The 18th hole at Kiawah Island's Ocean Course.

As part of GOLF’s course rating process for 2022-23, our fleet of 100-plus expert panelists identified the best golf courses in South Carolina. Browse the links below to check out all of our course rankings, or scroll down to see the best courses in South Carolina.

GOLF’s other course rankings: Top 100 Courses in the World | Top 100 Courses in the U.S. | Top 100 Courses You Can Play | Top 100 Value Courses in the U.S. | America’s Best Municipal Courses | The 100 Best Short Courses in the World

SYMBOL GUIDE1 = Top 100 Course in the U.S.P = Public/Resort CourseV = Top 100 Value Course in the U.S.M = Top 30 Municipal Course in the U.S.

Ed. note: Some courses were omitted from our rankings because they did not receive enough votes.

1. Kiawah Island – Ocean Course (Kiawah Island) [1, P]

The blend of tidal marshes, scrub-topped dunes, live oaks and the soothing sound of the Atlantic on every hole make this one of the South’s most memorable playing experiences. Though the course just turned 30 years old, it already has an illustrious history of hosting big-time events, none more memorable than the drama-filled 1991 “War by the Shore” Ryder Cup. Much more short grass has been added around the green complexes since then and now the design is more thought-provoking rather than terror-inducing. Many of its greens are plateaued, with some of the more pronounced coming on the 3rd, 11th and 14th holes. Phil Mickelson more than handled the putting surfaces on his way to his historic win at the 2021 PGA Championship.

2. Yeamans Hall (Hanahan) [1]

Marrying classic Seth Raynor design with coastal South Carolina topography, Yeamans presents a charming tour of Redan, Biarritz and Road holes woven through marshland and magnificent live oaks. Over the years, the course’s original wonder faded as bunkers grew in and green complexes shrank. But a two decade-long renovation based on Raynor’s original property maps — discovered in the clubhouse attic — has returned this Golden Age masterpiece to its original brilliance.

3. Harbour Town (Hilton Head Island) [1, P]

The professionals weren’t sure what to make of Harbour Town when they first tangled with it in 1969. Unlike other courses built in that timeframe, this design by Nicklaus and Dye didn’t rely on length as much as it did in demanding accuracy off the tee as the golfer shaped shots around live oaks and stately pines. Precise iron play on the uniquely configured greens was also a must. But soon pros found standout holes abound, including the V-shaped green at the short 9th and the finishing stretch from 13 in. Pete and Alice Dye’s trip to Scotland in the mid-1960s proved the genesis for bulwarking the 13th green with railroad ties. Even 50+ years after the course opened, Harbour Town’s exemplar holes remain as compelling and interesting as anything modern architecture has to offer.

4. Congaree (Ridgeland) [1]

The number of par-4s on a course generally outnumber its par-5s and par-3s, and as such, go a long way in defining a course’s quality. The better the range of such holes, the better the course. From two of Fazio’s all-time finest short two-shotters (the 3rd and 15th) to some of his best long ones (the 6th, 11th and 17th) this design excels. Layer on the club’s desire for the fastest, firmest playing surfaces possible and the course flourishes.

5. Palmetto GC (Aiken) [1]

One of the great starts to the game with a series of diverse two-shotters leading the golfer well away from the Stanford White clubhouse. Each green is so good, and no surprise why: Alister MacKenzie lent a hand to them when he was working in neighboring Augusta. Picking favorite holes is difficult in the wake of Gil Hanse’s excellent restoration. Two of the best, though, are the one-shot 7th, with its shelf green reminding many of the 6th at Royal Dornoch, and the par-5 14th, which falls downhill in the most appealing manner imaginable. The finish is fascinating, too, with a couple of short par-4s in the final four. That works at Prestwick in Scotland, and it works here too.

