"Here you will find a wealth of romance and history to charm your mind while nature mends your jaded nerves."
SEA ISLAND, Ga. -- Howard Coffin's words ring as true today as they did when he wrote them, as part of a letter to members of the Detroit Athletic Club, in the January 1931. Sea Island, anchored by The Cloister resort, truly is one of America's great year-round hideaways. It's been that way since Coffin, an Ohio-born auto magnate, opened his "happy little hotel," as The Cloister was known, in 1928.
Golfing, boating, fishing, romancing, wandering, beachcombing -- it's all here on this narrow, five-mile island that is part of the seven-island "golden isles" chain on the southeast Georgia coast. Scottish nobleman Sir Robert Montgomery, in 1717, called this land of giant oak trees and sea marsh, "the most delightful country in the universe."
Few would argue, then or now. Certainly not Coffin, father of the Hudson Motor Co., who often attended automobile races in Savannah 70 miles north of here. The tough Georgia dirt roads were excellent proving grounds for Detroit's finest to test their mettle and it was on such a trip, in 1910, that Coffin first saw the Georgia low country and its barrier islands.
The following year, Coffin purchased for less than $150,000 the island of Sapelo, just north of Sea Island. He would remain owner of the island, once a refuge of French aristocrats, for two decades. Sapelo, pronounced "Zapala" by early Spanish missionaries, is now under the jurisdiction of the State of Georgia. The island is reachable only by ferry, but worth the trip to the wide variety of wildlife, including a Mexican species of bird called Chachalacas, introduced to the island as a game bird.
In 1925, Coffin purchased Retreat Plantation, once a giant cotton plantation, on nearby St. Simon's Island. The next year Walter Travis was hired to design nine holes of what was to become known as the Plantation Course. The Plantation Nine opened in 1927, the same year Harry S. Colt and Charles S. Allison began construction of the Seaside Nine, which opened in 1929.
The opening of the Seaside Nine signaled Colt and Alison's redesign of the Plantation Nine, and for the next 70 years, Sea Island's golf courses underwent a plethora of additions and redesigns from architects that included Robert Trent Jones, Sr., Dick Wilson, Joe Lee, Rees Jones and finally Tom Fazio.
Fazio's work shines brightest today, as he has joined the Seaside Course (6,550 yards, par 70) with the Marshside Course (designed by Lee in 1973) to create a golfing experience as close to what it was like when Bobby Jones first played here in 1930. Let's just say Jones, who sang the praises of the original course in 1930, would be ecstatic over the new Seaside Course.
Fazio rebuilt all the tees, bunker and greens, something Jones and longtime Sea Island members would certainly notice immediately. But perhaps even more important, he raised the fairways several feet so that they could roll and drain better. Before Fazio, it wasn't unusual for the courses to be wet even in the driest conditions. In fact, a few of the fairways even sat below marsh level.
The front nine of Seaside is the old Marshside Course, which Fazio completely rerouted. The back side -- the original Seaside nine -- is a bit more challenging as it is more susceptible to the winds. The 18th hole, a 439-yard par 4, is a good example as it nearly always plays into a strong headwind with a white-duned cross hazard thrown in for good measure.
Two ingredients, however, are most spectacular in the Fazio design. One, he maintained and even brought back several of the site lines that provide spectacular views of St. Simons bay and marsh; and two, Fazio raised many of the greens and created collection areas for wayward shots, in a style reminiscent of Donald Ross' Pinehurst No. 2.
The collection areas make for some entertaining chipping and pitching. Also, Fazio's rebuilt greens have been increased from an average of around 3,800 square feet each to approximately 6,200 square feet each and dressed with the new Tifeagle Bermuda grass, which is very resilient to close cuts, making the greens roll true and fast.
The course comes complete with cart paths, but the best way to experience Seaside is with a caddie. Both the Seaside and Plantation courses are immensely friendly for walkers, and Sea Island Club boasts one of the Southeast's better caddie programs.
Rees Jones' Plantation Course (6,549 yards, par 72) is a parkland-style course that offers many of the same marsh and seaside views as the Seaside Course, but overall, isn't quite as demanding in terms of shotmaking, which is why many Sea Island Club members call it their favorite of the two tracks. The Plantation (the original Plantation nine and former Retreat nine on the back side) features 14 acres of water, including two lakes added by Rees Jones.
The newly renovated Retreat Course was designed by Sea Island resident Davis Love III, who widened the fairways from the original 1970s Joe Lee layout and made it a much more playable resort course.
Before or after a round, check out the ruins of the old slave hospital and plantation cemetery, reminders of the antebellum South, that are located near the club's golf center a few steps from the club house. There's also a small cemetery still used by the descendants of slaves who worked the vast cotton fields of Thomas Spalding's Retreat Plantation.
In 1995, Jones created Ocean Forest, an exclusive 7,140-yard, par-72 course that indeed combines the thick forest of Sea Island with the ocean. The last two holes, in fact, play along the Atlantic. Ocean Forest proves that Jones' talent lies not just in renovating classic courses for major championships, but in creating masterpieces as well.
Designed by Addison Mizner, who created the "South Florida" look in Palm Beach and Boca Raton, the original 46-room Cloister has been one of the Southeast's premier resort addresses for nearly 75 years. Today, The Cloister features 209 rooms spread throughout more than a dozen buildings. The main hotel and the River House, with their tiled roofs and stucco walls, have a Spanish Mediterranean flavor. The newer buildings, particularly around the beach club, are more Caribbean in style.
Take time to walk the well-manicured grounds and view the gardens that have visited by the likes of Dwight Eisenhower (the "Eisenhower Oak" is planted on The Cloister's lawn), Queen Juliana of The Netherlands and playwright Eugene O'Neill. Sarah Churchill, daughter of Sir Winston Churchill, married British photographer Anthony Beauchamp at The Cloister in October 1945.
The Lodge at Sea Island Golf Club has with 40 guest rooms and suites, each offering water or golf course views. The Lodge also has two restaurants and 24-hour butler service.
A bagpiper at the Lodge salutes the close of day from the fairway. The bagpiper is a tradition among Lodge guests, as is heading for the Oak Room for a single-malt scotch and cigar while, next door in the Living Room, a pianist plays a 19th-century Steinway.
Somewhere, Howard Coffin is smiling.
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