Turtle Hill Golf Club At The Fairmont Southampton
101 South Shore Road, Southampton, , Bermuda, SN02
Phone: (441) 238-8000 Email: golf.bermuda@fairmont.com
18 Hole Greens Fees (include 1/2 cart): Adult: $89 Junior: $56 Sunset: $67 Sunset Walking: $45

The Course

If you love golf, but hate how long it can take to get around a course, you’ll love a quick morning afternoon zip around the Turtle Hill Golf Club in Bermuda. The course is a lovely link of 18 par 3s on the south hill of the Fairmont Southampton property in Bermuda.

You can get around in less than 3 hours, and won’t need anything more than an 8 iron on almost all the holes. It may be “just a par 3 course,” but it is still world class. The Grey Goose World Par 3 Championships are played here in the spring.

I played in the winter, off season in Bermuda, but was still a lovely 20 degrees. The morning I played the winds were still, the days previous they were gusting up to 50 km/h. While the greens are nothing tricky, the elevation changes for the course (especially on the front nine) and the swirling winds will constantly have you adding and subtracting yardage from your club for each swing.

Having each hole be a par 3 (the longest topping out at just 200 yards from the white tees), means when you play in off season it’s easy to catch the swing of things. After a long winter without swinging a club, I could easily get in the groove by swinging my shorter distance, easy to hit clubs.

The front nine face the Atlantic ocean and offer many views to take out your camera and capture the panoramic views. The front 9 are also where elevation changes will have you clubbing up and down (as many as 2 in each direction). The back 9 is a flatter range, across the slope instead of up and down it, and is easier to play.

There are a few daring bunkers, a bit of water, but mostly the Turtle Hill Golf Club is an 8 iron and above course save for a hole on each nine pushing 200 yards.

The Facilities

To get to the clubhouse, walk through the Fairmont Southampton’s Willow Stream Spa on the mezzanine level of the hotel.

The staff are quick and friendly. If you are lulled in to playing by staring at the course from your room’s balcony each day and didn’t bring shoes, balls, clubs, or gloves, you’ll pay a pretty penny to pick up your tools in the pro shop. Taylor Made rental clubs are $40, a glove was in excess of $20. If you don’t choose to pay the clubhouse price for a sleeve of balls, you can get loose ones, plucked from the big pond on the course, for $2 each. I didn’t look into shoe rentals.

Favorite Hole

The first hole, Whale Watch, is an straight ahead 8 or 9 iron dropping to a wide open green. Don’t get excited staring at the view here, or swing too hard, there’s a quick drop behind the green packed with thick Bermuda grass that will swallow any balls that travel too far. A nervous swing that goes too light will drop you in a bunker off the front.

I could have picked any of the holes on the front 9 as my favorite, they all have wonderful views, but we’ll go with the opener, your first look at the course and ocean blending together, as my top pick.

Scorecard

This course isn’t complicated. If you can catch it on a day without any wind, it is easy to tame. Pick a day when the wind is swirling around the island, and you’ll be utterly confused trying to find the right yardage to hit the greens.

It’s the perfect combination of accessibility and challenge. Even if you didn’t pack your clubs on your visit to Bermuda, a quick whip around the Turtle Hill Golf Club at the Fairmont Southampton is worth it while you stay.

 

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