You always know what you’re getting when you see the names Ben Crenshaw and Bill Coore, more so than most other golf architects.

You get a traditional, low-key course short on length but heavy on strategy. That’s what the private Chechesse Creek Club in Okatie is all about.

It’s a course not so much carved through classic, South Carolina low country; it’s more like it was a very expensive gardening project.

As might be expected, they moved little dirt. The tee boxes are only slightly higher than their surroundings, with no fancy flower boxes or ornate steps. Only the pushed-up greens show evidence that dirt was moved around.

The course slithers through the pines and oak trees with a very light touch; when you first pull up and drive around the property, it takes a while, and some focus, to notice the course.

The trees are an intimate part of the course, not just lining fairways but also often as fairway obstacles and aiming points. They let the grass that tips the bunkers grow long, giving them a natural, unruly look and making them more well-defined from the tee boxes.

The course, in is relatively isolated location, is reminiscent of Old Tabby Links on nearby Spring Island. There are only 10 cottages around the Chechessee layout as of this writing, though there are 41 lots.

Look for the full review coming soon.

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