Charleston National Golf Club

Charleston National Golf Club in Mount Pleasant, South Carolina, is a Rees Jones and Greg Muirhead design from 1990 that has become one of the most celebrated non-resort public courses in the Lowcountry. The par-72 layout stretches just over 7,100 yards from the tips and is carved along the Intracoastal Waterway, threading through natural wetlands, lagoons, and a pine-and-oak forest. The finishing holes are set along acres of golden marshland with views across the water to Isle of Palms, visually distinctive even by Charleston-area standards. Golf Digest has rated Charleston National the best non-resort golf course in the Charleston area, and Golf Magazine has ranked it the #1 non-resort course in the market. Rees Jones himself calls it "one of the elite venues in golf", unusual candor from the architect, and consistent with the course's reputation as Charleston's hidden gem for visitors who want marquee-designer architecture without Kiawah or Sea Island resort pricing. For Charleston trip itineraries that include rounds at Kiawah's Ocean Course or the Cougar Point courses, Charleston National is the essential third round.