Myrtle Beach’s best golf courses provide many memorable challenges, but if you are teeing it up on one of the area’s bucket list layouts, which holes should you fear?
Below is a list of Myrtle Beach’s 10 best courses, as ranked by area PGA Professionals, and the hardest hole on each course:
Dunes Golf & Beach Club – This Robert Trent Jones Sr. classic has a couple candidates but we aren’t going with the obvious one – No. 13 (pictured right). The vote here is for the 390-yard third hole. This par 4 is uphill and plays to a large, anxiety-inducing green. Par is a great score.
Caledonia Golf & Fish Club – On a layout with a player-friendly reputation, the 13th hole, a 90-degree dogleg left with a green almost entirely surrounded by sand, is where dream rounds go to die. A deep bunker and smallish green can spell big trouble.
Tidewater – The fourth hole, a 400-yard par 4, might be the area’s best two-shotter, but it’s tough. The gentle dogleg left plays along Cherry Grove, providing a stunning backdrop, but the water combined with OB on the right create a tight drive. The green, which runs from back to front, is defended by three cavernous bunkers, making the approach from a downhill lie particularly daunting.
Grande Dunes Resort Club – The par 5, 506-yard fourth hole features water up the entire right side, leaving little room for recovery. On a beautiful course, your scorecard could turn ugly here.
Prestwick Country Club – The USGA may tell you differently, but the hardest hole at Prestwick is the 499-yard, 17th (top photo). The par 5 has a tight fairway and water runs the entire left side before cutting in front of the green. Architect PB Dye didn’t provide an “easy” shot on the layout’s penultimate hole.
TPC Myrtle Beach – At 445 yards, the straightway ninth hole (pictured right) isn’t complicated. The par 4 is long and challenges golfers to hit an elevated green with deep run-off areas on both sides. For the average player, bogey is a really good score.
True Blue Golf Club – The 395-yard 17th hole is open off the tee and players that find the left-center of the fairway enjoy a friendlier approach. Please note, friendlier doesn’t equate to easy because everyone has to deal with water that fronts much of the green.
Barefoot Fazio – The 441-yard, par 4 fifth hole might be the toughest two-shooter along the Myrtle Beach golf scene. It’s very long and the approach is uphill. Try to make bogey and run to the next tee!
Barefoot Dye Course – Being the hardest hole on a Pete Dye design is quite an honor and it’s a distinction the 337-yard seventh hole has earned. It’s short but the tee shot is treacherous. Good luck if you end up in the waste bunker on the right side.
King’s North at Myrtle Beach National – The Gambler is one of the area’s iconic challenges and the toughest test at King’s North. Forget the alternate island fairway, this is a tough driving hole when played conventionally, and the approach to green fronted by water is daunting.
Survive these holes and you could be on your way to an outstanding round of golf on one of Myrtle Beach’s best courses.