Old Tabby Links
In his long career as Arnold Palmer’s Senior Design Associate, the late Ed Seay created hundreds of golf courses around the world – many of them great. But late in his career, by his own admission, he had not yet created his Opus Magnum, the one extraordinary course that would be his legacy.
In 1993, his opportunity would come at Spring Island to do just that. On a 3,000-acre sea island in the South Carolina Lowcountry, Palmer and Seay were given unparalleled latitude to create a truly great course. Their only challenge: respect the unsurpassed beauty of the Island’s natural landscape and incorporate it wherever they could.
From his home in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida, Seay traveled to the site every Monday and Tuesday for over a year, studying its magnificent live oak forests, pristine marsh and surrounding scenic rivers. The result was what Palmer later called “...a walk in a nature park,” to which the game of golf had been subtly introduced.
The 7,004 yard, par-72 Old Tabby Links now stands as testament to Palmer and Seay’s sensitivity and light touch. From the great Live Oak “cathedrals” of the front nine, Old Tabby gives way to the more open feeling of pastures and green fields on the back – land cleared for quail hunting in earlier times. The final three holes parallel the spectacular marshes of the Chechessee River.
The Old Tabby Links has received enthusiastic praise from the golf media, and is frequently cited as one of America’s best. But it remains, first and foremost, a member’s course - one that the residents of Spring Island are content to play for the rest of their lives. Bill Sampson, our Director of Golf, has also received accolades from Golf Digest as one of the top teaching pros in South Carolina.
Arnold Palmer’s “Nature Walk” – and Ed Seay’s lasting legacy – is a stunning tribute to the incredibly beautiful ecosystem that is this mystical place known as Spring Island.
