Golf Course Review: The Country Club of Charleston, home to the Azalea Amateur
By Jesse Cunningham
The Country Club of Charleston is a course that was originally built in 1925 and restored by Brian Silva in 2005. The infamous Azalea Invitational is hosted at the Country Club of Charleston every March, with some of the best players in the country, including Tony Romo of the Dallas Cowboys, participating.
The course is a fairly flat course with large undulating greens. The bunkering is classic Seth Raynor. There are two reachable par-5s on the front and two par-3s --- one short (170 yards) and one long (220), one with great bunkering and one with water. The par-4s vary in distance from short (the 355-yards 7th hole) to a rather long start with No. 1 checking in at 440 yards.
The back nine starts with a short par-4 along the harbor and a par-3 with a boomerang-shaped green with huge deep bunkers on both sides. The back continues with three short par-4s with large tiered and undulating greens. Another par-5 follows with a grass berm in the play of the second shot.
The course finishes with a 465 par-4 with a large horseshoe-shaped green with a bunker in front of No. 16. The 17th is a 160-yard par-3 surrounded by bunkers and the 18th is a brute --- checking in at 482 yards, uphill with bunkers left and right in the fairway and by the green.
Overall, the par-71 layout plays harder than its 6,800 yards. Among the more noticeable features are the many old large oak trees sprinkled around many of the holes.
It is one of Raynor's best courses but gets much less notice than its nearby Raynor course, Yeamens Hall.