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Have you played
this course? Send GolfLink a brief review and we'll publish it. And
Alan Nichols always appreciates your comments on his features. Contact info below.
[Editor's
Note: Alan
Nichols originally visited the Cloister in late 1997 and wrote the following article. He
revisited in March 1999 and found a number of changes involving the courses. These are
described in an update on this page. A late 1999 visit to
the Cloister (and Hilton Head) is covered in
"Golf Is
Better the Second Time Around - Cloister".]
When
you drive over the Frederica River causeway from Brunswick to St. Simon's Island and Sea
Island just beyond, you leave behind the neon world of the southern Georgia mainland and
enter the old South where cotton was once king. You pass stately homes and soon you reach
another causeway over the Black Banks River. Like guests at a church wedding, live oaks
stand at attention as you drive on. Over the river, you make your first left and the old
hotel with its orange roof and Spanish Mediterranean architecture comes into view beneath
the magnolia trees.
You've
arrived at The Cloister, one of the country's leading resorts and since 1927 a golf and
vacation destination of thousands of American and international vacationers. Here,
on the tiny 5-mile sliver of land that is Sea Island, one of the barrier islands off the
Southern Georgia coast that make up the Golden Isles, the rhythm slows down amidst
abundant natural beauty. Here, too, you find a gracious atmosphere you would expect of a
Mobil 5-star resort frequented by prominent families like the Rockefellers and
Vanderbilts…and the George Bushes who honeymooned at the Cloister and returned in
1995 for their 50th anniversary.
For
many, The Cloister is synonymous with the best of the Old South -- gentile, languorous,
and refreshing. The spacious hotel, with its over 240 rooms, elegant dining room (where
diners enjoy orchestra music), dance hall, and magnificent courtyard in the back, is
complemented by guest houses with oversized villas. The guests houses lie directly east of
the hotel, a short walk or drive away. Fronting The Cloister's private beach is the beach
club with two large swimming pools (decks, outdoor bars and
jacuzzis) and a restaurant
offering outstanding cuisine in a casual atmosphere. Adjacent to the beach club is the
resort's salon and state-of-the-art health spa.
Guests at The Cloister play either at the Sea Island Golf Club or
the nearby St. Simon's Club with its tight tree-lined 18 hole layout. The Sea Island Golf
Club is about a 12-minute drive from the resort on St. Simon's Island.
It
is located on what was one of the leading cotton producing plantations in the South,
Retreat Plantation. The very modern, modest-sized clubhouse is at the end of Avenue of the
Oaks, a breathtaking drive along majestic stands of live oaks. The club's grounds includes
the tabby ruins of a former slave hospital and a cemetery still used by descendants of
plantation slaves.
The
golf club offers 36 holes, four distinct nines played in various combinations -- Retreat,
Seaside, Plantation, and Marshside.
Bobby
Jones called Seaside "One of the very best nines I have ever seen." Part of the
original Sea Island 18 which opened in 1927, it features a few carries over marsh inlets,
deep bunkers and fickle ocean breezes.
Retreat
was designed by Dick Wilson. Marshside, the newest nine, was designed by Joseph Lee and
has the most water, and Plantation was recently redesigned by Rees Jones.
Sam Snead still holds the 18-hole Plantation course record of 63.
These three nines lie inland of Seaside but are equally as captivating for their natural
setting. All four nines are set up for resort play, with their wide fairways and low
rough. The courses feature Tifdwarf greens overseeded with bent and Bermuda 419 fairways.
The yardages range from Plantation (3516 from the tips) to Marshside (3190 yards).
For
those needing their swings adjusted, the Golf Learning Center at the Sea Island Golf Club
is the most modern, fully equipped teaching facility in the country. It is operated by
Golf Digest Magazine in association with the resort. The center is directed by Jack
Lumkin, a former one-time touring pro who is mentor to PGA star Davis Love, the resort's
touring professional and a local resident. Former LPGA Great Louise Suggs is on the
part-time staff, which includes several current and former players Nike tour players. The
school offers five-day, three-day and mini programs.
In
addition to golf, The Cloister offers such other activities as fishing, biking, boating,
horseback riding, skeet shooting, swimming, tennis and going on nature tours led by a
full-time naturalist. The resort, with its extensive programs for children, has become a
hit with many families who return year after year in the summer. Cloister guests under 19
play without greens fees.
