Hamptons

The Hampton Club - A St. Simon's Island Georgia Golf Course

Here on the northernmost reaches of this famed barrier island, is golf and all its pleasures at their very best. Arrive to find a relaxed balance of those things that make the game memorable: the extraordinary beauty that nature provides in harmony with the challenges of one of coastal Georgia's great courses.

Emerald fairways, ancient forests, vast salt marshes, island holes, premier instruction, dining, and a warm and welcoming clubhouse and staff.

The course will undergo a major renovation following the completion of the master plan by Billy Fuller.

Hampton Club Reopens as King and Prince

October 27, 2009

After renovations which kept the course closed for six months, the Hampton Club on St. Simons Island has reopened with a new name as well as a new look. Rick Mattox, the club’s long time head professional, says the re-opening “was spectacular. Everyone is raving about the conditions.”

Billy Fuller Golf Design handled the renovation, which included enlarging and reshaping the tee boxes, reshaping some of the fairway landing areas, and most notably, redesigning many of the bunkers and restoring the greens complexes that had been gradually altered over the past 20 years.

Some new grasses have been introduced to the course, with the greens replaced with a new Mini Verde Ultra Dwarf Bermuda. No new back tees were added, with the King and Prince layout now listed at 6,462 yards from the tips, only three yards of difference from its original total. However, some new forward tees have been added to make the course friendlier forits female players, with those now measuring 4,929 yards, about 300 yards shorter than previously.

The course has been re-named the King and Prince Golf Course — Home of the Hampton Club, and opened for play in early October after being closed since April. This was the most extensive work done on the course since it opened for play in 1989. There was little done to change its classic Joe

Lee design, but the conditions have been considerably upgraded, with most of the work done on the tees, greens and bunkers.

There is also a fairly significant change in yardage for the blue (formerly white) tees. Holes 9, 10 and 13 have all been significantly lengthened from those tees, with the course now measuring just over 6,200 yards from the blues, an increase of some 200 yards.

Some new fairway bunkers have been added and others re-positioned to reflect the changes in technology since the course opened for play 20 years ago, with some aesthetic improvements to areas bordering the greenside ponds on holes 4 and 16 also made.

Since its debut in 1989, the Hampton Club has long been regarded as one of the state’s most unique layouts, especially the four holes on the back nine that were constructed on the marshes at the tip of St. Simons Island and require a cart ride over a series of bridges. The par-5 14th ranks with the most distinctive holes in all of the state, but the natural feel and beauty of the marsh holes has never overwhelmed the appeal of the parkland style holes on what Lee considered one of his finest achievements of the 200-plus courses he designed.

Hampton Course to be Made Anew

(The Brunswick News Oct. 8, 2008)

It’s not like The Hampton Club on St. Simons Island is in bad shape now. But the golf course, which is associated with the King and Prince Beach and Golf Resort, simply believes the time has come to enhance the course with a complete restoration project that will begin in earnest this coming spring.

“We’ve always had a heartfelt warmth for giving people a good experience, so we wanted to restore that for the next generation,” said Rick Mattox, general manager and director of golf at Hampton. Hampton, which was designed by course architect Joe Lee, opened in August 1989.

During the restoration, the course will be closed and will be reworked to Lee’s original design using the architect’s original design drawings. The work will begin on April 1st and is scheduled take six months, thus Hampton would not open again until October 1, 2009.

The restoration will be done by Medalist Golf with Billy Fuller Golf Design overseeing the project. Fuller, now a course architect, is a former course superintendent at Augusta National Golf Club.

During the restoration, the major focus will be the rebuilding of the greens, which have lost some of their shapes and sixes over the years, something which happens due to factors such as regular mowing and top-dressing to plant new grasses. The putting surfaces will be built to current United States Golf Association specifications for greens.

“The greens have gotten much smaller,” Mattox said. “We’ve lost 30 to 60 inches of green top in some places.”

Also during the restoration work, the teeing areas will be enlarged and leveled off, the bunkers will be reshaped to their original look, repairs will be made to cart paths and drainage will be improved across the course.

During the project, new grasses will be planted, also. The greens, which are currently Tifdwarf bermuda, will be switched to Miniverde, a newer bermuda grass that allows for tighter mowing.

“It’ll be tighter, and it gives you a truer ball roll,” said Chuck Moore, Hampton’s course superintendent. “You can also make the greens faster if you want.”

The tees, fairways and rough will be planted with Celebration bermuda, the bunker banks will become Empire Xoysia, and the green collars will be planted with Tifsport bermuda. Currently, the course uses Tifway 419 bermuda on all areas of the course other than the greens.

“Because all of these grasses are different shades of green, it kind of gives you a wow factor,” Mattox said. “It will make the golf course more attractive for our customers.”

Hampton is already taking preliminary steps that are necessary before the restoration work begins and the new grasses are planted. All of the current Bermuda grass was recently sprayed and killed on the fairways, roughs and tees while the greens are still being maintained for daily play.

“If you don’t kill it, it could come back in with your new grass,” Moore said of the current bermuda. “You have to catch it while it’s growing so that the plant will take the chemical. If we waited until the spring to do this, the grass wouldn’t be growing.”

The course crew will soon overseed the entire layout with rye grass and keep it maintained throughout the rest of the fall and winter. Usually, everything is overseeded except the rough, which is normally dormant Bermuda.

“We want to have the best conditions we can for guests and members,” Mattox said.

In late March, just before the course closes and the restoration begins, the rye grass will also be sprayed and killed. “All of us are just excited about the process of restoring the course and giving our customers the best experience we possibly can,” Mattox said.