Patriots Point Golf Links

Course details, fees and policies below come from the course's own pages, checked August 17, 2026; the drive time is measured rather than estimated.

The course

Willard Byrd laid this out as a links course on the harbor's edge and it opened in 1979. Par 72, four tee sets from about 5,100 to 7,000 yards, and a routing that keeps the water in view for most of the round. The National Golf Course Owners Association named it South Carolina Course of the Year in 2001. What makes it play harder than the card suggests is the wind: it comes across open water with nothing to break it, changes through the day, and can turn the same hole into two entirely different problems between a morning and an afternoon round.

The finish is the reason to book. The 17th is a par 3 to an island green set into Charleston Harbor, with Fort Sumter out in the channel, Shem Creek to the north and the peninsula's steeples across the water. The course bills it as the best par 3 in the Lowcountry, and even a bad tee shot there buys the best view of Charleston available from a golf course. Ships bound for the port slide past while you putt.

Booking and what it costs

Tee times are booked online, through the course's own app, or by phone at (843) 881-0042, with the golf shop running roughly 7am to 5:30pm depending on season. The course publishes no rate card anywhere on its site — prices live inside the booking engine. Pulling its live feed on August 17, 2026 returned $115 for any tee time on a Thursday and $135 on a Saturday, with the cart included and no twilight tier on either day, which is the clearest picture available and still a snapshot rather than a posted price; check your own date. Tee times surface roughly a week ahead, and the sheet takes neither singles nor fivesomes. Juniors 16 and under cannot play Friday through Sunday before 3pm unless they are with a full-paying parent.

For anyone playing here often, the 2026 annual pass runs $3,000 single or $5,500 dual and covers unlimited golf for the cart fee alone — $25 plus tax for 18 holes, $15 for 9 — with complimentary walking rounds Monday to Thursday and after noon on weekends. Walking is normal here rather than merely tolerated, metal spikes are banned, and rental clubs exist but are first-come, first-served, so travel with your own if you can. There are no caddies. The driving range is lit.

One useful feature for a trip with fixed dates: if the time you want is gone, the course runs a Virtual Tee Time Assistant that notifies you by text and email when a slot opens. Spring and fall weekends are the tight ones; a summer weekday morning is usually available late.

Where it fits in a trip

Patriots Point is the easiest real golf to reach from a downtown hotel other than the Muni: 5.3 miles and about 12 minutes over the Ravenel Bridge. The two make a natural pair of choices — the Muni for value and a walkable $68, Patriots Point for the harbor and the 17th. Neither requires the hour-plus commitment that Kiawah does.

It also sits beside the rest of a good half-day. The USS Yorktown is the same complex, so a family can split up for a morning; Shem Creek and its dock restaurants are five minutes north for lunch after the round; and the harbor cruises leave from the water you just played beside. Staying downtown keeps all of it within about fifteen minutes — downtown rates are on Expedia, and the where-to-stay guide compares the areas.