The Cloister was founded by Ohio auto magnate Howard E. Coffin and
officially opened in 1928 by President Calvin Coolidge. Since its inception, the resort
and realty subsidiary has been under one management company owned by the Alfred W. Jones
family.
The
family has a long-standing policy of controlling development to protect the natural
heritage of the island which is lush with flowering shrubs and trees and which is home to
hundreds of wading and migratory birds, as well as year-round species.
Packages include accommodations, three meals daily, greens fees and shared cart or caddy,
and complementary range balls. Island day-time temperatures range from the
high '80s in June to 70 in November.
The Cloister Update (March 1999)
At Sea Island Golf Club, a facility of The Cloister,
they're moving heaven and earth to
make this one of the top resort clubs in the world. Well, not heaven really, but
definitely a lot of earth.
For years, the club boasted four distinct nines --
Marshside, Seaside,
Plantation and Retreat -- which were played in different combinations, giving the club
scheduling flexibility. Shortly, Sea island will have two 18's, created by combining
Retreat and Plantation into the Plantation Course and linking Seaside and Marshside into
the Seaside 18.
Late last year, the club opened Plantation, the work of Rees Jones,
whose reputation as a restorer of golf courses is well known. He has prepared such courses
for the U.S. Open as Congressional, Pinehurst #2, Baltusrol, The Country Club and Bethpage
Black.
Retreat and Plantation had grown a few whiskers over time. Working his
creative magic, Jones has made dramatic improvements in the greens, bunkers, and the
routing while preserving the parkland and coastal features of the two nines. He has added
lakes, enlarged and deepened bunkers, and created several new holes to improve both the
flow and the challenge of the course. Jones completely redid Retreat #1, which used to be
a short, undistinguished par 5. He moved the tee box 100 yards south next to the sound and
created a 429-yard dogleg right par 4 to an elevated green. (It is now the 10th hole of
the new 18)
Retreat #9, which used to be a brutally long par 4, is now a dramatic
risk-reward 500-yard par 5 which doglegs around a lake. The new green complex sits
adjacent to the lake and a long drive down the lefthand side of the fairway leaves
anywhere from a medium iron to a fairway wood over the water to the heavily bunkered
green. The safe play is around the lake and par should not be a problem with this
strategy.
The Plantation 9, which is Plantation's front side, has also been vastly
improved with new lakes and a few new green locations, enlarged bunkers, mounds giving the
holes better definition, and a new short par 5 (#8) whose green sits astride a lake that
starts 180 yards from the green.
The greens have been replanted with
Tifeagle, the latest hybrid Bermuda
offering a better putting surface and greater durability. Also, the outstanding turf
conditions are maintained by a new computerized irrigation system. The natural areas have
been vastly improved, too, with new floral plantings, and the course sports a curbed, wide
concrete cart path.
The course is both a better test of golf now for the good players and a
more enjoyable, playable course for the weekend golfer.
Meanwhile, Tom Fazio, whom some regard as the best course architect
today, is renovating the Seaside 9 and virtually redoing the entire Marshside course for
the new 18, which is scheduled to open late this year. At the moment, the site of the two
nines has been fenced off and scrapers, huge dump trucks, and front-end loaders are moving
about the site like so many ants on a foraging mission. The site looks like a desert now,
as Fazio has cleared many of the oak stands that graced
Marshside. His intent is to create
a links style course with open, windswept features.
Elsewhere on site, the Golf Digest School adjacent to the clubhouse, is
being moved closer to the water and the practice facility, including bunkered greens and a
large driving range, are being renovated and enlarged. Also, when these various projects
are completed, a new clubhouse will be built close to the sound, while the existing
clubhouse will continue to operate as a dining facility and site for small meetings and
gatherings.
In another major change, the Sea Island Golf Club is now entirely
private, with access restricted to club members and guests of The Cloister.
_______________
Alan B. Nichols is
a professional golf-travel writer residing in Bethesda, MD.
He is the featured golf-travel writer
for GolfLink. Alan appreciates your
comments on his features and the courses he has written
about.
E-MAIL ALAN NICHOLS
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