of South Carolina.

    Veteran golf and travel writer Joel Zuckerman shines the spotlight not only on the incredible Ocean Course but also on the remaining quartet of wonderful courses at the Kiawah Resort and the pair of aces at the Kiawah Island Club, among others. Beginning with the history of the island itself through the centuries, Zuckerman provides the whole story of golf on Kiawah, from the groundbreaking Ryder Cup that first raised Kiawah's profile among golf fans the world over to the 2012 PGA Championship. The history of the club and the courses is further bolstered with profiles of some of Kiawah's most significant individuals, among the most celebrated names in golf.

    Kiawah Golf is a must-read for anyone who loves Kiawah or loves golf--and truly, don t the two go hand in hand?

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherThe History Press
    Release dateJun 29, 2012
    ISBN9781614235699
    Kiawah Golf: The Game's Elegant Island
    Author

    Joel Zuckerman

    Joel Zuckerman is a longtime golf and travel writer based in Savannah, Georgia. He's the author of six books, including the widely acclaimed Pete Dye--Golf Courses, recipient of the Book of the Year Award as bestowed by the International Network of Golf. He's written for more than one hundred periodicals, including Sports Illustrated, Delta's SKY Magazine, Continental Magazine and virtually all the major golf publications. He's played eight-hundred-plus golf courses in more than forty states and a dozen different countries. Visit www.vagabondgolfer.com for more information.

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      Book preview

      Kiawah Golf - Joel Zuckerman

      Dye

      INTRODUCTION

      There’s more to Kiawah’s mystique than just five lovely resort golf courses (and two stunning private courses), a miles-long beach, incredible flora and fauna and stunning homes, hotels and numerous other amenities. Part of the island’s appeal is its proximity to one of the truly great small cities in the nation: beautiful, historic Charleston, South Carolina.

      Please don’t misunderstand this point of contention. Were the whole of Kiawah Island to be airlifted to some other locale one hundred, even one thousand, miles away, it would still be a unique and highly desirable getaway. This is evidenced by the fact that there are a certain percentage of visitors, and probably residents, who rarely, if ever, make the forty-five-minute trek to Charleston’s downtown peninsula. Kiawah is self-contained, and with the addition of Freshfields Village just outside the main gate some years back, there is a smattering of dining and shopping options in proximity to the island itself.

      However, a great part of Kiawah’s appeal has to do with this incredible city located a short distance away—a city that oozes charm and has great architectural significance, a rare gentility, incredible restaurants, a dynamic nightlife and did I mention history?

      This is a city that has been the site of numerous firsts since it was founded in 1670, and the golf scene is no exception. Golf was introduced to what’s known as the Holy City long before the game appeared elsewhere in the nation. It was way back in 1786, just a decade after the American Revolution, that the South Carolina Golf Club was formed. But the Ancient Game is just one of the many areas where Charleston lays claim to pioneer status. Some of the city’s firsts are well known, like being the site of the first shot fired in the Civil War, the first decisive victory of the American Revolution and the first public library in the nation. But others are more esoteric.

      Charleston was also home to the first theater building constructed and the site of the first opera ever performed in the nation. It’s the home of the first Baptist church, formal gardens, science museum, weather bureau and prescription drugstore. It’s also the home of the first apartment house, department store, submarine deployment and milkman. It’s where the first fireproof building was constructed and the site of the first cremation, though whether the cremation actually occurred in the fireproof building or the building was constructed after the cremation went awry is a subject for a more dedicated historian than myself.

      The delightful amalgamation of dazzling Kiawah Island, in all its pastoral beauty, added to all there is to see, do and experience in nearby Charleston, greatly enhances the Kiawah mystique. It is this unique combination that sets Kiawah apart from most every other major golf destination in the United States.

      How do other world-class destinations compare? Bandon Dunes in coastal Oregon is breathtaking—a quartet of exhilarating seaside courses, walking only, caddies at the ready, the elements always an influence, homespun but more-than-adequate lodging and dining options. But there’s not a town of any consequence in the vicinity until you get to Eugene, more than two hours away, and the major air service is all the way up in Portland, four hours away at a minimum.

      Destination Kohler in Wisconsin is as glitzy as Kiawah, with superb golf and all the bells and whistles. But Kohler is a full hour from Milwaukee, and unless you are a sommelier of the suds (i.e., a beer buff), it doesn’t have nearly the cachet of Charleston, which at any rate is far closer to Kiawah. The Greenbrier and the Homestead are American institutions and are only separated by an hour or so in the Allegheny Mountains. But both of these resorts (the former in West Virginia, the latter in Virginia) are terribly countrified.

