A Myrtle Beach golf trip is the game’s most popular and the destination has the accolades to validate the claim. Readers of Golf.com and USA Today/10Best have voted Myrtle Beach golf’s best travel spot and any ranking of the best courses in South Carolina is always heavy on Grand Strand layouts. Despite all the acclaim, there are Myrtle Beach courses that don’t get the love their pedigree would suggest they should. With that in mind, here are Myrtle Beach’s top 5 “Where is the Love” layouts and all of them are designed by major winners.
— Jack Nicklaus, golf’s greatest champion, designed a pair of Myrtle Beach golf courses, and Long Bay, despite its quality, doesn’t receive near the attention it deserves. Sure, it’s a tough track but the short par 4 10th, the island green 13th, and the dogleg right 18th are among the area’s most memorable holes. Long Bay is an upper tier Myrtle Beach golf course.
— Barefoot Resort is the area’s only four-course facility and the Love, Dye and Fazio layouts have all earned top 100 plaudits at some point, which leaves Greg Norman’s design as the “other” layout. Is it No. 4 in the Barefoot rotation? Yes, but that doesn’t make it a run-of-the-mill experience. The holes along the Intracoastal are beautiful and the course is playable.
— Wild Wing was once one of Myrtle Beach’s most prominent facilities but when the Woodstork, Hummingbird and Falcon courses closed in 2005, the property fell off many radars. But the Avocet course, designed by former PGA Championship winner Larry Nelson, remains and it’s a layout deserving of more love than it receives. The short par 4, 14th hole is reason enough to play Avocet.
— Rivers Edge is located in Shallotte, N.C., the northern edge of the Grand Strand, and it requires a drive that can take up to an hour, but the Arnold Palmer design is worth the time. When Rivers Edge, which features seven holes that play along the Shallotte River, is in peak condition, it’s one of the area’s most memorable rounds.
— On a list of golf legends who don’t receive the attention their accomplishments merit, Gary Player, winner of nine majors, is at the top of the list. The same can be said of Blackmoor, Player’s only Myrtle Beach golf course. Blackmoor isn’t a top 100 design, but located just miles from TPC Myrtle Beach, it delivers a quality round of golf.
Which golf courses top your list of layouts deserving of a little more love?
