Ocean Forest Golf Club Top 100 Review

Ocean Forest Golf Club is an 18-hole championship course located on Sea Island, Georgia, designed by renowned architect Rees Jones and opened in 1995. The course showcases a links-style layout built on natural linksland terrain shaped by centuries of coastal movement, featuring ridges, dunes, and undulations along the Hampton River and Atlantic Ocean. The setting offers dramatic seaside vistas, particularly on the signature finishing holes 17 and 18, which play along the Atlantic.

The course presents considerable challenge with strategic bunkering and natural hazards characteristic of links golf. Its design earned immediate recognition as one of the finest in the country, leading to Ocean Forest becoming the youngest club ever selected to host the Walker Cup, accomplished just six years after opening in 2001. The club has subsequently hosted multiple prestigious amateur championships, including the Georgia Amateur Championship (1998) and Southern Amateur Championship (1999). The inaugural Jones Cup Invitational, established in 2001, has become a premier world amateur golf event attracting top international competitors. Ocean Forest's reputation and tournament history underscore its standing among America's elite private golf clubs.