GREAT DUNES IS BACK! The Golf Tide is Rising in Georgia's Golden Isles!

Georgia is home to some great golf courses. You may have heard of some of them. Of course you've heard of Bobby Jones' place and see it live and in living color every April on CBS. However, there is a course down on the coast that's six years senior to Augusta National that has been stealing headlines since it's soft opening last fall.

Ladies & Gentlemen... Great Dunes!

Walter Travis laid out the original Great Dunes Course on Jekyll Island in 1927. The Old Man (Travis) passed away before the course officially opened in 1928. And, if you know your American History, 1929's stock market crash soon brought about The Great Depression.

Great Dunes in its early days (Credit to JIC)

Needless to say, Great Dunes didn't get off to a swinging start the Roaring Twenties did...

Jekyll Island is the second southernmost of Georgia's barrier islands (only Cumberland Island sits further south and is nearly uninhabited). It's Gilded Age resort brought the rich and richer to its ten miles of sandy shores some four decades before its first golf course opened. According to the resort's website, it's ultra-private membership once constituted one-sixth of the world's wealth.

Let THAT sink in for a minute...

The golf course, except for the current road that separates the dunes from the beach, is as oceanfront as it can get. The Travis layout was a classic out and back nine-hole loop that took advantage of the coastline. Unfortunately, the times in which it debut came perhaps kept it from reaching the same status it's home resort once achieved.

After WWII, the resort sold it's interest and land holdings to the state. In 1948, Jekyll Island became a state park open to the public for the first time.

Ironically enough, we've played the OG GD course before. It's part of what drew us in when word of a project to restore the course - and better yet add to it with another nine holes to complete a championship course that can compete with any of the like up and down the Eastern Seaboard.

Great Dunes sans the exposed sand pre-renovation (JIC)

In fact, at least four generations of Dooner's family has made their pilgrimages here over the past sixty plus years. While too young to remember much (if anything) about playing the course (played it at approx. 8-10 years old), photos that exist online of the course (and the price that was charged) tell you that most of it's best days were behind it.

Jekyll Island Club added three more eighteen hole courses to its original nine. Many of them just average. Many more perhaps below average. Too many holes to maintain perhaps?

Pine Lakes came along in 1968 (Dick Wilson), while the Indian Mound (Joe Lee) and Oleander (Dick Wilson) courses came online in 1970. The three 18-hole loops came and went from the centrally located JIC clubhouse while the Great Dunes nine had it's own starter shack at it's southernmost golf point on the island.

Sixty-three holes of golf on a barrier island in one spot sounds like a great destination! However, perhaps they had too many holes to maintain? Nothing seemed to be great. It became a budget destination in a premium setting.

The resort shuttered in the early 1980s until a restoration effort lead to a rebirth of sorts in 1987. Golf kind of limped long with 63 holes seemingly indefinitely.

Then the Great Golf Boom in the post-COVID era exploded. Things started to shift.

Pine Lakes - redesigned by Clyde Johnston in 2002 - was renovated again in 2024. This gave the JIC a solid secondary option for golfers of any age, skill, sex or style. It's not going to wow you or be the star of your trip, but it's an enjoyable ride through the coastal forests on the northern end of the island. As you can see from the photos below, you won't regret playing it while you're there.

But, if Pine Lakes was to be the supporting act, what was going to be the star attraction?

GREAT question!

After Pine Lakes was buttoned up, then came the request for proposal for the Great Dunes Course. Golf course architects Brian Ross and Jeffery Stein answered the call.

Park Mammoth in Park City, KY (Ross)

Brian is a name keen GCA fans came to know after his complete redo of a tired old Kentucky hillside course became the number one public course in the Bluegrass State. You can learn more about Park Mammoth and it's new short course, Little Mammoth - also a Ross vehicle - on their website. We are still trying to get out to Park City, KY - hopefully 2026 is the year that finally brings us that direction.

