Bermuda is a small place, smaller in acreage than Orlando International Airport, and most of what fills it is houses and hotels. That makes it remarkable that seven golf courses have found room here. The last of them is Port Royal, a Robert Trent Jones course funded by the Bermudian government, set on the southwest side of the island and squarely centered between the town of Hamilton and the Royal Dockyard. It has been there for more than fifty years, and it is the only public course on the island not owned by a resort. Residents play it at a discount, thousands of visitors pass through each year, and since 2019 the PGA Tour has come every fall for the Butterfield Bermuda Championship. The land did not come together easily. Land disputes altered the routing a few times before construction finally began, and the course that resulted starts at the top of things, on a ridge that runs north to south through the property. The front nine mostly occupies the east side of that ridge, descending to the lowest ground on the property for the first six holes. These holes are honest about what they are, the plainest stretch of the round, with little in the way of architectural interest. They are a slow walk down, and the reward comes in the climb back. The last three holes of the outward nine cross back over the high ridge and redeem the opening side. The seventh is a strong par 5, the eighth a scenic par 3, and the ninth a difficult par 4 that sends you to the turn with your attention fully restored. After that the course stops easing you in. The back nine traverses huge features in the land, often several at once. The elevation shifts dramatically on the tee shot at ten, on the approach at eleven, on the tee shots at twelve, thirteen and fourteen, and once more on the final approach at eighteen. This is a nine that rides the island rather than resting on it. Just off the fifteenth tee sits the Whale Bay Battery, an old fort that was part of the Royal Naval Dockyard in the 1800s and into the early 1900s. The British controlled this ground and used the area as a docking point during many notable moments in history, the War of 1812 among them. It is a quiet reminder that this coast mattered long before anyone came here to play golf. Then comes the sixteenth, the hole Port Royal is best known for. It is a mammoth par 3 set alongside the Atlantic, and from the back tee it measures 235 yards over the ocean. Back there sits a plaque that is almost comic in its brevity. It records a line from Lucas Glover at the 2009 Grand Slam of Golf at Port Royal: "Man, I've never been so nervous on a shot." That is all it says. No yardage chart, no history, no flourish. It may be the most truthful sign in golf, a tour professional admitting plainly what everyone else on that tee feels. Getting here is part of the charm. Bermuda's roads are narrow and winding, and the island can be difficult to get around. Tour players staying in Hamilton are treated to a scenic ferry ride to the course instead, arriving by water at a place whose most famous moment is defined by water. It suits Port Royal. The course starts quietly, earns its drama on the way back up, and leaves you on the sixteenth tee with the Atlantic beside you, nervous in the best possible way.