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Then there's Camp B, whose members say Nicklaus can be downright penal in his designs, building holes that essentially can only be played by, well, the Golden Bear himself.
On a recent visit to Long Bay Club, Nicklaus' signature design in North Myrtle Beach, both camps were represented.
"Nicklaus," my playing partner said, "he just really doesn't give you a chance out here."
My partner was having a tough round, and so was I. The difference was that the golf course's difficulty didn't come as an effrontery to me. There are enough Myrtle Beach golf courses that seem like cookie-cutter layouts meant to placate the high-handicapper that when a general challenge comes along, like Long Bay, people sound the fairness alarm.
"This course isn't fair," my partner said on several occasions at Long Bay.
But in Long Bay you have the two conflicting characteristics of a Nicklaus design on full display. Some holes are very difficult and can really punish mistakes. Others are near brilliant, both aesthetically and for the way they make you think before you hit.
Anyway you look at it, the challenge is here at Long Bay - though it's the kind of challenge that even weekend warriors should welcome once in a while.
"As you work your way along Myrtle Beach's Grand Strand, you're going to want to play at least one track capable of giving you a swift kick in the seat," Brandon Tucker wrote in a Long Bay review at WorldGolf.com. "Welcome to Jack's sandbox."
A sandbox it is: Many holes boast massive, sandy waste areas that can act like your worst nightmare if your at all not confident with your sandwedge. The course's signature hole, the 352-yard, par- 10th, has a waste area curling around the fairway like an upside down tuning fork.
On my visit, which followed a night of torrential rain, the waste areas and sand traps were penal, because the sand was hard and wet. But it's easy to see beyond that to normal conditions where these hazards, though still challenging, can be tamed with careful recovery shots. One need not lose four strokes every time one enters them.
The design element that really shines through at Long Bay is not all the sand, but all the mounding. Nicklaus moved a lot of earth when he built Long Bay in 1986, and there are few holes - to be more specific, fairways - that don't boast a significant amount of swales and hillocks. Some, like the par-5 11th, look like mogul runs at your favorite ski mountain.
So, yes, the ball struggles at times to find safety and a flat, grassy lie. But those lies are out there.
No. 1, a 408-yard par-4, is a relatively straight hole with a bailout fairway and a runable approach to a green guarded by three bunkers. The 419-yard par-4 is a slight dogleg left along a relatively flat fairway guarded on both sides by long waste bunkers. The green here is also open.
Many greens at Long Bay are. And there lies the ultimate lesson, one easily captured after a round here: Take care with your approaches. Getting up and down can be tricky around the greens, so regular players here know not to miss their approaches on the short side.
Long Bay Club: The verdict
Long Bay Club is one of the best, most challenging rounds of golf you can hope to have during a Myrtle Beach golf vacation.
That's a good thing. The care put in here in the course's conditioning and layout sets it apart from the pack, and thus it should easily find a place in even the most conservative itinerary.
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It won't be an easy round. Still, many people rush to judgment concluding that Long Bay is too penal. There are plenty of ways to bailout from difficult shots, there's not that much woodlands and water guarding the holes, and likely the worse you'll encounter is a long recovery from a waste bunker.
Greens are in excellent shape, and generally run true.
Long Bay can play to a long 7,025 yards from the tips, but if your playing the middle backs or the white tees, the yardage is more manageable (6,593 and 6,209, respectively).
The course opened in 1988 and remains a popular yearround play.
November 7, 2007
Dunes Golf & Beach Club