I first played here in November 2019 with my dear friend OT and 6 other guys from New York. The first day we played it was cold, windy and so wet we had to stop after 9. Too bad, as the course is in a spectacular location.
The white tees are very short, 5900 yards, but the course plays tight and some of the greens are very challenging indeed. I shot 40 on the day we only played 9 holes, but rallied back well on day two to shoot 76. And that was with a 7 and two sixes on the back nine. I finished very strongly, just missing out on a string of 3’s on the last 4 holes.
The course plays very long off the golds. The slope is 146, and requires a lot of precise tee shots. We played Whites which was just as well, as the wind was gusting up to 25mph and any spin was dealt with appropriately.
The weather was much better on day 2. Even then it was dull and cold until about noon. You can see this in the pics below…
Here’s a link to the Club’s website: https://www.oceanforestgolfclub.com.
This is from Golf Digest: the course is rated number 162 in the US: Twenty-some years ago Rees Jones might have completed America’s last true oceanside links at Ocean Forest. It’s certainly one of the premier linksland settings in the country, far more authentic in its links characteristics than his Haig Point or Atlantic G.C., despite some holes in woodlands. Ocean Forest’s fairways laterally traverse several rumples of dunes, some 18 feet high, through a pine-covered delta formed where the Hampton River flows into the Atlantic. The routing skirts saltwater marsh, the river’s edge and finishes with a one-two punch on the seashore. This may be the most walkable course among all those nationally ranked, despite the fact that the 18th hole finishes a half mile from the clubhouse. Here’s an obscure piece of trivia: The day Ocean Forest opened in 1995, O.J. Simpson was acquitted of all murder charges against him.
We had breakfast one morning inside the men’s locker room. A real treat. The Clubhouse is quite magnificent.
This is what the course looks like in nice weather…
I played again in October 2021, hosted once more by OT and joined by Fausto L and Michael K. I have known Fausto for some time and he is a really good guy to be with on such trips, and Micheal is an very good good who is also an excellent golfer and hits a long ball.
We flew Delta into Savannah. “Delta Comfort+” as described by the airline: what a joke. Seats are tiny, not that much extra space, plus the seats are not aligned with windows and thus you don’t even get a great view. And, when we boarded we were all handed one of those tiny little wipe packets, as if that was going to protect us from covid or any of the other bugs on these planes. It’s really one the edge of being intolerable, and it’s about time passengers had a better way to make their feelings known. I’m sure they will send a survey and ignore any comments.
We had a couple of dinners out in Sea Island. Halyards (https://halyardsrestaurant.com) is pretty good; Crabdaddy’s Sea Food Grill (https://www.crabdaddysgrill.com) a bit more down market and sweaty. I am biased as I had an awesome reaction later that evening to what I think was bad Mahi-Mahi. I was on the sliced bread and banana only diet for the following day. A culinary high by contrast was Leopold’s ice cream (https://www.leopoldsicecream.com/find-us/) at Savannah Airport. Sensational. Ranks up there with Luca’s in Musselburgh.
We played the green tees, a challenging yardage as it felt like it played longer on some holes. The first round I played was interrupted by a huge storm, which was just as well as I was playing rubbish the first nine, then recovered well to shoot plus 8 then 1 under; makes no sense. I know. The second round was much more balanced but still only an 80, one poorer than the first round. Here’s some pics from the weekend:
