Kiawah Island Club’s Director of Golf Dylan Thew on What Makes This Golf Experience Extraordinary

For the avid golfer, the question often comes up early and remains interesting: Cassique or River Course? The answer, as Dylan Thew—Kiawah Island Club’s Director of Golf since 2018—will tell you, is both. But understanding what makes each course exceptional on its own terms is the best place to start, and few people are better equipped to make that case.

Dylan’s appreciation for both courses runs deeper than professional familiarity—it’s personal.  He began his golf journey at the age of 14 on the courses of England, where the game is older than the idea of making it easy. Links turf, unpredictable wind, ground that plays back at you as much as forward. It is a particular kind of knowledge, and it followed him when he crossed the Atlantic twenty years ago to build a career in American golf. 

Dylan eventually landed at Kiawah Island Club, joining as Head Professional at Cassique in 2016 before becoming Director of Golf in 2018. There is no one better positioned to walk you through what makes each course extraordinary. 

Cassique: The Soul of the Game, Set in the Lowcountry 

Tom Watson designed Cassique as his first solo course in North America, bringing with him the full vocabulary of a career forged at Carnoustie, St. Andrews, and Turnberry. The par-72 7,050-yard layout moves through dunes and along the marshes where the Kiawah River meets the Atlantic—its bones drawn from the great links courses of Scotland and Ireland, its soul unmistakably Watson’s own.

The course plays firm and fast, its undulating terrain demanding creativity on every shot. The front nine features a rotating configuration across holes four through six—so that even a familiar round can feel entirely new depending on the day. Wind changes everything here, just as it does across the Atlantic. Dylan notes that playing Cassique well requires a creative strategy rather than pure power; it is a course that rewards those who have learned to think their way around it. 

“The ambiance at Cassique is more so the soul of where traditional golf lives,” Dylan says. He credits Watson directly for bringing something to Kiawah that simply doesn’t exist elsewhere in this part of the world—a feel for firm, fast, links-style play unique to this area and the United States. For someone who grew up with links golf as his native language, arriving at Cassique felt, in some quiet way, like coming home. 

River Course: A Different Kind of Excellence 

Where Cassique speaks in the cadences of links golf, River Course belongs wholly to the American South. Designed by Tom Fazio and opened in 1995 as Kiawah Island Club’s first Members-only course, the par-72 7,119-yard layout is, as Dylan describes it, “met with traditional, parkland lowcountry golf course”—lush, impeccably manicured, and carrying an aura of pristine that stands in deliberate contrast to Cassique’s authentic, rustic character. It is a course that, in Dylan’s words, “could challenge the best players on the planet.” 

Dylan’s connection to River Course is personal in a different way. If Cassique reminds him of where he grew up, River Course is where his American career found its footing. It feels “more like America,” and that distinction is not a hierarchy, but a genuine difference in character that he finds endlessly compelling. 

Fazio built the course around what was already there. Six holes run along the Kiawah River. Bass Pond threads through the middle of the round at holes seven, eight, and nine. Live oaks draped in Spanish moss line the fairways, filtering the Lowcountry light in a way that makes every round feel both grounded and cinematic. The greens are undulating and strategically demanding, rewarding precision, and punishing any lapse in commitment. 

The Signature Holes 

At Cassique, Hole 15 is where the design philosophy distills into something unforgettable. Watson laid out multiple lines of attack off the tee, leaving every player with a genuine decision, and at high tide, the ocean and marsh views that open from that tee box are among the most breathtaking on the Island. 

River Course’s defining moment arrives at Hole 13, a par five that Dylan describes with characteristic economy: “You know it’s the signature hole when you stand on the tee box.” A large lake, an elevated green, and a risk-reward decision that has no single right answer. Competitive rounds consistently place River Course as the more demanding test, and Hole 13 is where that reputation is most honestly earned. 

When to Play

Dylan is particular about timing, and his recommendations reflect years of watching both courses move through the seasons. For River Course, October is the window to seek out. The native sweetgrass along the marsh edges blooms into its signature purple haze through December, and the course reaches its finest, fastest playing conditions of the year. The finish on 18, as the sun sets over the Kiawah River, is something Members return to again and again. 

Cassique is kept dormant and true to its nature through the winter—part of what keeps it playing true to Watson’s original vision. Early summer is when Dylan recommends experiencing it at its most alive, when the course greens up and the landscape Watson shaped around his design fully comes into its own. 

The Magic of Having Both 

What Dylan returns to, when asked about the experience of having access to both courses, is the contrast itself. The short drive between the two facilities doesn’t simply change the scenery—it changes the entire character of the game being played. 

“Each course feels like you’re in a different state.” — Dylan Thew

That contrast is “the Club’s magic. And it is a magic that is only deepening.” The arrival of Orange Hill will bring a third philosophy to Kiawah Island Club, one that Dylan describes as feeling as though it has been there forever, which aligns closely with his own sense of historic American golf.

Dylan believes the addition will further establish the Club as the premier golf destination in the country. For Members who already wake up each morning choosing between two extraordinary courses, that future is something to look forward to. 

A Consistent Standard of Excellence 

For all the ways Cassique and River Course differ—in design language, in season, in the demands they place on a player—Dylan is clear about what remains constant across both facilities. “You will get the same, hands-on, genuine Southern hospitality at both facilities.” The Club empowers each team to bring its own authentic character to the experience, which is why both courses feel genuinely distinct in atmosphere while maintaining the same high standard of hospitality. 

Golf at the Heart of Kiawah Island Club Membership 

Membership at Kiawah Island Club includes access to both Cassique and River Course (and Orange Hill, coming soon), along with the full range of Club amenities that define life on the Island. For the golfer drawn to Kiawah, it is less a Membership than an inheritance—two extraordinary courses, one Island, and a lifetime of mornings spent deciding which to play first. The first step is finding the right property. Explore what’s available below.