Port Royal: the public PGA Tour course with golf's best par 3

The courses

Port Royal Golf Course

Robert Trent Jones Sr. · 1970 (as Southampton Golf Club); $14.5m Roger Rulewich renovation reopened July 2009 · 18 holes · Clifftop oceanside championship · fully public (Government-owned)

Ranked 28th in the Caribbean, Mexico and Central America region by Golfweek/USA Today (2024); 2nd in Bermuda by Top100GolfCourses

Jones built more water into Port Royal than any other course on the island, then hung it off a clifftop above the Atlantic. The 2009 renovation — a $14.5 million government-funded project led by Roger Rulewich, who was on Jones's original design team — rebuilt the greens to TifEagle bermudagrass, sorted the drainage, refined the bunkering and put in computerised irrigation, specifically to make the course fit to host the PGA Grand Slam of Golf.

It does not defend itself with length. There are eleven par 4s, eight of them under 415 yards, three reachable par 5s, and only about 21 acres of fairway — tight for a Tour venue. What it has is 88 bunkers, water in play on seven holes, elevation change on eleven, and large, gently undulating greens where three-putting is routine. Eight of those par 4s leave an approach inside 125 yards, so this is a wedge-and-putter course, not a driver course.

And then there's the wind, which is the real architect. Adam Schenk won here in November 2025 at 12 under in gusts topping 30mph, calling them among the toughest conditions he'd played — on the same course where Brendon Todd and Camilo Villegas both won at 24 under. Twelve shots of difference on identical ground. Pick your week and hope.

Mid Ocean Club

Charles Blair Macdonald · 1921–22; redesigned by Robert Trent Jones, 1953 · 18 holes · Classic oceanside · private, with visitor days

Ranked 8th in the Caribbean, Mexico and Central America region by Golfweek/USA Today (2024) — the island's highest-rated course

The island's great classic, and a genuine C.B. Macdonald, which puts it in rare company. It's a private club — but not a closed door: unaccompanied visitors can play on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays as availability permits, bookable up to three months ahead, and members may introduce guests before 1pm at weekends.

One detail sets the tone: caddies are requested in preference to carts. After Port Royal's buggy paths and mandatory weekend carts, walking Mid Ocean with a caddie is the other half of Bermuda golf.

Tucker's Point

Charles H. Banks, redesigned by Roger Rulewich · 1932 (as Castle Harbour); redesigned 2002 · 18 holes · Resort/club parkland-coastal · non-member play available

A 1932 Charles Banks course, redesigned by Rulewich in 2002, now the golf course of Rosewood Bermuda. Non-members can play — tee times go through the Rosewood golf staff, and carts are recommended if you're not a member. TifEagle greens, like Port Royal.

Turtle Hill

Ted Robinson Sr. with Alfred H. Tull · 1964 · 18 (par 3) holes · Championship par-3 course · public

An 18-hole par-3 course of around 2,684 yards, and a much better use of an afternoon than that description suggests — it inaugurated the World Par 3 Championship in 2010. Crucially: the Fairmont Southampton hotel it belongs to is closed for a major redevelopment, but Turtle Hill itself is open and books independently. You do not need to be a hotel guest, and there is currently no hotel to be a guest of.

Belmont Hills

Algie M. Pulley Jr. · Original course 1924; completely rebuilt 2002–03 · 18 holes · Hillside parkland · public

Par 70 and around 6,017 yards in Warwick Parish, rebuilt from the ground up over eighteen months in the early 2000s — at the time the most thorough course reconstruction the island had seen. Public, visitors daily, booking essential, and attached to the Newstead Belmont Hills resort for a stay-and-play.

Five Forts

Five Forts Golf Club · Reopened 2021 (formerly St George's Golf Course) · 18 holes · Short clifftop course · public

The old St George's course, shut for years and restored and reopened in 2021 under a new name, at the island's east end beside the St Regis. Par 62 and around 4,436 yards, so it's a short course — but the holes are themed on the five historic forts ringing it, and the setting is spectacular. Open to the public.