6. Long Cove (Hilton Head Island)

7. Chechessee Creek (Okatie)

8. Secession (Beaufort)

9. CC of Charleston (Charleston)

10. Sage Valley (Graniteville)

11. May River – Palmetto Bluff (Bluffton) [P]

12. The Dunes (Myrtle Beach) [P]

13. Kiawah Island – River (Kiawah Island) [P]

14. Bulls Bay (Awendaw)

15. Caledonia (Pawleys Island) [P]

16. Kiawah Island – Cassique (Kiawah Island) [P]

17. Greenville – Chanticleer (Greenville)

18. Camden (Camden)

19. Old Tabby Links (Okatie)

20. Musgrove Mill (Clinton)

For GOLF’s course rankings lists, each panelist is provided a list of hundreds of courses and “buckets,” or groupings. If they believe the course to be among the best in its category (World, U.S. Value, etc.), they check the corresponding box to place it in a specific bucket. Panelists are also free to write in courses they felt should have been included on the ballot. Points were assigned to each bucket; to arrive at an average score for each course, we divide its aggregate score by the number of votes. From those point tallies, the courses are then ranked accordingly.

The key to the process is the experience and expertise of our panel. Hailing from 15 nations and all the worldwide golf meccas, each of our 115 handpicked panelists has a keen eye for architecture, both regionally and globally. Many of our panelists have played more than 1,000 courses in 20-plus countries.

Because we don’t prescribe a set method to assess courses as other ranks do, no one opinion carries the day — our rank is a democracy. Some panelists believe that enjoyment is the ultimate goal, and thus prioritize design attributes such as width and playing angles, while frowning on upon having to constantly hunt for balls in thick rough. Other panelists value challenge and the demands of hitting every club in the bag. Still others consider a course’s surroundings and overall environment of paramount importance, thereby emphasizing the setting and naturalness of the course. In the end, allowing raters to freely express their tastes is what produces the desired eclecticism in our Top 100 lists.

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Fleming Island (FL): Chad Parker has accepted the head coaching job.

Loyola Academy (Wilmette, IL): Loyola Academy is looking to hire a new head coach. The Head Football Coach is responsible for staffing at all aspects of the Football Program (Freshman A/B, Sophomore and Varsity), scheduling opponents (in conjunction with the Athletic Director), strength & conditioning (off season & in season program), and coaching team members. Interested parties can apply via this link.

Western (Las Vegas, NV): Western HS is completing its new staff and has openings for coaches at multiple positions. Coordinator positions will be considered for qualified candidates. There are several teaching and non faculty positions on campus. Candidates with college experience or HS coordinator experience will be given preference. Candidates seeking teaching positions must have or be able to obtain a Nevada Teachers License. Interested applicants should contact Athletic Director John Norton at nortoj@nv.ccsd.net.

Masters of Sports Administration: Looking for an exceptional, convenient education to advance or kick off your career in sports? UIU’s Master of Sport Administration is delivered entirely online. As a graduate, you will understand the organizational, financial, personnel and technology issues involved in sport and sport business and have a greater understanding of the needs within athletic departments in high school, college, and professional sports.

Loyola Academy (Wilmette, IL): After 17 years, and three state titles head coach John Holecek is retiring from coaching high school football.

Glazier Clinics: You don’t want to miss out on these cutting-edge football talks. Gain an edge next year over your opponent → https://www.glazierclinics.com/coaching-clinics-2023

Wellington Community (FL): Wellington Community HS is seeking applicants for the position of Varsity Head Football Coach. The selected candidate will oversee, and be responsible, for the all operations related to the football program. This will include all three teams - Freshmen, JV and Varsity. If you are interested in applying, please forward your résumé, letter of interest, and the contact information for at least three references to Athletic Director, Robert Callovi, via email at robert.callovi@palmbeachschools.org.

Hanahan (SC): Hanahan HS has an opening for a Head Football Coach/teaching position (position TBD). We are a 3A school, located just outside of Charleston, SC in the Berkeley County School District. All interested applicants should apply at www.bcsdschools.net and email a letter of interest and resume to our Athletic Director Kim Joseph at josephk@bcsdschools.net. The position will close on December 29.

Jackpot CEO reveals plan to digitize the lottery industry

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While it’s unclear if 2023 will be your year, some people won big in 2022.