      Pebble Beach is iconic in its beauty, and Carmel-by-the-Sea is a lovely adjacent town, but it’s without the depth and breadth of Charleston. The Sea Island Resort on the Georgia coast mimics the gentility of Charleston, but the nearest town is hardscrabble Brunswick. Jacksonville, Florida, is a bigger city, with plenty to do, but it’s nearly ninety minutes away. Pinehurst is literally a village, serene to the point of somnambulant.

      Two of America’s most-loved golf destinations do have at least a little bit in common with Kiawah. The Broadmoor Resort is but ten minutes from downtown Colorado Springs, which by many accounts is an energetic college town. The Boulders is a plush resort in Scottsdale, which is chock full of things to do but not quite a historic locale like Charleston. In any event, these two destinations west of the Mississippi, in combination, have the same number of golf courses as the Kiawah Resort. (Three at the Broadmoor, two at the Boulders.)

      In summation, as outlined in the second paragraph of this introduction, Kiawah would be highly desirable even if it weren’t in proximity to Charleston. Charleston has survived, even thrived, for centuries without the help or influence of Kiawah. But it’s the unique synergy of the two, the ability to meld world-class golf and a superb beach experience with a city that can’t easily be described in words but needs to be experienced firsthand, preferably on foot or at the very least in a horse-drawn carriage. This becomes self-evident when touring the city’s colorful Battery district, shopping on bustling King Street, visiting scenic Patriot’s Point and the USS Yorktown, taking in the incredible span of the Cooper River Bridge or partying or dining down in the City Market. It is this yin and yang in coastal South Carolina that goes a long way in explaining the distinctive, some might argue matchless, appeal of Kiawah Island.

      A (VERY) BRIEF HISTORY OF KIAWAH ISLAND

      The world at large knows Kiawah Island as a fabulous golf, tennis, beach or vacation destination. But all these fine attributes are relatively recent occurrences. For example, the island’s first golf course is not even forty years old. Its signature hotel, The Sanctuary, opened in 2004.

      However, the island has a rich and colorful history that predates its current position as one of the nation’s most-loved holiday destinations. Here is a brief, bullet-point overview of what Kiawah was all about in the decades and centuries before it became inscribed in the consciousness of the discriminating traveler.

      First of all, the lyrical name. It originates from the Kiawah tribe, who are generally considered the first residents. They weren’t indigenous to their namesake island but were instead pushed out that way by the first Englishmen who arrived in Charleston in the 1670s.

      Aerial view of The Sanctuary hotel. Courtesy of Larry Lambrecht.

      The first Englishman to own Kiawah Island was George Raynor, who was given the island as a gift for his meritorious service to the colony. Ironically, he shared the same distinctive last name as the great golf course architect Seth Raynor, who bequeathed the city of Charleston its two most heralded Golden Age courses, Country Club of Charleston and Yeamans Hall, both in 1925 or thereabouts. The Kiawah Raynor died in the early 1700s, more than 220 years before the other Raynor performed his handiwork and created the aforementioned courses.

      Prior to his death, George Raynor sold half the island to a man named William Davis, who also owned other large parcels in the area, including parts of adjacent John’s Island. John Stanyarne, whose father was a wealthy plantation owner from the island of Barbados, bought the entire island in the 1720s. It was then that the plantation model, including slavery, was introduced to Kiawah. In fact, the plantation begun by Stanyarne was located in the same area where the River Course was eventually built. The plantation began producing indigo, but eventually cotton became the primary crop, particularly as the American Revolution drew near. Stanyarne owned the island until his death in 1772 at the age of seventy-seven, which was a remarkable degree of longevity considering the average life expectancy of a white male at that time was closer to forty.

      Heron rising from Kiawah marsh. Courtesy of Kiawah Island Golf Resort.

      Stanyarne bequeathed the island to two of his granddaughters. The western half (where the island’s entrance gate is now located) went to Mary Gibbes Middleton and the eastern half to Elizabeth Raven Vanderhorst. The Vanderhorst House, built in 1803 by Elizabeth and her husband, Arnoldus, still stands today, in the general vicinity of the Turtle Point Golf Club, not far from the Kiawah River. After the devastation of the Civil War and during Reconstruction, the Vanderhorst family was intent on increasing the population of the island. One of the unusual ways they found to raise money and help attract residents to Kiawah was by gathering palm fronds on the property and selling them to Catholics in the Northeast, where they were used on Palm Sunday.

      The Vanderhorst family eventually purchased the entire island, and Arnoldus Vanderhorst IV died in a hunting accident on Kiawah in 1881. His widow, Adele, and eventually her estate, owned the island outright for a full seventy years after his death, until 1951. Her youngest son, Arnoldus V, was a Charleston attorney. He was in constant conflict with his five siblings, all of whom were intent on selling

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