Fabulous setting among the enchanted moss-covered oaks and pine trees of Spring Island, Old Tabby Links is best known for its famous par three 17th hole, which heads dramatically along a narrow isthmus between marshland and a waterhole popular with Alligators to an appealing peninsula green site. The rest of the round, unfortunately, is dominated by trees and the anticipation of reaching the 17th hole. The architecture here is at best modest and the green shaping is both random in construction and often out of context with the shot required from back in the fairway.

There are a couple of good holes but all too often it is what might have been. The 15th, for instance, is a short iron to an island green site that is too large and contrived to make the tee shot exciting to play.

Old Tabby Links is certainly a beautiful place for golf, but aside from the bird and wild life around the 17th hole the best thing here is the actual drive onto the island.