The last day of our trip had us back at Sea Pines to play the Atlantic Dunes course. When we were here on Wednesday one of the proshop guys mentioned that Atlantic Dunes was quite different than Heron Point. I was curious to see what he meant.

Like Heron Point and Harbour Town, Atlantic Dunes is ranked among the top public courses in South Carolina. I certainly can see why. While Harbour Town gets all the love thanks to it playing host to the PGA Tour and its two holes along the water, Atlantic Dunes was the course that surprised me the most. It is a sneaky good course – even with its high green fee of $160 this time of year – and one worth playing if you are visiting the area.

I believe Atlantic Dunes was originally designed by George Cobb. Davis Love III finished a renovation in 2016 and I think that is when the course was re-named from the Ocean Course to Atlantic Dunes. While this was my first time playing here, I found some pictures online of the old Ocean Course and it looks nothing like what exists today. So, kudos to Love’s team on all the updates.

Even though Atlantic Dunes is close to Heron Point it has an entirely different feel. Heron Point has many narrow corridors, but Atlantic Dunes is more wide open – especially on the front nine. Atlantic Dunes has large fairways, large greens and very few trees in play for average shots. Compared to most courses on the island, Atlantic Dunes is unique with so few trees in play. I liked that a lot!

We played the blue tees (72.2/138/6508) and what makes it difficult is all the water and the large, undulating greens. Water is in play on over half the holes and runs the entire length of a couple of them. The 17th and 18th are long closing holes with water everywhere, trust me – ha. I would guess the greens here are twice the size of Harbour Town and had more modern contours – think lots of ripples, ridges and false edges that fall into chipping areas.

The course was previously called the Ocean Course because the 15th hole sits in the dunes close to the Atlantic Ocean. This is the signature hole – a 176 yard par-3 – that plays slightly uphill. It has a sandy look to it with a large green that slopes from back to front. If you play here, make sure to walk to the back of the green to take in the ocean setting.

As you’d expect at a premium course the conditions were excellent. The fairways and greens were a little long with the overseed still growing in and the turf was soft, like most of the courses we played on this trip. The greens were slower than the other courses at Sea Pines and appeared to have a fine layer of sand. They rolled well and at a medium speed.

I thought Atlantic Dunes turned out to be a great course. It is another course that presents well visually with its beach look. If Harbour Town didn’t exist, I think you’d hear more about Atlantic Dunes. My only complaint is that the high slope here made it tough to keep the huge numbers off the scorecard. Overall, I much preferred Atlantic Dunes to Heron Point.

Course Pictures (click any picture to scroll through the gallery):