Jeff has been around the block a time or two as well. We came to know his work from his grand restoration of New Hampshire's cult classic nine-holer, Hooper Golf Course. If you don't know Hooper - ironically also designed in 1927 by another dynamic duo, Wayne Stiles & John Van Kleek - give us a couple weeks to write up out experience there from last summer! Add your email to the form at the footer of this page and we'll hit you up when it drops. But since you're here and now, you get a teaser gallery from Hooper...

Stein and Ross proposed adding a Travis-inspired nine, borrowed from land the old Oleander Course once held, to complete a new championship (and public) seaside course. The other half of Travis' original design has long been lost to development on the island in the state-owned era, yet as Ross says, "We did use some photos from that nine as inspiration for our Travis inspired holes. Particularly the green on thirteen and the trio of bunkers on the second hole."

The other nine of the Oleander would ultimately be returned to wetlands, a benefit to not just the health of the island, but to the conditions of the over golf health on the island. Classic addition by subtraction.

To put it lightly, Brian and Jeff knocked this one out of the park!

Great Dunes is as fun a golf course that you'll find not just on the coast, but anywhere. It's also one of the very few Travis courses that are open to the public. Furthermore, at just $135 as of this writing, it's a bargin for oceanfront golf, especially considering the competition and market in which it lies!

It's first two holes start from the JIC clubhouse, a departure from the old starter shack where the OG GD began. The first two holes are fun, but the grand reveal on the third tee is where you realize that you're in for a grand experience!

The outstanding par-3 third hole opens up into the dunes and wide views you'll enjoy nearly the rest of your round.

A fully restored Walter Travis experience takes you on a ride though holes four through thirteen. The final five aren't pushovers either, as Stein & Ross put their own Travis-inspired stamp on statement that has been recreated in the sand in South Georgia.

The oceanfront 5th hole - a great one-shot hole!

Now, please be aware, we planned this trip for the sole purpose to come check out Great Dunes as soon as possible. It exceeded our expectations. Our expectations included playing a brand new course in the dead of winter in cold temperatures. Know that the conditions we encountered were just part of the process some courses go through in their infancy. We're sharing these photos because they were as fun to collect as the course was to play. It'll grow - come see for yourself!

Enjoy some of the best shots and holes at Great Dunes. Consider it your scouting report for your first/next trip here. (Click or tap any photo to enlarge)

So what's next for Jekyll Island golf? Reports from the ground include a new hotel near the clubhouse, followed by a brief idle period to asses the return on investment to decide what comes next. The Indian Mound hasn't really been cared for the same way as the other two, so it's a prime candidate for a renovation too. If it were us - and it's clearly not - we love the idea that Cabot Citrus Farms added with the two short courses and alternative course options (including night golf).

If that ever happens here, WATCH OUT!

Need a place to stay? Of course you can check out the resort, but Jekyll Island also has a campground on the northern most tip of the island. If you kept up with us last winter, you might recall we took our first Camping Golf Trip to Camden/Sumter, SC. You can bet we did it again here - this time RV camping beneath the moss draped live oaks!

In the meantime, if you visit the Golden Isles we can recommend the King and Prince Resort Course on the north end of St. Simmons Island. We caught them just a few weeks before Beau Welling's team was set to come in and being a full-scale renovation of this Joe Lee original design. We're excited to see what that yields, because that too was a wonderful round with an incredibly memorable five-hole, island hoping stretch out into the coastal marshes!

We also had the pleasure of taking in Brunswick Country Club on our trip. When you talk about a great locals club, this is the type of place we think of. It punches above its weight and topography thanks to the Donald Ross design (one of only eleven in Georgia) that was restored by Love Golf Design with highly intelligent and interesting greens! The staff is tremendous and makes guests feel like they should sign up to join before they leave. We would if we lived here that's for sure!

Finally, a sleeper course to add for those travelling in from the North down I-95, take the short detour about halfway between Savannah & Brunswick, jump down to Shellman Bluff and hit Sapelo Hammock Golf Club. It'll surprise you!

The days of sleeping on Jekyll Island as a golf destination are over. Stay tuned or start planning your trips now to get ahead of the crowds that will certainly follow!

Sincerely Fores,

Your Golf Crusade

The famed and restored 'Mae West' 4th hole at Great Dunes

Great Dunes Golf Georgia