From multimillion-dollar and multibillion-dollar jackpot drawings to five- and six-figure scratch-off tickets, here are 10 lottery stories that captured national and international attention in the last 12 months.

(AP Photo/Keith Srakocic and AP Photo/Godofredo A. Vásquez / AP Newsroom)

Joe Chahayed, the owner of Joe's Service Center in Altadena, California, earned a $1 million maximum bonus in November for selling a winning $2.04 billion-dollar Powerball ticket, according to FOX 11 Los Angeles.

The winner of the record-breaking multi-state lottery jackpot is unknown. Powerball winners have 90 days to one year to claim their prize depending on the ticket’s selling jurisdiction, according to the lottery board’s website.

The Powerball is played in 45 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

A man in the People’s Republic of China reportedly won $30 million from the Guangxi Welfare Lottery, a regional lottery that raises money for public welfare, including care centers for the elderly, disabled, orphaned and financially disadvantaged.

The man anonymously claimed his prize Oct. 24 under the alias "Mr. Li," and he did so while wearing a yellow mascot costume that represents the Guangxi Welfare Lottery. Mr Li told the lottery board he planned to hide his winnings from his wife, children, extended family and friends until he figured out what to do with the money.

Mary Starks of Davenport, Iowa, won $100,000 from a "Hit it Big!" scratch-off game issued by the Iowa Lottery Authority, a state-run lottery board that donates proceeds to veterans, military and public safety families, local tourism and schools.

Starks previously won $100,000 from a different scratch game in March 2020. She claimed her more recent prize Sept. 13. The two-time lottery winner told the Iowa Lottery she plans to use her winnings to pay off debt and start a new business.

Lori Janes, an office manager at a dental office in Louisville, Kentucky, won $175,000 from a Hit The Jackpot scratch-off game issued by the Kentucky Lottery Corporation, a state-run lottery board that donates proceeds to fund college scholarships, grants and programs.

POWERBALL LOTTERY DRAWING: WINNERS CAN REMAIN ANONYMOUS IN THESE STATES

Janes got her winning ticket at a white elephant gift exchange hosted by her company’s recent holiday party. She claimed her prize in December and took home $124,250 after taxes, according to the Kentucky Lottery’s Dec. 13 press release.

Janes told the Kentucky Lottery she plans to use her winnings to pay off family vehicles and her daughter’s student loans.

Dalton Radford, 18, of Dallas, North Carolina, won $1 million from a Carolina Jackpot scratch-off game issued by the North Carolina Education Lottery, a state-run lottery that raises money for schools, students and education programs.

Radford, a public works employee, told the lottery board he was on his way to his second job when he won his Instant Ticket prize. He claimed his prize Dec. 6 and took the lump sum, which left him with $426,063 after state and federal tax withholdings. The teen told the NC Education Lottery he plans to buy a new vehicle and save the rest of his winnings.

The Grand Lotto, a regional lottery board in the Republic of the Philippines, confirmed at least 433 people won a $4 million jackpot in October.

The lottery board, which is based in Intramuros, Manila, Philippines, and is operated by the government-run Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office, issued a statement that many of the drawn numbers had a multiple of 9.

Winners of the lottery reportedly claimed their prizes Oct. 1, and each winner took home nearly $10,000 after the money was divided by lottery officials.

A lottery player in Florida reportedly purchased a winning Mega Millions ticket valued at $494 million in August, but the winner has yet to come forward, according to The Associated Press.

The ticket was reportedly purchased in Fort Myers from a 7-Eleven, according to officials from the Florida Lottery, a state-run lottery that donates proceeds to public education funds in the Sunshine State.

The winner remained unidentified even after Hurricane Ian made landfall in southwest Florida Sept. 28, The Associated Press reported. Florida Lottery Draw players have 180 days to claim their prize while scratch-off or Fast Play players have 270 days to claim their prize, according to the lottery board’s website.

A man won $100,000 from a Powerball ticket sold by a Kwik Fill gas station in Hanahan, South Carolina, according to a press release issued by the South Carolina Education Lottery, which is a state-run lottery board that benefits scholarship and grant funds in The Palmetto State.

The man claimed his prize anonymously in June and used part of his winnings to purchase a new car, according to the SC Education Lottery.

The man told lottery officials he committed himself to three months of weekly lottery playing, which he budgeted to $25 per week. He reportedly started playing the lottery after watching an episode of TLC’s documentary series, "Lottery Changed My Life."

Jose Flores Velasquez of Annandale, Virginia, won $1 million in August from playing the 20X the Money scratcher game issued by the Virginia Lottery, but he only learned about his seven-figure prize a month later, the lottery board reported in a press release Sept. 6.

Flores Velasquez bought his winning ticket from a Safeway supermarket while he purchased packs of soda. He reportedly thought he won $600 and was surprised to learn he was one of the game's top winners.

Flores Velasquez chose the one-time cash option, which totaled $759,878 before taxes, according to the Virginia Lottery, which donates proceeds to K-12 public education in the state.

Two lottery players in Illinois won the $1.337 billion Mega Millions jackpot in July, according to the Illinois State Lottery, which donates proceeds to fund public education, capital projects and special causes.

The anonymous pair reportedly played a single ticket they purchased in a Chicago suburb on July 29 and split their winnings. The duo opted for the lump sum payment and split the $780.5 million prize, according to a press release issued by the Illinois Lottery.

HANAHAN, S.C. (WCIV) — Hanahan wants to expand.

The city of Hanahan has developed a master plan to revitalize its town center and bring more businesses to the area.

Kristen O'Neill is a part owner of Theory Collective in Hanahan. The hair salon opened about a year ago.

"Our team is growing. It's great. We offer more services and see more clients," said O'Neill.

O’Neill said she is happy the city is working to bring in more businesses. She thinks more storefronts could mean more traffic at the salon.

"I think it would be great, I mean, especially on Yeamans Hall Road, there is not a whole lot. There's gas stations. It would be great to get a bite to eat up the road," said O'Neill.

She thinks it would be great to work with new businesses.

"We love partnering with local businesses. We have done it in the past and we will do it in the future. However we can support local businesses, we will," said O'Neill.

Mayor Christie Rainwater says there are things that are missing from the city.

"The truth is, we are missing quality businesses, restaurants, boutiques. That’s something people want to see come in. They don’t want to have to go to North Charleston or a neighboring city to go to the doctor," said Mayor Rainwater.

She wants to know what residents see for the future of the town center.

The plan is something they can use to present to those who are interested in coming to the area.

"It really gives us resources that we need to present to people who would like to bring their development or business to Hanahan, and say this is where it may fit best," said the mayor.

The city wants to continue hearing from residents. They have a survey on their website at cityofhanahan.com.

"If you have a dream inside of you and you want to bring it to the downtown of Hanahan, we would love to work with you to do that," said Rainwater.

FMRP and tumor immunity

Many tumors have developed mechanisms rendering them resistant to attack and destruction by the immune system. Zeng et al. report that fragile X mental retardation protein (FMRP) is highly expressed in human cancers, and they propose that it is involved in antitumor immunity. FMRP is best known as an RNA-binding protein that regulates the stability and translation of neuronal RNAs. By genetically inactivating the FMRP gene in mouse cancer cells, the researchers found that FMRP-deficient tumors had reduced growth and were more susceptible to attack by T lymphocytes. Tumor cells lacking FMRP showed remodeling of the tumor microenvironment, macrophage polarization, and upregulation of the chemokines involved in effector CD8⁺ T cell recruitment. —PNK

Structured Abstract

Cancer biology and therapy have been transformed by knowledge about immunoregulatory mechanisms that govern adaptive immunity. Although some forms of treatment resistance are related to the intentionally transitory operations of the adaptive immune system, others reflect more subtle requirements to modulate the immune system in different contexts. In this work, we identified an immunoregulatory mechanism involving the neuronal RNA binding protein fragile X mental retardation protein (FMRP), which broadly regulates protein translation and mRNA stability and is aberrantly up-regulated in multiple forms of cancer.

