Story by Ian Guerin
The average golfer, according to a recent study, plays somewhere in the neighborhood of 46 rounds a year.
But for most, playing roughly once a week isn’t feasible. Jobs, family commitments, weather and health all factor in. The casual player, however, is closer to one round every five-six weeks. That works out to about eight rounds a year, give or take, and leaves less room for error when deciding where to play.
We’re going to cut to the chase for you.
In 2018, these are eight Myrtle Beach-area courses that should be on your must-play list. Each brings something different to the table, and all of them will be worth the greens and cart fees – whether its during your golf vacation here or for a short-notice afternoon round.
In the latter part of 2017, Pine Lakes started to look a bit like its old self.Going back to much of its first eight decades, the staff donned kilts, knickers and bow ties again as part of a push to let its history speak for itself. The first course in Myrtle Beach, after all, originally opened for business in 1927, and it is proud to let everyone who cares to listen know about its roots. The course also serves as the home to the Myrtle Beach Golf Hall of Fame, paying homage to the men and women who turned the Grand Strand into “Golf Capital, U.S.A.”
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The last area course to play host to a major PGA event (the Senior Tour Championship in 2000) has found a youthful push in the form of Dustin Johnson. The 2017 PGA No. 1 player in the world calls this course his home after frequently competing here during his college days at nearby Coastal Carolina University and later parked his golf school on the property. His third annual Dustin Johnson World Junior Championship will be taking place in February of 2018. What’s more, TPC is also one of a handful of local options offering Golf Boards during its rounds, further linking its top-level Tom Fazio design and a forward-thinking style of the game.
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Myrtle Beach’s second golf course will be celebrating its 70th anniversary in 2018 (albeit rather quietly as it ramps up for the 75th anniversary in 2023), and it is every bit as spectacular now as it has ever bin. The most regulated club around has ultra-selective tee sheets, giving visitors a true PGA feel while providing some of the more scenic and challenging holes along South Carolina’s Grand Strand. A stroll through its famed Alligator Alley – Nos. 11, 12 and 13 – lives up to even the stiffest of hype.
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Not even a year ago, Prestwick was one of just a small number of area courses to claim two holes in the Perfect Round series, a partnered project between Myrtle Beach Golf Trips and the South Carolina Golf Course Ratings Panel to find the top 18 holes in the area. And now one of those holes, No. 9, is even better. A recent refurbishment returned the mega bunker and mounding off the green to its original dimensions. The Pete/P.B. Dye design is now as scary as ever, but it also pops that much more visually as players are wrapping up the first half of their rounds. |
The Tom Jackson signature design is mixed bag of holes, with water, sand, trees, doglegs and more all needing to be navigated throughout. What makes River Club so special is that diversity to the game. It starts on the shorter par 4 at No. 1 – where a small fairway is squeezed by trees and feed into a separated green – and continues right up through No. 18, the crescent-shaped, par-5 monster where a specially placed tee shot has the lucky few going after the green on two. Just make sure you take some extra time choosing which club you’re snagging from the bag.
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WILLBROOK PLANTATION
Willbrook will be partying like its 1988 – the year it opened – in 2018, with a number of specials on the docket. The history of the course, though, allows this one to feel much, much older. The property itself has its land records traced back three full centuries, from its time as a working plantation. And it has paid homage to the past time and again. Meanwhile, the Lowcountry course is full of the live oaks and hanging Spanish moss – something that has never really changed in all of that time. |
GLEN DORNOCH WATERWAY GOLF LINKS
One of the area’s courses closest to the North Carolina border, Glen Dornoch makes the most of that semi-seclusion away from the heart of Myrtle Beach. It eases you into the round with some relatively easier holes; however, that doesn’t mean you should let your guard – or camera – stay down. Three-and-a-half holes run either parallel or perpendicular to the Intracoastal Waterway, and it doesn’t take a top-level golf architect to know those are going be truly special portions of the course.
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BAREFOOT RESORT & GOLF DYE CLUB
In April of 2018, the Dye Club will host Hootie and the Blowfish’s annual Monday After the Masters Celebrity Pro-Am, and it will be another star-studded event wrapped around three days of golf and parties. But while getting on the course during that time is nearly impossible, there are 51 other weeks in the year to get out to the Pete Dye masterpiece. Native grasses and extreme bunkering are the name of the game, and they add a specialized aspect to the game seen nowhere else in and around Myrtle Beach.
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