Golf Courses Near Aiken, SC

“Located near the Georgia border in western South Carolina, Aiken is just 15 miles east of Augusta and the hallowed grounds of Augusta National Golf Club. Private clubs, including Sage Valley and Palmetto Golf Club, cast a long shadow in this town. During Masters Week, it’s a tradition that many of the private clubs in the area throw open their tee sheets to non-members. While those tee times go to the fortunate few, Aiken is a promising place for golfers seeking tee times on public-access courses throughout the year. Aiken Golf Club, a 1912-vintage Donald Ross creation that rambles over dramatic up and down terrain, is a public jewel. Cedar Creek Golf Club, an Arthur Hills design, features holes etched out of corridors in the woods. The River Golf Club in North Augusta, S.C, honored by Golf Digest as one of five best new courses of 1999, skirts the Savannah River, but wetlands, lakes and bunkers provide the main threats to par. For a Hot Deal in North Augusta, look to the 27-hole Mount Vintage Golf Club, a Golf Advisor selection as one of South Carolina’s best courses. A three-hole stretch around a lake is Mount Vintage’s version of “Amen Corner.”

Playing off its ties to The Masters, Aiken calls itself “A Place Like No Other.” It first gained prominence as a “Winter Colony” for rich Northerners who relished the dry, pine-scented air and built large estates for themselves and their horses. Nowadays, Aikens is still prime horse country. Official horse season runs from November to mid-April, and you can catch top-flight racing and polo matches. One of the local attractions is the Aiken Thoroughbred Racing Hall of Fame, which honors the great horses that have trained and raced here. Aiken is known for its nightlife. It can get pretty wild thanks to the horse set and college students. For quieter nighttime entertainment, go stargazing at the Dupont Planetarium and Observatory. Hitchcock Woods, one of America’s largest urban forests, is a great choice for a run or walk, but if you’re going for a walk, wouldn’t you rather be teeing it up for another 18?”