This study was motivated by reports that cancer cells naturally overexpressing FMRP, whose loss of expression in developing neurons causes cognitive defects, were invasive and metastatic. We investigated the expression of FMRP in human tumors, further assessed its tumor-promoting functions in mouse models of cancer, and evaluated its association with prognosis for human cancer patients.

When human tumor tissue microarrays were immunostained for expression of FMRP, a majority of tumors expressed FMRP, whereas cognate normal tissues did not. To investigate the functional significance of this broad up-regulation, the FMR1 gene was ablated through CRISPR-Cas9 gene editing (FMRP-KO, where KO indicates knockout) in mouse cancer cell lines that were inoculated into both immunodeficient and syngeneic immunocompetent mice to establish tumors in parallel with wild-type (WT) FMRP-expressing cell lines. Mice bearing FMRP-KO tumors had similar survival compared with isogenic WT tumors in immunodeficient hosts, indicating that FMRP was not involved in stimulating tumor growth per se. By contrast, tumor growth was impaired and survival extended in immunocompetent hosts, implicating the adaptive immune system. Indeed, FMRP-expressing WT tumors were largely devoid of T cells, whereas FMRP-KO tumors were highly inflamed. Depletion of CD8 and CD4 T cells restored tumor growth and reduced survival, implicating FMRP in immune evasion in WT tumors. WT and FMRP-KO tumors were profiled by single-cell RNA sequencing, revealing marked differences in genome-wide transcription and abundance of cancer cells, macrophages, and T cells. To elucidate the effects of this multifaceted regulatory protein, we performed several functional perturbations, revealing that: FMRP-expressing cancer cells produce the chemokine interleukin-33 (IL-33), which induces regulatory T cells, as well as tumor-secreted protein S (PROS1) ligand and exosomes that elicit tumor-promoting (M2) macrophages. Both cell types are immunosuppressive, collectively contributing to the barrier against T cell attack. By contrast, FMRP-KO cancer cells down-regulate all three factors and up-regulate C-C motif chemokine ligand 7 (CCL7), which helps recruit and activate T cells. Additionally, immunostimulatory macrophages develop in this context that express three proinflammatory chemokines—CCL5, CXCL9, and CXCL10—which cooperate with CCL7 in recruiting T cells. Finally, neither FMR1 mRNA nor FMRP protein levels were sufficient to predict outcomes in cohorts of cancer patients. Recognizing FMRP’s function as an RNA binding protein that modulates mRNA stability and hence levels in transcriptome datasets, a gene signature reflecting FMRP’s cancer regulatory activity (involving 156 genes) was developed by comparing FMRP-expressing versus FMRP-deficient cancer cells, both in culture and within tumors. Our FMRP cancer activity signature was prognostic for survival across multiple human cancers; anticorrelated with the intensity of T cell infiltration in different tumor types, consistent with FMRP’s immunosuppressive effects; and was associated with comparatively poor responses to immune checkpoint inhibitors and immune-dependent chemotherapy in selected cohorts.

FMRP is revealed as a regulator of a network of genes and cells in the tumor microenvironment that contribute to the capability of tumors to evade immune destruction.

Abstract

Many human cancers manifest the capability to circumvent attack by the adaptive immune system. In this work, we identified a component of immune evasion that involves frequent up-regulation of fragile X mental retardation protein (FMRP) in solid tumors. FMRP represses immune attack, as revealed by cancer cells engineered to lack its expression. FMRP-deficient tumors were infiltrated by activated T cells that impaired tumor growth and enhanced survival in mice. Mechanistically, FMRP’s immunosuppression was multifactorial, involving repression of the chemoattractant C-C motif chemokine ligand 7 (CCL7) concomitant with up-regulation of three immunomodulators—interleukin-33 (IL-33), tumor-secreted protein S (PROS1), and extracellular vesicles. Gene signatures associate FMRP’s cancer network with poor prognosis and response to therapy in cancer patients. Collectively, FMRP is implicated as a regulator that orchestrates a multifaceted barrier to antitumor immune responses.