Founders Club at St. James Plantation

They changed the name of The Gauntlet to The Founders, but the name change didn't make the course any easier. It's deserved: average golfers will find more than their match here. Architect P.B. Dye designed the green complexes here with something ethereal in mind.

"I think he was smoking something," joked Founders head pro Rob Brothers. It isn't the length, 7,016 yards from the back tees, that does you in, though it's longer than most courses along the Grand Strand. The fairways are wide, but once you approach the greens, the long, strange ride begins. There are nasty bunkers, deep and foreboding, and many of the bentgrass greens drop off sharply. Some of them drop off n all sides, into other nasty hazards, including an abundance of water on the back nine.

Mother Nature has her say: when the tide rolls in, the water hazards get bigger, and the wind can get wild in the afternoons.