Sea Island Golf Club - Retreat Course

Retreat was redesigned by Davis Love III and his brother Mark Love in 2001. Unlike Seaside and Plantation, it does not host the RSM Classic and sits geographically apart from those two courses, at the south end of St. Simons Island.

Golf, beach, and club access at Sea Island run entirely through the Sea Island Club, a single membership organization (not a separate club per course) that Sea Island's own membership page describes as having four categories: Full and Beach & Sports memberships, both of which require the prospective member to first own (or be purchasing) qualifying real estate on Sea Island or in an affiliated Sea Island community; and Invitational and Junior memberships, neither of which requires real estate ownership. Real estate ownership is a precondition for the Full/Beach & Sports path, not a guarantee -- multiple independent real-estate-advisor sources report that Sea Island states these categories also require the applicant to be recommended by a current Club member and approved, so most Sea Island homeowners hold 'application rights' to the Club rather than automatic membership at closing. Invitational membership likewise requires sponsorship/recommendation by an existing member plus a non-refundable initiation fee and its own dues -- it is not an open-enrollment alternative. Junior membership is limited to members under age 50. The one documented exception to this approval-based model is the 22-unit Cloister Ocean Residences fractional-ownership property, where full, year-round Sea Island Club membership is automatically bundled into every deeded share (initiation fee waived, dues reduced to one quarter of the standard rate) -- see the Cloister Ocean Residences community record. Reported current figures (not independently confirmed on Sea Island's own site, sourced from a private-club aggregator and repeated by several realtor blogs) are a $150,000 initiation fee and $12,000/year dues for standard membership. Retreat's homeowner relationship is a particularly clean illustration of the proximity-is-not-access principle: the surrounding Island Club at Retreat neighborhood's HOA dues are reported as entirely separate from Sea Island Club dues, and residents are not required to join the golf/social club just because they live on or near the course.

Retreat directly anchors the Island Club at Retreat neighborhood (also referred to in some real-estate sources as 'St. Simons Island Club'), a gated community centered on the course with its own clubhouse, pool, pickleball and tennis courts, and on-site dining (the Davis Love Grill). See the Island Club at Retreat community record.

Shares the Sea Island Club amenity package (dining, spa/fitness, golf performance center, shooting school, yacht club) with Seaside and Plantation for members; the surrounding Island Club at Retreat neighborhood additionally has its own separate clubhouse/pool/tennis/pickleball amenities available to residents independent of Sea Island Club membership.

Located at the south end of St. Simons Island, off Retreat Avenue near the Frederica Road/Kings Way roundabout -- geographically set apart from Seaside and Plantation.