Ocean View

Ocean View Golf Course · Garrison links origins from the 1890s; formalised 1950 · 9 holes · Public parkland · Government-owned

Nine holes, par 35, in Devonshire — the island's other government course, the cheapest round in Bermuda, and the one with the driving range. It also carries the most important story in Bermudian golf, which we've told below.

Booking it — and the weekend-morning catch

Port Royal is genuinely public. Its own operator describes it as "a Government-owned and operated public golf facility" and one of only two public courses in Bermuda. You book online, self-serve, through its tee-sheet system, the same as any municipal course at home. There is no membership requirement, no introduction and no handicap gate.

There is, though, a membership layer sitting on top of a public course, and it became contentious in 2026. From April that year the club raised membership dues sharply and introduced a mandatory cart fee on weekend play between 7am and 11am — charged even if you walk. Port Royal's entire member executive committee resigned in protest. For a visitor the practical upshot is simple: weekend mornings are the busiest, most member-heavy, cart-mandatory window. Book a weekday or a weekend afternoon and you'll have a better and cheaper morning.

Walking is otherwise allowed, and the course is open 7am to 6pm daily, closed only on Christmas Day. Soft spikes, proper golf attire, no jeans or beachwear. Rates change with the seasons and there was a fee revision in 2026, so check the current sheet when you book rather than trusting a number you read somewhere.

The 16th, and the other ocean par 3 nobody mentions

The 16th is the reason people know this course: a par 3 of 235 yards from the tips with four teeing areas, playing from a tee on the cliff edge to a green sitting on its own peninsula above the Atlantic, with a gap of open ocean between the two. Its own operator calls it "truly one of the most spectacular holes in the world of golf," and the PGA of America rates it among the most photographed par 3s anywhere. Wind across it typically runs around 15 knots.

The origin story is better than the photograph. Jones had to redraw the routing repeatedly over land agreements, and the 16th is what that rerouting produced. Golf's most-photographed par 3 is a byproduct of a property dispute.

Under-sold, and worth arriving ready for: the 8th, a 213-yard par 3 to a large green perched over the ocean and ringed with bunkers. Two genuinely great oceanside one-shotters on the same card is unusual. The 15th is a 412-yard par 4 doglegging right with the ocean down the left and steep runoffs right, and the 18th climbs uphill over a tiered fairway to a three-tiered green — where Schenk putted from the fringe to win in 2025.

The tournament, and the one before it

The Butterfield Bermuda Championship arrived in October 2019 and Port Royal has been its only home. It's a full FedExCup Fall event carrying 500 points and a $6m purse, and the winners tell you how differently it can play: Brendon Todd (2019, −24), Brian Gay (2020, playoff), Lucas Herbert (2021), Séamus Power (2022), Camilo Villegas (2023, −24), Rafael Campos (2024) and Adam Schenk (2025, −12 in a gale, his first Tour win in his 243rd start). The 2026 edition runs 22–25 October.

Before that, Port Royal hosted the PGA Grand Slam of Golf from 2009 until the event's final edition in 2014 — the season's four major champions, on this course. Lucas Glover won the first, Ernie Els came from three back with five to play in 2010, Keegan Bradley took 2011, Adam Scott shot a course-record 64 to beat Justin Rose in 2013, and Martin Kaymer won the last one ever played.

The history that makes Bermudian golf worth understanding

British troops at Prospect Camp in Devonshire were knocking balls around rough links by the 1890s, which is where golf on the island starts. But for decades afterwards Bermudian golf was segregated, and Black and Portuguese Bermudians played in secret at dawn — a practice known locally as "running golf."

In 1950, Bill Pitt, Erskine D. Simons and George Lowe founded Ocean View on the old Prospect garrison links. It was the first course where Black golfers in Bermuda could play in daylight. When Port Royal opened in 1970 as a government-owned public course, world-class golf on the island became genuinely open to everyone for the first time.

