 GOLF COURSE REVIEW
True Blue: New Greens, New Look, and Still One of the Grand Strand's BestBy Shane Sharp, PAWLEYS ISLAND, S.C. - Pardon True Blue if its developed a bit of an inferiority complex over the past four years. This Mike Strantz designed golf course in Myrtle Beach's southern end is one of the most memorable, challenging, and aesthetically amazing golf courses the Grand Strand has to offer. Despite boatloads of accolades from golf writers and critics, however, the course has undergone more makeovers than Madonna since opening its doors in 1998.
Strantz was coming off his ridiculously successful design job at the Caledonia Golf and Fish Club, and with one money maker under his belt, the former Tom Fazio associate was ready to flash some of his true colors. True Blue was to be all that Caledonia wasn't. Caledonia was short, outwardly beautiful, inwardly friendly, and did everything but beg golfers to have the best rounds of their lives. True Blue, on the other hand, was "Poison Ivy" from Batman and Robin - seductively gorgeous, and intrinsically evil.
Funny thing happened. Average golfers, most of which shoot somewhere between 95 and 155 depending on whom you believe, began to opt for the realism of Caledonia. Why pay $150 to get beat up and deceived, they figured?
The 361-yard hole is a sharp dogleg right that used to feature a beautiful waste area to the right side of the fairway. Now, the waste area is filled in with dirt and players can simply line up their tee shots with the new mounding, and cut the hole in half with a good drive. "This course was and is Caledonia on steroids," says head pro Danny Gore, a former Caledonia assistant pro. "Players will play over there, and then come over here in the afternoon and say they are never coming back because it is too difficult. We think we have improved the golf course for the mid to high handicapper. Frankly, if this course were private, it would have been fine just the way it is. But in our business, repeat play is too important."
Before reopening in October of 2000, True Blue made yet another bold change that had players talking from Georgetown to Wilmington. Bentgrass greens are harder to maintain in the south than sobriety at a college football tailgating party, so Gore and his superintendent opted for a new, resilient strand of Bermuda grass known as Tif Eagle.
True Blue had some trouble with a few of its new greens during the summer, but as of this writing, there may not be better Bermuda greens in the entire state. From a distance, the putting surfaces look like the outfield grass at Pac Bell Stadium, replete with a variety of mowing patterns and hues of green. The course is home to an excellent mix of par 3's, 4's and 5's, and Strantz's routing continually keeps players guessing as to what is coming next. For example, there are three par 5's on the front nine, including two out of the first four holes. The front nine ends with a wonderful 507-yard three shotter, and the back nine begins with, you guess it, another three-shotter. The 586-yard tenth may be the best hole on the golf course. The tee shot from the tips is from high above the fairway, the second shot is over a series of finger-like bunkers, and the approach shot is to a green guarded along the entire right side by sand. Eighteen is a wonderful finishing hole that requires a huge drive from the tips, or a long iron off the tee from the white tees. The approach shot is to a green that juts out into the creek that runs along the left side of the fairway. But the fun part is the gallery: typically, hordes of people will be sipping drinks out on the patio, waiting to applaud those shots that find the green. True Blue Course Capsule Designer: Mike Strantz |
True Blue came out of the shoot as one of the bad boys of Myrtle Beach golf. Brash, bold and unwilling to adhere to many of the traditional tenants of golf course design, True Blue was immediately dubbed "Golf's Heaven and Hell." 
When repeat play at True Blue declined beyond an acceptable level, Strantz was brought in by the course's owners to "dumb down" some of the tougher holes. Easily the most photographed hole on the course, the par-4 eighth was also one of the most visually intimidating holes before the revamping. 
In addition to the changes on the eighth hole, a good bit of mounding was removed from a number of greens, and a series of bunkers were partially filled and overseeded with fairway grass. In the end, the course went from decidedly difficult to flat-out player friendly when taken from the white tees 
"We would go through summers and the greens would not come out," says Gore. "All we have had are good comments on the new greens. Players who have played here before actually are saying that they like the new greens better than the old ones. Tif Eagle can roll as true as bent, but it can stand up to anything." 
Address: 900 Blue Stem Drive, Pawleys Island, SC 29585
Waterway Hills