Pebble Beach East. That’s the way I’ve always thought of the Ocean Course at Kiawah Island.

As spectacular properties go, the Ocean Course, which is hosting this week’s PGA Championship, has precious few equals in the Lower 48. The confluence of courses on the Monterey Peninsula, which includes Pebble Beach, are on the very short list.

There is, to me, such a dramatic contrast between golf on the West Coast and golf along the Atlantic seaboard. The Pacific is so serene, it can almost lull you to sleep. The Atlantic fires the pistons in your imagination. It is an active thing. It sets your pulse racing.

This juxtaposition will be on full display starting today, as the state of South Carolina hosts its first major.

There is no greater golf to be found anywhere in the country than along the coast of South Carolina.

Until June 2005, I had never been to South Carolina. But I was fortunate enough that year to play several South Carolina gems — including the Ocean Course, the poster child for my argument.

Just a couple of months ago, Golf Digest voted it the hardest public golf course in the United States. I’m inclined to agree. It is also one of the greatest golf experiences a human being could ever hope to have.

I’ve been lucky enough to play five U.S. Open courses, and the hardest 18 I’ve ever walked — by a country mile — were at Oakmont, the famous layout just outside Pittsburgh. That was the only time in my life I wanted to quit golf forever, and the only time I can remember that I just stopped keeping score. Oakmont was punishing and brutal and unforgiving, and I would never play it again. (That I played it under U.S. Open conditions on the Monday after the 2007 event was sort of a problem, too.)

But you can’t quite lump Oakmont and the Ocean Course into the same discussion: Oakmont is private; the Ocean Course, thankfully for us all, is not.

Most golfers, if they had a choice to play one course in the Southeast, would likely pick TPC Sawgrass near Jacksonville, Fla. Frankly, Kiawah and the Ocean Course is the more attractive and rewarding destination. No island hole, just 18 glorious holes on an island.

And it’s well worth the trouble and travel time. Kiawah is just south of Charleston, at the end of a narrow two-lane road.

It is difficult to articulate just how dramatic, how stunning and how completely treacherous the Ocean Course is. Ten of the 18 holes run along the Atlantic, and the other eight are more or less parallel to them. The Ocean Course has more pure ocean holes than any golf course in the U.S. Half the holes, including the final five, basically play into the prevailing wind.

With the right wind, those closing holes are going to make for fantastic, perhaps even sadistic, theater over the weekend. I pity any man trying to protect a lead as he gets to the 14th tee — the first of the two hammer-tough, back-nine par-3s — on Sunday.

The day I played it, and I had almost the entire back nine to myself, the wind was blowing pretty hard. I somehow managed to make a birdie at No. 12 — after driving onto a dirt road behind a sand dune — and even parred the over-water, par-3 17th. The 18th is playing 500 yards this week. I played it at about 460, straight into the teeth of the wind. I am by no means a short hitter. I went driver-driver, and I was still five yards short of the front of the green. It’s a tremendous finishing hole.

It is an intoxicating course with elevated tee boxes and elevated greens, and heavily populated with sand dunes and lagoons. There’s not one hole that doesn’t take your breath away. You can just about hear the Atlantic crashing onto the beach from every part of the property. (Kiawah actually has a whole bunch of brilliant courses.)

If I were given a choice to play Pebble Beach or the Ocean Course as my final 18 holes, I’d take Kiawah. And I’ve been to both. I always tell baseball fans they must see a game at Fenway Park. It’s an awesome experience. Football fans should, at any cost, drag themselves to Green Bay to see the Packers at Lambeau Field. There is no NFL atmosphere quite like Lambeau. It’s magnetic and unforgettable.

The same advice is offered here. It’s ironic that the Ocean Course turns 21 this year. It is an unofficial passage into adulthood, and with this week it gets perhaps final affirmation as one of the world’s great courses.

Yes, it was a bit tricked up for the 1991 Ryder Cup, and yes, it lacks the history and the charisma of a Pebble Beach or a Pinehurst No. 2. But if you play golf, if you cherish the sport, add the Ocean Course to your bucket list. You’ll be glad you did.
— This article appeared on page D4 of the Albuquerque Journal