If you’re looking for the best public golf in the city of Savannah, Georgia, there aren’t a ton of top-tier options despite the city being one of the biggest tourist destinations in the Southeast.

While lacking in quantity of strong public options, the Club at Savannah Harbor certain gives golfers visiting a quality option, one that featured great amenities, a course in great shape, and some neat views of the partner hotel, as well views of the Talmadge Memorial Bridge on a number of holes on the front nine.

Facilities

When you pull into the parking lot at The Club, the clubhouse is nice and modern, with ample parking that is close to the clubhouse doors. Inside is a well-maintained clubhouse that features locker rooms and restrooms for men and women, an on-site spa, and then the pro shop and a bar and grill. All fairly standard fare for a resort golf course, but all were in good shape, looked nice, and had friendly staff inside.

Amenities

When you reach the parking lot, attendants will check with you on your tee time, and then take and load your bags up for you, while giving you directions on where to head inside the clubhouse, as well as how to find your cart and the way to the range after you check-in inside. In addition to the attendants before you tee off, after the round, staff is there to help bring your bags back to the front parking lot, as well as wiping down your clubs.

The biggest and best amenity at the course is the driving range, which is included with your round. I say this without hesitation: It was the best driving range I have ever been on. It had new Callaway balls for you to warm up with, a ton of hitting bays, and tons of targets out on the flat range for you to aim at. Honestly, the range would be worth coming to daily if you were a member or someone looking to practice all the time, it was that good.

In addition to the range, the course offers complimentary bottled water for the carts, featured some of the best on-course bathrooms I’ve ever seen, towels, and water/ice machines at the bathrooms so you constantly had ways to keep cool and hydrated.

The Course

When you step out of the back doors of the clubhouse, the flat, sprawling property is laid out in front of you, with views of Holes 1, 9, 10, and 18 from the back patio, as well as the putting green being right there.

Opening in 1999 and design by the duo of Robert Cupp and Sam Snead, the course was the former host of the PGA Champions Tour’s Legends of Golf Championship, which was played at the course from 2003 to 2013. When you look out at the property, you can easily see why it hosted a high-level touring event. It’s wide and spacious, allowing plenty of room for spectators, in great shape, and offers a variety of challenges for every handicap, with yardages ranging from nearly 7,300 yards, all the way down to under 5,300 from the most forward tees.

I happened to play the Member Tees, which checked in just over 6,300 yards, and was plenty of golf for someone around a 7 handicap like myself.

One thing to know if you’re visiting Savannah, or almost any course that is along or near the coast: The land is going to be super flat, and The Club was no exception. Despite it being a flat course on the whole, that did not mean it is a flat course as far as your lies go. The main defense of the course is three-fold: Wind (which there was none of when we played), uneven lies, and large greens.

Once out of the course, it’s in fantastic shape. It’s lush, green, barely any bad spots on the tees, fairways, or greens. It was in some of the best shape I’ve ever seen on a golf course.

As far as design goes, it’s a fun test that almost any handicap can play. Myself being a 7 and my wife being someone who maybe plays seven times a year, we were able to get around in the suggested 4:15. The course being flat uses a lot of doglegs to also try and get golfers out of their comfort zone, including the Par 5 4th hole, the Par 3 6th hole, the Par 4 9th, and Par 4 16th.

Despite being in the middle of a swamp, and those swamps and marshy areas coming into play on a number of holes, the course is pretty open, so you have room to miss off the tee and can still easily find your ball, and only one Par 3, the 8th, was a forced carry that a player HAD to hit over. It really was a friendly, fun design.

If I had to describe it, I would call it 17 fun holes, but no real signature holes, and one really bland hole. The closest thing the course has to a signature hole would be the Par 4 6th, which doglegs to the right, and offers a fantastic approach shot to a green where you can play over the swamp, play it to safety on the left, all while the bridge looms in the background. It really is a fantastic looking view from the fairway.

Other great views included the Par 5 13th, which sees the green out on a little bump in the land, and looks out over the Little Black River behind the green, the Same for the Par 4 14th. The Par 4 9th also has a cool view of the partnering Westin Hotel in the distance, but loses points because, well, it’s a hotel, and not some historic monument or anything.

The only dud of a hole was the Par 3 15th hole. After playing a fun Par 5 and a temping Par 4 on the previous two holes, the round feels like it’s picking up steam as you head to the closing stretch…and then you play a bland Par 3 that even from the back tees is about 170 yards, has no hazards, and plays to an absolutely massive green that is barely guarded by the two bunkers on the right. It just felt like the needed a Par 3, had the space for one, and plunked one down right then and there.

One other neat feature on this course, was the bunkering, and how clustered they were near the green on a number of holes. The first hole has a trio of bunkers guarding the middle portion of the green, while the fourth has three bunkers in the layup area, then two in front of the green. The eighth had three in front and along the left of the green, while the ninth had five bunkers surrounding the green.

That continued for a number of holes on the back. Despite the numerous bunkers, they still offered areas to the average golfer to miss them. You didn’t have to hit over them to reach the green, you could play to the open side, and still be on the green with a putt. It was beyond fair.

If there’s one complaint I have about the design, at least from the Member’s Tee, was it felt like almost every Par 4 was some variation of 350 to 375 yards. So it was drive it, find it, hit a nine-iron or less in, repeat that around nine times. That was in stark contrast to the Par 5s, which ranged from as short at 445 yards, up to 599 yards, and Par 3s that went as short as 132 yards, up to 199 yards, with a 172 and a 154 thrown in. The Par 3s and Par 5s really challenged you to hit every club in the bag, while most of the Par 4s were just right there for the taking, save for possibly being able to drive 1 and 14.

Price/Value

So this is where things get a little tricky. If you had blindfolded me, walked me to the range, then first tee, let me play the round and then had me price it, I would have said that around $125 would be pretty fair for the caliber of course, the shape it’s in, and the amenities that you get with it on a weekend.

But the course does ‘Dynamic Pricing’ which means that the price changes daily based on how much demand there is to play it. The Sunday morning we played it, on a holiday weekend, was $156 per player. The next Sunday, the same tee time would run you $112, with rounds in the afternoon as low as around $75-80, if you want to deal with the South Georgia heat that comes with those tee times. I get it’s going to be more on the weekends and holidays, but a $46 difference just feels like taking advantage of people who are lacking for options in the area for good public golf.

To summarize: I almost certainly would not play it again at $156 per person, while $112 seems more in line with what it should be and what I think would be fair., Or if you can deal with the heat of the afternoon, around $80 is a bargain for the caliber of course this is, with range balls and everything else included.

Overall

The Club at Savannah Harbor is a nice golf course. It’s ranked among the Top-20 public courses in Georgia by Golf Digest. It’s an extremely playable design for almost any handicap, it’s in great shape, has had some legendary golfers design it and play it, while also offering great views. I wouldn’t call it a must-play, but if you’re in Savannah and looking to play golf, you’d be hard-pressed to find a better public course in the area that doesn’t involve crossing over into South Carolina and playing a round at any of the Sea Pines Resort courses, which are going to run you $200+. Just keep an eye on the prices and the time of year you are there. Over $150 is frankly too much for the course, but if you can find a time that comes in closer to the $75 range, jump all over it.