COURSE REVIEW

Ugly stepsister Pine Hills hits the target

MYRTLE BEACH, S.C. (April 25, 2005) - Excuse Pine Hills if it carries an Ugly Stepsister Complex. When you are the second course at Myrtlewood Golf Club, it is easy to feel like Cinderella locked away scrubbing the floors pre-Pumpkin Carriage.

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When most people talk about Myrtlewood, they talk about your sister, the Palmetto Course, after all. With its perch on the IntraCoastal Waterway, Palmetto gets all the notice and most of the tee time requests. Meanwhile, you are lying over there, a quick cart ride away, largely ignored.

And you?re the better of the two courses!

The indignity of it all. Of course Pine Hills? plight is in-the-know golfers? gain. Savvy Myrtle Beach golf connoisseurs like Wendell Hardee are more than happy to leave Palmetto?s jammed tees behind for Pine Hills? precise challenges. All it takes to defy convention is making a left at the Myrtlewood clubhouse instead of the traditional right to Palmetto?s first tee.

?I really do think this is an under-appreciated course,?? Hardee said. ?It?s more challenging than the Palmetto. It?s target golf. You don?t have a huge window. You?ve just got to get your ball in to those small targets.??

Ah, the benefits of the road less traveled?double bogeys, triple bogeys and quadruple bogeys. No one ever said better equaled easier. Pine Hills is going to challenge the sureness of your irons. If you don?t know where it?s going when you swing, it?s going to trouble here. There are none of the wide, generous landing areas found on many Grand Strand courses at Pine Hills.

This course is squeezed into a condo complex. Literally. What this closeness takes away in atmosphere it supplies in difficulty. There is simply not enough room to allow for many mistakes.

?It?s going to test your fundamentals,?? frequent player Tim Davis said. ?A 300-yard drive isn?t going to help you as much as well-placed second shots.?

That brought a laugh from Hardee. He?s seen many the fool smash their way to a 100 at Pine Hills.

?If you come out here and try to dominate this course, it?s going to bite you,?? Hardee said. ?If you don?t respect the course, you?ll be in triple digits.?

Pine Hills wastes little time in dispelling any illusions of grandeur. At 348 yards, No. 2 looks like a relatively simple par 4 on the scorecard. Then you step up to the tee and reality bites. There is a left to right slope off the tee which brings a huge bunker into play. Avoid that initial trap and two more bunkers still stand sentry over an elevated, small green.

And who knows where the flag will be on that green day to day.

Located in the heart of Myrtle Beach?s main traffic corridor, right off the Highway 17 bypass, the Myrtlewood Golf Club receives a ton of walkup business. These heavy, unpredictable crowds leads to the grounds crew making frequent pin placement changes, for both necessity and varieties? sake.

?You can be playing a different course every time you come out with all our pin placement changes,?? general manager Rich Schultz said. ?We get a lot of repeat business and we try to give our returnees different looks.?

To ensure those looks remain worth coming back for, Pine Hills puts in brand new greens last summer. The course went to Bermuda grass greens, which need less watering and hold up better under the stress of the crowds.

The changes are most noticeable on the 12, 13 and 14 hole stretch, a sequence Davis dubbed Pine Hills? ?little Amen Corner.? This is the part of Pine Hills where even the omnipresent condos seem to fade away. The 400-yard, par-4 12th appears to be relatively straight forward, until you get closer to the green. On this day, the pin is on a high slope with a large bunker ready to catch anything that rolls off.

If this is target golf, it makes you wish your nine-iron came with a hi-tech scope. Anything to make the playing field a little more equal.

The 13th looks like a bunker obstacle course with large sand craters resting short and long, left and right, all the way down the par 5?s 525 yards. The windows to land safely on this narrow fairway are few and far between, making decisions on your second and third shots crucial. Here is no time to be unsure how much club you have.

?It?s a course that?s going to test your nerve a little,?? said Brian Masterson, a golfer who escapes Buffalo once a year for Myrtle Beach. ?That?s what I like about it.??

Survive the bunker city test on 13 and you?re headed straight for a 411-yard, par-4 with nary a bunker in view. Not even a one. And you thought only Tums provided this kind of relief. Then, the pine tree comes into sight. It looks like something straight out of Scarlet O?Hara?s Gone With the Wind, ancient, towering and bold. Its branches droop over the left side of the fairway. It almost seems to be sneering, just waiting to swallow up a wayward shot.

?This course has some hidden beauties,?? Hardee said, appreciatively.

Not bad for the Ugly Stepsister. Now who do you really want to take to the ball?

The Verdict

If you are going to play one of the courses at Myrtlewood, Pine Hills is the better choice. It forces you to use more of the clubs in your bag. More importantly, it forces you to truly think about each shot. This is a course for someone who enjoys strategy decisions. You and your partners will have plenty to talk over and debate during this round.

The choices especially come into play if you shoot from the blue (back) tees. The course workers and regulars encourage serious golfers to try it from the blues. At least for a few holes. At 6,640 yards from the back tees, it?s not an overwhelming distance challenge. It?s more about the additional obstacles that come into play, setting up dilemma decision second shots.

There is no question this isn?t the most relaxing of rounds. It is largely impossible to forget you are playing through a condo complex and even on the less popular of Myrtlewood?s two courses, the tees often grow crowded. Consider what?s important to you in both strategy and atmosphere.

Places to eat

In a land of chain restaurants, pancake houses and fish shacks aplenty, SeaBlue and its executive chef Kelly Graham dare to do something different. SeaBlue ((843) 249-8800) is the only tapas restaurant in the Myrtle Beach. While the flurry of small dishes (rather than a few large ones) isn?t for everyone, it is definitely worth a try for even the slightly adventurous. For something with more Southern flavor, the Southern Market ((843) 497-4901) offers a wide choice of entrees that cost less than many of the nearby chain restaurants? selections.

Places to stay

You can see Myrtlewood Villas ((888) 297-6200) from the course and the complex would be good option for base camp even if it wasn?t in the backyard. The Villas offer more space than a traditional hotel room and many perks you cannot find in a hotel room. From your own in-room washer and dryer to couches that actually look like they belong in someone?s living room, Myrtlewood delivers. Just make sure to call ahead if you expect to arrive in town late the first night. The Villas rental office normally closes at 10 p.m.