Sea Island Golf Club - Georgia, U.S.A.

The Sea Island Resort was started by Howard Coffin, an automotive engineering whiz who founded the Hudson Motor Company. While visiting the Savannah racetrack in 1910, Coffin and his wife made a trip to Sapelo, a small island south of Savannah, and became enchanted with the beauty of the Georgia coast. Coffin purchased the 20,000-acre island in 1911 and continued to acquire additional land over the next decade, including the small island that was to become known as Sea Island. Coffin enlisted his cousin Alfred W. "Bill" Jones as his business partner, originally envisioning construction of a grandiose hotel on the scale of the Waldorf Astoria. Jones came up with a more realistic plan for an "overnight inn" and in 1928 the Cloister was born. The hotel has endured and flourished as a landmark of American golf and a popular honeymoon destination for newlyweds, including George and Barbara Bush, who spent their honeymoon there in 1945 and returned for their 50th wedding anniversary. The original course consisted of the Plantation Nine designed by Walter Travis and the Seaside Nine designed by the famed team of Harry Colt and Charles Alison; later, the Retreat Nine designed by Dick Wilson was added. In 1998, Rees Jones modified and seamlessly combined the Plantation and Retreat nines, creating the Plantation Course. At the same time, Tom Fazio created a completely redesigned and stunning 18-hole Seaside Course that unfolds through the lowland scenery of marsh and moss-draped live oaks with powder-puff bunkers of talcum white sand. 

Ocean Forest Golf Club - Georgia, U.S.A.

Ocean Forest lies on the northern tip of Sea Island, laid out through a landscape of pristine palmettos, pines, and oaks that rustle across the relic sandbars formed by the estuary of the Hampton River. The private course was developed by the Sea Island Resort's CEO Bill Jones III, the grandson of the co-founder of Sea Island Golf Club. Rees Jones, who had already successfully renovated the Plantation Course at Sea Island Golf Club in 1992, was selected to design Ocean Forest. Completed in 1994, Rees Jones adopted an understated approach and allowed the rich natural topography of lowland marsh, sandy swells, and undisturbed coastal forest to dominate the course. The 18th hole sweeps along the sea to the left, with a skinny finger of marsh pinching the fairway from the right. In 2001, Ocean Forest hosted the Walker Cup Match won by the team from Great Britain and Ireland.