COURSE REVIEW

Caledonia Golf & Fish Club: 'Gone with the Wind' in Myrtle Beach

By Tim McDonald,
National Golf Editor

PAWLEYS ISLAND, S.C. (April 9, 2007) — Of all the "plantation golf" in the Carolinas, Caledonia Golf and Fish Club may be the finest, at least among those clubs the non-aristocrats can get into.

Caledonia Golf and Fish Club photo gallery The perfect South Myrtle Beach golf itinerary True Blue Plantation a true love for Myrtle Beach golfers Reader offers his 10 best MB courses Read Tim McDonald's golf blog

A canopy of ancient live oaks envelops you as you make the drive up to the antebellum clubhouse and from there, it just gets better. The golf course is routed through some of the best terrain in the lowcountry — wild and beautiful — as befits a site where hunting and fishing has been going on virtually undisturbed for centuries.

Little bits of history are scattered around: the old fish shed, photos of long-ago sportsmen holding up their fresh catches, foundations and chimneys of plantation houses long gone, 200-year-old bricks brought over as ballast from England, now used in retaining walls and steps.

"To me, it's ‘Gone with the Wind' with golf," said John Springs, general manager of Caledonia and the nearby True Blue Plantation. "It's on a piece of property my family had when I was a young boy, and I grew up hunting and fishing there. I had, personally, one of the finest duck blinds around 100 yards from the clubhouse."

The land itself has been used since the 1700s, when a Scottish immigrant named Robert Nesbitt married Elizabeth Pawley, whose family originally founded Pawleys Island and after whom the island is named. He turned it into one of the largest plantations in the state, stretching from the Atlantic Ocean to the rice fields on the western borders of the Waccamaw River.

They still fish on the old plantation. Golf is the recent addition, starting when the club opened in 1994.

When you play this course, unfettered by house or condo, you can easily imagine you're back in the 1700s, with the stillness of the woods and marsh, fish jumping in the creeks and birds rattling in the trees.

Caledonia and its sister course, True Blue, are both stand-alone courses without ties to real estate and so they must rely on their customers for both word of mouth and repeat play.

Caledonia is full of small flourishes, like the beautiful landscaping, that make the course a pleasure to experience. The owners, a group of locals who love to hunt and fish though not necessarily golf, recognize that need.

"The owners are very close to the land," Springs said. "They've granted me the ability to spend the money to maintain it and throw in landscaping features. They all have affection for it and because of that they let me spend what some people might consider exorbitant amounts of money on landscaping.

"A lot of it is little things people don't notice, but taken all together, it's something everyone notices. Most people who play Caledonia come away sucking air. They don't talk about the golf."

Caledonia Golf and Fish Club: The verdict

That's not quite true because the golf course itself is one of the better ones on the Grand Strand, with an interesting mix of holes. Caledonia has some of the most interesting par 3s on the Strand, where you'll be using anything from a pitching wedge to a 3-wood.

And the closing hole is a treat, a par 4 where you'll be hitting your approach over a lake. The clubhouse sits behind the hole and you'll often have an audience cheering or jeering that approach.

Myrtle Beach hotels

Caledonia closed last summer for work on its greens. This year, according to officials, has been one of the busiest summers the course has experienced.

The Avista Resort is right on the beach and the Atlantic Ocean in North Myrtle Beach: if the ocean is too rough for you, you can be as slothful as you want in the resort's lazy river, which winds from the cool of inside to outside in the bright South Carolina sun.

The Comfort Suites on Frontage Road is a great place to stay at Myrtle Beach, particularly if you're on a fairly long trip here and need to get to a variety of courses. It's located at the intersection of the Highway 17 bypass and 501, so you can go north, south, east or west with relative ease, while bypassing the busy part of 17.

Dining out

The options are more endless than the golf courses, everything from fast food to fine dining.

For a treat, try Martinis in North Myrtle Beach. It's a piano bar that is said to get rowdy at night.

Try the filet mignon with shrimp, with the best sauce I've had on the Grand Strand. It's a local hangout that's been through a number of changes over the years and keeps coming back. I hope it stays the way it is.

Any opinions expressed above are those of the writer and do not necessarily represent the views of the management. The information in this story was accurate at the time of publication. All contact information, directions and prices should be confirmed directly with the golf course or resort before making reservations and/or travel plans.