Getting To Know: Oyster Reef Golf Club By Brian Weis

Getting To Know: Oyster Reef Golf Club

An Insightful Interview With Tom Kern, General Manager

By Brian Weis

Whether you have played a course 20+ times a year or looking to play the course for the first time, insights from an insider can help enhance your golf experience. Below is an interview with Tom Kern who shares some valuable tidbits about the course, memorable holes and must eats and treats at the 19th.

Give Our Readers An Overview of the Golf Course/Property
This is a Rees Jones designed course that has been voted one of the top 20 courses in the Carolinas and enjoys a reputation as a favorite among Hilton head Island golfers. This championship course offers 66 bunkers which are well placed off the elevated tees and guard undulating 2 and 3 tiered greens. Numerous dogleg fairways, accented by strategically-located mounds and fairway bunkers call for well-planned tee shots.

What Tips or Local Knowledge Would You Provide To Help Them Score Better At Your Course?
Choosing from the 4 sets of tees makes this a ideal course for about any type of golfer. It can be a challenging as you want or can play very player friendly.

Recent Awards or What You Are Most Proud About The Course?
2008 Lowcountry Golf Course of the Year

What Is The Signature, Most Talked About, or Most Photographed Hole?
The signature hole is our Par 3 6th hole. This Par 3 looks out over the Port Royal Sound and Paris Island. Their is a deep bunker facing the green, so selecting enough club is a must to hit the shallow and sloping green.

What Is Your Favorite Hole? Any Tips to Play It?
My favorite hole is the Par 3 16th hole. It is a long par 3 that has a large pond the extends from the tee box to the green. Baling out on this hole is not a option.

Must Have Dish or Drink after the round at the 19th Hole?
The Oyster Reef Grill room is a ideal place to discuss your round of golf over drink after playing this Rees Jones design.

Back Tee Stats
Par: 72
Yardage: 7018
Slope: 134
Rating: 74.5

More Information
Oyster Reef Golf Club
155 High Bluff Road
Hilton Head Island, SC, 29928
843-681-1764
www.oysterreefgolfclub.com/

Revised: 06/05/2013 - Article Viewed 31,110 Times - View Course Profile

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.