Ohio Golfers, Get Ready to Pledge Your Allegiant

Sorry, We Couldn't Help Ourselves!

By Brian Weis

Las Vegas-based Allegiant Air is offering three new routes to Savannah/Hilton Head International Airport (SAV) from cities in the Buckeye State. The Cincinnati to Savannah flights began May 8 with the touchdown of Flight 656.

Flights from Akron/Canton start May 21 and end Aug. 15, while those from Columbus begin June 4 and will be available through Aug. 16. The Cincinnati route is already so popular it has been extended to Oct. 11. The route runs on Mondays and Fridays, the perfect excuse for a nearly weeklong vacation.

Why is this so important? As one bartender on-island once told us, the season begins on Hilton Head the day schools let out in Ohio. The connection is that strong.

Prior to the Allegiant service, however, the connection was also long. Cincy to Hilton Head is about a 10-hour drive with a two-club wind behind the SUV. The flight on Allegiant, on the other hand, is around 90 minutes. That nets out to two additional rounds of golf.

Here's a sample golf itinerary to help fill that extra time:

Day One
The Allegiant flight from CVG to SAV arrives just after 11 a.m. Grab the clubs and rental car and make the 35-minute drive to Hampton Hall in Bluffton. Pete Dye designed this layout, which is private but accepts a limited amount of outside play (be sure and call ahead for availability). Often described as "Dye letting off the gas," Hampton Hall alternates between modern Dye design elements and traditional Lowcountry detail. Tipping at over 7,500 yards, golfers are well served to keep the pedal firmly pressed.

Day Two
For groups who yearn for 36 holes a day, Hilton Head obliges with numerous multi-course resorts. Port Royal (54 holes) and Shipyard (27 holes) Plantations, part of The Heritage Golf Collection, ease players into a Lowcountry frame of mind with playable, well-conditioned offerings from Dye, George Cobb and Willard Byrd. Robber's Row at Port Royal is a rare opportunity to play a Dye redesign, as Pete updated the course in 1994.

Day Three
With three rounds under the collective belts, it's time to take on iconic Sea Pines Resort, home of the PGA TOUR's RBC Heritage presented by Boeing. While famed Harbour Town Golf Links is closed this summer for re-grassing, Heron Point by Pete Dye and the island's first course, Ocean, serve up plenty of challenge and scenery. Ocean will be renovated by Love Golf Design this fall, closing in October as Harbour Town reopens. The new Plantation Golf Club serving both courses is perfect for 19th hole reminiscing or a full-on dining experience at Live Oak.

Day Four
Few stops on Hilton Head offer as much variety as Palmetto Dunes Oceanfront Resort. The Robert Trent Jones Oceanfront Course was masterfully restored by Jones protégé Roger Rulewich and features one of only two holes on the island along the ocean. The Jones course is suitably long by today's standards (7,005 yards) with open corridors and plenty of room off the tee. The George Fazio layout (par-70) is tighter, tree-lined and arguably one of the toughest tracks on the island tee to green. The Arthur Hills Course is quintessential Lowcountry, with live oaks, Spanish moss, natural dune lines and numerous lagoons.

Day Five - The return flight is at 11:49 a.m., but diehards could squeeze a final nine at Old South, Hilton Head National, or other Bluffton courses along Highway 278.

For more information on Hilton Head Island golf packages, visit www.hiltonheadgolfisland.com.

Revised: 05/14/2015 - Article Viewed 31,471 Times

About: Brian Weis

Brian Weis is the mastermind behind GolfTrips.com, a vast network of golf travel and directory sites covering everything from the rolling fairways of Wisconsin to the sunbaked desert layouts of Arizona. If there’s a golf destination worth visiting, chances are, Brian has written about it, played it, or at the very least, found a way to justify a "business trip" there.

As a card-carrying member of the Golf Writers Association of America (GWAA), International Network of Golf (ING), Golf Travel Writers of America (GTWA), International Golf Travel Writers Association (IGTWA), and The Society of Hickory Golfers (SoHG), Brian has the credentials to prove that talking about golf is his full-time job. In 2016, his peers even handed him The Shaheen Cup, a prestigious award in golf travel writing—essentially the Masters green jacket for guys who don’t hit the range but still know where the best 19th holes are.

Brian’s love for golf goes way back. As a kid, he competed in junior and high school golf, only to realize that his dreams of a college golf scholarship had about the same odds as a 30-handicap making a hole-in-one. Instead, he took the more practical route—working on the West Bend Country Club grounds crew to fund his University of Wisconsin education. Little did he know that mowing greens and fixing divots would one day lead to a career writing about the best courses on the planet.

In 2004, Brian turned his golf passion into a business, launching GolfWisconsin.com. Three years later, he expanded his vision, and GolfTrips.com was born—a one-stop shop for golf travel junkies looking for their next tee time. Today, his empire spans all 50 states, and 20+ international destinations.

On the course, Brian is a weekend warrior who oscillates between a 5 and 9 handicap, depending on how much he's been traveling (or how generous he’s feeling with his scorecard). His signature move" A high, soft fade that his playing partners affectionately (or not-so-affectionately) call "The Weis Slice." But when he catches one clean, his 300+ yard drives remind everyone that while he may write about golf for a living, he can still send a ball into the next zip code with the best of them.

Whether he’s hunting down the best public courses, digging up hidden gems, or simply outdriving his buddies, Brian Weis is living proof that golf is more than a game—it’s a way of life.