The next Hilton Head course we played was Shipyard Golf Club. Since we were knocking out the three Sea Pines courses on this trip, we knew that would put a dent in our wallets. And it did! Because of that, we decided on a cheaper option for Thursday and picked Shipyard. The course was only $60 – a deal on HHI – and right around the corner from where we were staying.

Overall, I thought Shipyard offered a good value. The design isn’t anything too memorable, but range balls were included and the course was well-maintained. For the price, no complaints. Well, I could have done without the large alligators that live around here. We some gigantic alligators during our round, including one that made me nervous for the rest of the round.

There are 27 holes at Shipyard, with the three nines called Brigantine, Clipper and Galleon. Not surprisingly you’ll notice each nine is named after a ship. Plus, the course’s logo is a cool old-school ship. Clever theme! Maritime vessels aren’t exactly my thing, so I’ll leave the more-detailed commentary about that to someone else.

Anyway, Shipyard is a George Cobb design that opened in 1970. I usually find Cobb courses to be functional from a design perspective, but not much more than that. Not surprisingly, that is what you’ll find at Shipyard. The bunkers are mostly round and flat, the fairways don’t have much contour by modern standards and the angles from the tee boxes are very similar. Things like that. Personally, I’m willing to overlook average architecture for a reasonable price. However, your opinion may be different.

We played the Brigantine and Galleon nines from the gold tees. From there the course played 6,735 yards with a rating of 72.5 and a slope of 133. Both nines are similar with longish par-3’s, reachable par-5’s and many mid-length par-4’s. I preferred the Brigantine nine because it had a couple really good driving holes.

The 2nd hole on Brigantine is a 396 yard par-4 that doglegs hard right, around a hazard. It has one of those drives where you can challenge the hazard and shorten the hole or play a safer drive out to the left and leave a longer approach. The 3rd and 9th holes – both par-5’s that slide to the right – are also good driving holes. The fairways appear to have plenty of width, but if the shot shape doesn’t match the slight dogleg to the right, then trouble lurks.

When it comes to the conditions, Shipyard was well maintained. The ground here was firmer than the other courses we played on this trip and my pictures make the course look greener than it was. The fairways were short bermuda with what looked like a light overseed – think tighter lies. The tees were overseeded and had a nice sparkle to them. The greens were smooth and fast. The bunkers I was in allowed for a good splash of sand.

While Shipyard isn’t going to win any awards for its architecture, we enjoyed it for the price. As long as you can deal with a plainer design then I’d recommend Shipyard as mid-level course. I also liked that it was more playable than the typical Hilton Head course, with wider corridors through the trees.

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