Beachwood Golf Club: Meat and Potatoes of North Myrtle Beach

NORTH MYRTLE BEACH, S.C. - It ain't fancy, but it's good. That is not the official slogan for the Beachwood Golf Club in North Myrtle Beach, but it very well could be.

What you get at Beachwood is meat and potatoes, when the soup de jure on the Grand Strand of late has been caviar and escargot. The meat is the traditionally designed layout, the Bermuda grass greens, and the mature conditions. The potatoes are the courteous, yet not overbearing customer service and the ample, yet never ornate clubhouse.

"Our reputation on the beach has always been to be as accommodating to customers as we can be," says long-time pro shop assistant Don D'Avanzo. "We host as many events as any course on the Grand Strand, and we are proud of that fact."

Proud indeed. D'Avanzo has been a fixture in the Beachwood Clubhouse for over eleven years, and even played the course right after it opened back in 1968. Most folks that are familiar with Beachwood are familiar with this knowledgeable assistant - D'Avanzo the poet and Beachwood his muse.

When acclaimed South Carolina course architect Gene Hamm put the finishing touches on his layout at Beachwood, and the ribbon was cut back in 1968, D'Avanzo recalls a time when the opening of a new course was a huge event.

"Myrtle Beach was not nearly as crowded back then, and there was not nearly as many golf courses around," recalls D'Avanzo. "There were probably less than 25 courses along the entire Grand Strand, but I was just a tourist back then. Now I am a local."

From the opening bell in 1968, to the dawn of the new millennium, the featured hole at Beachwood has always been the par-3, eighteenth. One of the most challenging and picturesque on the entire course, the eighteenth plays to 199-yards from the white tees, and 239-yards from the tips.

Just how difficult is the hole? For reference, it is the No. 6 handicap hole on the course, and seldom does even the most daunting of par-3's play any harder than a No. 10 - due mainly to the inherent bias towards par-3's in handicapping systems.

The eighteenth, however, elicits as many remarks about its beauty as it does its difficulty. The tee shot plays over a pond with a fountain in the middle, and for most of the day the hole plays into the wind coming off the beach.

While the green is not particularly large or small, just reaching the dance floor is the challenge presented to the average golfer. The ability to hit a long iron, or a short wood 200-240 yards and land a ball on a target that slopes gently from back to front is something that is latent - if not remote - for most of us.

Perhaps one of the most distinguishing attributes of Beachwood is its deference towards the ladies. For years the course has been recognized as one of the most "lady-friendly" venues on the strand.

"This course is very player friendly for ladies," says D'Avanzo. "The tee boxes give the ladies a substantial break. The course is flat and open so they can see up to the green on almost every tee shot."

As for the men, the course is as playable as any of the other older courses in Myrtle Beach. The theme, being of course, wide-open flat fairways, minimal fairway bunkers, smaller greens and a lack of fabricated green complexes.

Beachwood plays 6347 yards from the white tees and 6825 from the racks, and if you can keep the ball in play on this Hamm classic, than you can score. It's that simple. Water exists on a number of holes, but can really only claim to be in play on the fourth and eighteenth holes.

So just how does Beachwood differ from the many new courses opening throughout the Grand Strand? According to D'Avanzo, the real difference is in the layout and the greens.

Unlike many new courses, but similar to many southern courses, Beachwood uses Bermuda grass on its greens. While the greens may not be able to keep pace with the newly refurbished bentgrass dance floors at the Surf Club, they do stack up with any other Bermuda grass greens on the strand.

In terms of comparison, D'Avanzo adds that Beachwood compares more easily to the Sea Gull than to the Surf Club, primarily because of the greens and the surrounding vegetation.