May River Golf Club

Jack Nicklaus' May River Golf Club at Palmetto Bluff opened in 2004 on a 20,000-acre low-country estate across the May River from Hilton Head. Crescent Resources commissioned Nicklaus in 2001; construction began 2002; the course has since been the centerpiece of Montage Palmetto Bluff, named a GOLF Magazine Top 100 Resort multiple years. 7,171 yards par-72 across eco-friendly Paspalum turf, unusual for the Carolinas and better suited to the brackish low-country water table, with imported white silica bunker sand for visual contrast against the Paspalum green. Fairways are wider and less claustrophobic than Pete Dye's Harbour Town or Long Cove on the island itself; Nicklaus preserved hundreds of 200-year-old live oaks and routed around them rather than clearing a symmetrical corridor. The course is accessible only to Montage resort guests and members, a meaningful distinction from the open-public Hilton Head courses 10 miles east. Peak green fee $250-350 for guests. Fits a Hilton Head area trip as the 'splurge day at Palmetto Bluff for the Nicklaus and the Montage lunch' round.