Crooked Oaks at Seabrook Island Club
| Location | Charleston, SC |
| Year Opened: | 1981 |
| Society Delegate: | Con Constandis |
| Website: | www.seabrookIsland.com |
Set along the coast in the South Carolina Lowcountry, Crooked Oaks is one of the most picturesque courses in the state, winding through scenic marshland and a carefully preserved maritime forest, with panoramic ocean views, accentuated by centuries-old, moss-hung live oaks. Robert Trent Jones began construction in 1979, with play officially opening in 1981. The fairways and greens are Bermuda grasses, overseeded strategically to keep it playable year-round.
Crooked Oaks is honored to be part of the Audubon Cooperative Sanctuary Program—a highly select designation bestowed upon courses that implement environmentally responsible golfing programs. Crooked Oaks was the first golf course in South Carolina to receive this certification.
Crooked Oaks is consistently ranked among the top golf courses in South Carolina, impressive given the sheer number of award-winning championship courses in the state. It is a testament to Robert Trent Jones’ original vision: to create a seaside course with a timeless design that could be enjoyed by all levels of golfers for generations.
The scorecard shows a Par 72 course is 6,780 yards, with six tee options, and a slope of 137. The Members at Seabrook Island Club will tell you this is the ultimate “everyday course” that “it never gets old.” Constant wind variations off the Atlantic, and flag placements that change daily mean that no two rounds are ever the same.
Approach to difficult #4 green
The inspired layout exemplifies the Robert Trent Jones design edict: “hard par, easy bogey.” As is typical for a Robert Trent Jones course, strategy plays a big part, offering golfers the opportunity to pitch-and-run most holes, as well as contend with daunting bunkers (“with large noses”) and contoured, gently undulating, green complexes.
Hole 4 features the iconic live “crooked oak” that gives the course its name. Golfers are tempted to fly over the oak to a narrow green playing half-a-club longer than the yardage indicates.
#18 aerial shot of fairway- tee shot is blind!
The par 4 18th is the quintessential “heroic” finishing hole, featuring a blind tee shot and water on three sides of the green. No matter how one finishes, the inviting Island House and its large veranda just off the green provides the perfect 19th hole.