It's worth knowing when you book a tee time at a public, government-run course that anyone can play. That isn't an accident of municipal policy — it's the outcome of something.

When to go

Bermuda is subtropical North Atlantic, and it is cooler and windier in winter than people expect. The tourism board says it plainly: the island doesn't get Caribbean heat, because it's a thousand miles north of the Caribbean. January highs average about 65°F, dropping to the high 50s at night. July runs to about 84°F, October about 80°F. Air and sea temperatures stay within a couple of degrees of each other all year.

Golf is year-round — the course only shuts for Christmas. Hurricane season runs 1 June to 30 November, with Bermuda's peak risk in September and October; direct hits average a little over one per decade, and Hurricane Ernesto made landfall in August 2024 as a 100mph Category 1.

So: spring (March–May) and late November are the golf sweet spots — warm enough, outside the peak hurricane window, and outside summer beach-season pricing. January and February are cool, quiet and cheap if you don't mind a layer and some wind. If you want to see the Tour, late October — just know that's also peak storm season.

Getting there, and the transport rule that catches golfers out

Flying in is easy. L.F. Wade International (BDA) sits at the island's east end, with nonstops of about 90 minutes from New York or Newark, under two hours from Boston, about two and a half from Philadelphia and Baltimore, under three from Toronto and Montreal, and under seven from London. Then budget about 45 minutes by taxi out to Southampton — Port Royal is at the opposite end of the island from the airport, on roads where the speed limit never exceeds 20mph.

Now the important part. Visitors cannot rent a car in Bermuda. Non-residents may not own, rent or drive a four-wheeled vehicle, and there are no conventional car rentals on the island. Your options are taxis, the pink-and-blue bus network, four public ferry routes, a scooter or e-bike, or — legal since 2017 — a two-seat electric mini-car. Everyone drives on the left.

And the specific golfer's trap: buses #7 and #8 stop within about 600 yards of Port Royal, but golf clubs are not permitted on Bermudian public buses. So the bus is fine for a look around and useless with a bag. Budget for taxis, or arrange transport through your hotel or the course.

Staying and eating

The nearest luxury property to Port Royal is The Reefs in Southampton. Elsewhere: Rosewood Bermuda at Tucker's Town comes with its own golf course, Hamilton Princess is the city option, The St Regis Bermuda sits beside Five Forts at the east end, Newstead Belmont Hills is the Belmont Hills stay-and-play, and Cambridge Beaches and Grotto Bay round it out. One correction worth having: the Fairmont Southampton is closed for a major redevelopment with a 2026 reopening that has slipped between announcements — though as noted, its Turtle Hill course is open regardless.

Eat at Bella Vista Bar & Grill, which is right there at the Port Royal clubhouse: hilltop views over the back nine and the Atlantic, a northern-Italian chef in Livio Ferigo, an Italian-and-Bermudian menu made almost entirely from scratch, and — genuinely useful — it delivers to golfers out on the course.

Off-site, Tom Moore's Tavern in Hamilton Parish is Bermuda's oldest restaurant, in a building dating to 1652, and the Swizzle Inn at Bailey's Bay is the home of the Rum Swizzle and a compulsory island stop.

How to build the trip

Bermuda is small enough that you don't need to move hotels. Base yourself on the south shore near Southampton, and play Port Royal twice — once to gawp at the 16th and once to actually play the golf course, because the wind will have changed and so will your plan.

Add Mid Ocean on a Monday, Wednesday or Friday, booked well ahead, and walk it with a caddie. Slot Tucker's Point or Belmont Hills in as a third proper round, use Turtle Hill for a relaxed afternoon, and take a bus or ferry out to Five Forts at the east end if you want the full seven-courses-on-21-square-miles boast. Ocean View is nine holes, cheap and historically the most significant course on the island.

One planning note that saves money: build the trip around taxis, not around a hire car you cannot have. And if you're travelling in late October, our guide to shoulder-season golf trips applies — you'll be sharing the island with a PGA Tour event.