Kiawah Island Golf Resort will close its Jack Nicklaus-designed Turtle Point Golf Course on January 4, 2016, for a nine-month renovation project.
Jack Nicklaus and the Nicklaus Design team surveyed the course in late October and made a host of recommendations for changes. The Nicklaus Design team will consult on the project.
In addition to the design changes the tees, fairways and greens will be converted to Paspalum, the salt-tolerant strain of grass that is currently in The Ocean Course, Osprey Point and Oak Point on Kiawah Island Golf Resort. Nicklaus has prepared plans for rebuilding all 18 greens, including moving five greens due to shade issues and to expand fairway sizes from 20 acres to 34 acres. The resort also plans to add new tees on multiple holes and raise a number of tea boxes, as well as add a pond to the par-3 seventh hole and expand the pond on the par-5 second hole and move the green to the right, behind it to change the second and third shot into that green.
The oceanfront sixteenth hole will get a big change: The tee box on the par-3 course will be moved away from the dunes so the player will be hitting his tee shot with the Atlantic Ocean in the background.
Additionally, crews will work around the ponds and wooded areas of the course reclaiming overgrowth, the entire irrigation system on the golf course will be rebuilt and work done on the maintenance building as well as building a new pump house.
During the renovation, the golf school, which is located at the Tommy Cuthbert Golf Learning Center adjacent to Turtle Point’s driving range, will be held at other resort courses. Tomasso, Turtle Point’s Italian restaurant, and the pro shop will remain open throughout the renovation.