Palmetto Dunes Oceanfront Resort Ready for a New Golf Season’s Opening Drive

(HILTON HEAD ISLAND, SC) — The azaleas are popping, the birds are chirping, the iconic theme music is playing … and Jim Nantz is clearing his throat.

The golf world has hit that magical time of the year — Masters week.

Around Hilton Head Island, the arrival of the year’s first major championship, the Masters at Augusta National Golf Club, also signifies that our own RBC Heritage is close ahead — teeing off in just one week.

For the first time ever this year, golf fans around the world were treated to a peek inside the gates at Augusta National a week earlier than usual, with the debut of the Augusta National Women’s Amateur — where an international field of 72 women amateurs competed over 54 holes of stroke play. After 36 holes, the leading 30 players advanced to Saturday’s final round at Augusta National.

And, of course, as has become a recent tradition, on Sunday prior to the Masters final round, Augusta National played host to some of the country’s best up-and-coming junior golfers during the finals of the Drive, Chip and Putt competition.

Palmetto Dunes has long been a proponent of growing the game with women and junior golfers alike. The resort provides a varying array of tee boxes on all three of its championship courses to accommodate golfers of every level. The Palmetto Dunes Golf Academy offers a wide variety of programming aimed at all players, young and old, beginner or skilled alike.

And with SwingFit, the state-of-the-art club-fitting technology housed at the Robert Trent Jones clubhouse, Palmetto Dunes can custom fit golf clubs for anyone to ensure they are getting the most out of their equipment.

Not to mention all the other cutting-edge enhancements around the 54 award-winning holes of golf at Palmetto Dunes. “We’ve always tried to do things a little different here at Palmetto Dunes,” said Samm Wolfe, the head golf professional and general manager at the Arthur Hills Course. “We have a way of looking at things outside the box. All these things make us unique in the area.”

So that families can play together more enjoyably, Palmetto Dunes offers a dozen four-person golf carts that provide a sense of camaraderie and relationship building. All of the resort’s Club Car fleets of golf carts come equipped with Global Positioning System (GPS), as well as USB ports to charge cell phones and play music devices designed to suit a golfer’s functionality.

To further encourage walking, the resort has recently introduced a fleet of nimble BagBoy pushcarts by on all three golf courses, while golfers on the Jones and Fazio courses can test drive the new, autonomous golf caddie units called the “Tempo Walk” by Club Car, which enhance play while also fostering health and wellness.

In addition to the Tempo Walk, golfers can also pedal from hole to hole. The first resort in the Carolinas and along the East Coast to offer the revolutionary Golf Bike, Palmetto Dunes visitors can boost their calorie-burning quotient while teeing it up on a trio of the south's most beautiful and challenging courses.

All three of Palmetto Dunes’ magnificent layouts have been named South Carolina’s “Golf Course of the Year.”

“We can’t wait for our spring season,” said Wolfe. “Everything is starting to green up. Our tee sheets are busy and the golf courses are in great shape.”

Considering all the resort’s offerings on and away from the golf course, little wonder Palmetto Dunes Oceanfront Resort was named No. 12 “Best Resort in the South” in Condé Nast Traveler’s 2018 Readers' Choice Awards and to the Top 25 World’s Best Family Getaways by Travel + Leisure. For information about activities or reservations, call 877-567-6513 or visit www.palmettodunes.com.