The Myrtle Beach Golf Insider launched the New Year with a new monthly rankings system – to give its readers the most accurate reflection to date of fellow golfers’ opinions on current course conditions and recent trends in the Grand Strand golf market.
January 2013 marks the debut of the Golf Insider Hot List – a compilation of the site’s 25 highest-ranked courses as of the beginning of the month, based on each course’s most recent 30 reviews.
The Hot List marks a distinct departure from the former Golf Insider Top 25, which through 2012 had determined each course’s average monthly rank based on its total number of reviews since the site’s inception in 2009.
“While we’ve traditionally held a course’s total review history as a key measure to determine its monthly rank, we felt we needed to do even more to reflect a factor that’s especially important to today’s traveling golfer – that course’s current trend,” said Jim Maggio, Myrtle Beach Golf Insider editor.
As the first through 25th spots in the rankings are still only separated by tenths of a ratings point, total review history remains the first tiebreaker in determining each course’s placement in the new monthly Hot List, Maggio explained.
With the release of the January 2013 Hot List, the Resort Club at Grande Dunes becomes the rankings’ debut leader – followed closely in the top 5 by Caledonia Golf & Fish Club, the Love Course at Barefoot Resort, True Blue Plantation and King’s North at Myrtle Beach National.
Golfers are asked to use a 10-point scale to assess their experience in six categories: pro shop, grill, staff, fairways, tees and greens. The total number of reviews for each course is used as a tiebreaker.
The Golf Insider Hot List represents a broad consensus of opinion based on recent golfer reviews. More than 18,000 independent reviews have been recorded in the site’s history, according to Maggio.
The January 2013 Hot List includes:
| Rank | Course | Score | Total Reviews |
| 1. | Grande Dunes-Resort Club | 9.2 | 280 |
| 2. | Caledonia | 9.1 | 395 |
| 3. | Barefoot-Love | 9.0 | 92 |
| 4. | True Blue Plantation | 8.9 | 260 |
| 5. | King’s North at Myrtle Beach National | 8.8 | 817 |
| 6. | Pawleys Plantation | 8.8 | 567 |
| 7. | Heather Glen | 8.8 | 146 |
| 8. | Barefoot-Fazio | 8.8 | 77 |
| 9. | River Club | 8.7 | 794 |
| 10. | Arrowhead | 8.7 | 334 |
| 11. | Willbrook Plantation | 8.6 | 813 |
| 12. | Tradition Club | 8.6 | 658 |
| 13. | Pine Lakes | 8.6 | 311 |
| 14. | Man O’ War | 8.6 | 235 |
| 15. | Dunes Golf & Beach Club | 8.6 | 195 |
| 16. | Myrtlewood-Pinehills | 8.6 | 181 |
| 17. | Thistle Golf Club | 8.6 | 174 |
| 18. | Legends-Moorland | 8.6 | 162 |
| 19. | Tiger’s Eye | 8.6 | 109 |
| 20. | Wild Wing Avocet | 8.5 | 477 |
| 21. | Oyster Bay | 8.5 | 174 |
| 22. | TPC of Myrtle Beach | 8.4 | 569 |
| 23. | SouthCreek at Myrtle Beach National | 8.4 | 338 |
| 24. | Myrtlewood-Palmetto | 8.4 | 279 |
| 25. | Witch | 8.4 | 264 |
The Golf Insider “Back 9” reveals the nine lowest-ranked courses for the month, based on the same criteria:
| Heron Point | 5.0 | 43 |
| Sea Trail – Jones | 6.3 | 25 |
| Sea Trail – Byrd | 6.6 | 22 |
| Azalea Sands | 6.6 | 82 |
| Sea Trail – Maples | 6.7 | 26 |
| River Oaks Golf Plantation | 6.8 | 107 |
| Eagle Nest | 6.9 | 96 |
| Pearl East | 6.9 | 97 |
| Indigo Creek | 6.9 | 100 |
To register to receive the rankings or leave a course review, visit MBGolfInsider.com.
