2025 Sea Palms Resort - St. Simons Island, Georgia - Fall Golf Trip 14.0

Yes, it was that time of year. Time for The Brew Crew's Annual Fall Golf Trip. This year, we selected The Sea Palms Resort on St. Simons Island in Georgia, and it did not disappoint. The facilities are great. If you are curious about those, I suggest you take a look at my previous posting on Scouting Golf on St Simons. Click below for a look:(https://www.budgetgolftriptips.com/post/scouting-golf-on-st-simon-s-island-georgia),

My wife/photographer, Katherine, and I visited Sea Palms back in April to scout out the place.

For this post, I primarily want to share some of the fun we had through pictures and a brief commentary. On all of our golf trips, we try to arrive before noon on Thursday or Friday and play an afternoon round on the course. Since Sea Palms is only a short two-hour drive from Jacksonville, we arrived early and teed off at 11:00 AM. The earlier tee time allowed us to quickly decide during the round that we needed an Emergency 9 (E9) after round one. And of course, since we still had daylight, the E9 soon became an E18.

As usual for most of our golf trips, my buddy, Dr. Tony, is the first to tee off in the photos below. Not a bad swing considering.... Gets the job done for about a 225-yard drive. Note the high finish with the club pointed at 10 o'clock. I think today my finish barely makes it past high noon???

By comparison, let's move a little farther down in our line-up and take a look John Cacchione (JC) and his swing. JC only stands a driver and a putter head tall and weighs in at about 9 stone, which is Scottish for 125 lbs.. dripping wet with Florida sweat.

In the photos below, note the high start of the backswing, pointed at 12 o'clock. JC pushes his body hard, right past his right knee, allowing him to throw all his weight forward on the downswing. In the last picture, check out where the club is pointed. Yep, that's 4 o'clock, folks. Just try doing that.....it's the difference in a 225-yard drive and a 300+ yard drive.

But as we often say in Florida, it's not how you drive, it's how you arrive. Every swing below appears different in the photo, but it all comes down to not how, but how many:

The golf course condition at Sea Palms is better than anything we play in Jacksonville. All the tee boxes have nice grass. The fairways are plush with grass and not cut down to bare dirt. The ball stands up nicely anywhere in the fairway. Greens were rolling about 11 on the Stimp, and the breaks you read were the breaks you got. Note the perfectly aligned tee markers on hole 16 in the photo below.

The 9th hole is a par 3 and features an island green, shown in the photo below.

Below note the same island green after tee shots. Considering the 20 mph wind that day, this was a mighty feat. Who are these guys? Guess where the other two balls are swimming.

Thanks to the excellent course conditions, weather, and some really fine play, many good scores were produced at the Sea Palms course. Even the Ole Commish managed to pull a rabbit out of his cap, holing out an Eagle from 140 yards. (Seen below)

On Sunday, we were booked to play the famed King & Prince golf course. If you are ever in the Brunswick, Ga. area and looking for spectacular golf, the K&P is a must-do. Much of the back 9 plays out into the ocean marsh as seen below.

Once you cross the bridge below, you are entering the marshland where there is nothing but you, snakes, gators, birds and deer. The only entry and exit from this marshland is the bridge in the photo. When I played the course in April. I had to wait to cross as a herd of deer was walking unconcerned toward me and leaving the marsh.

TonyP starts us off on the 5-hole marsh course swing. Note that 10 o'clock finish again.

The marsh holes treated me well that day, carding a 1 over par for the 5-hole swing. Below I leave the marsh a happy camper.

The final hole of the marsh swing is pictured below.

Kevin watches Ray hole out a putt.

There were a few Georgia Shanty's located on the King & Prince course. A Georgia Shack is pictured below (or is that ShaQ's place in Georgia?)

Without question, our Best Dressed Award went to RayT, who was overheard to say, "One way or another, I'll have a birdie on every hole today." (That's an Eagle Ray....and I got a real one.)

Speaking of Ray, is he pretending to be a tree?

Good friends, good golf, and a great trip. Memories below:

From the group feedback, everyone had a great time at Sea Palms. Due to its close proximity and great course condition, I think Sea Palms is already on our radar for a 2026 golf trip.

Next up in the queue will be our 2026 Spring Trip to Kinderlou. Stay tuned!!