COURSE REVIEW

Willbrook Plantation: Twenty minutes and a world away from Myrtle Beach

By Tim McDonald,
Contributor

MYRTLE BEACH, S.C. (Jan. 31, 2006) - If you're planning a golf trip to the Myrtle Beach area and want to match scenery with a little history - leaving the harder courses for later - you couldn't do much better than the Willbrook Plantation.

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The plantation course is in Litchfield, a 20-minute, tree-lined drive south of the T-shirt-shop lined Myrtle Beach, and a world and culture away, even though it's right off Highway 17. You turn into a sedate, upper-middle class neighborhood, and way in the back, past a couple of other golf courses, sits the plantation.

The traffic noise dies and you're apt to see fish hawks nesting in old woodpecker holes, great horned owls and even Carolina chickadees. The course is overflowing with small tidal ponds, lakes and meandering creeks, with wood bridges taking you from dry spot to dry spot.

"You'd never know you're in Myrtle Beach, would you? said golf instructor Mike Dreyer, playing the course in late Octobter.

No, you wouldn't. It's a beautiful setting, set in the marshy Waccamaw River basin, among giant, spreading oaks, pampass grass and the marsh, with a few weeping willows tossed in. The course does wind through the houses of the neighborhood, but many holes are isolated and have an almost wild feel. Thick, marsh vegetation comes into play often, both when you're playing and when you're just fooling around, enjoying Carolina in the fall.

Remnants from the old plantation days are still around. A plaque points out where the old slave quarters used to be, near the fourth green, where 149 slaves lived, worked the old rice plantation and left the golf to later generations. The remains of the original plantation itself can be found under some dignified, shady old oaks close to the No. 5 fairway where excavations have brought up artifacts from the 18th century.

The course itself isn't as challenging as some others along the Grand Strand, but the Dan Maples design is beautifully laid-out. With a respectable slope rating of 133 from the back tees, it will give you all you can handle from way back yonder.

No. 15 is a 572-yard par 5 from the tips, the No. 1 handicap mainly because of the ditch that juts across the fairway. A decent drive will leave you 180-190 yards to carry; many players lay up here, and those who get brutish and miss are punished. It's an elevated green with big bunkers guarding both sides.

Or the closing hole, another par 5, playing at 535 yards, with a fairway that bends to the right. It's deceptive, though; you have to stay left to avoid a line of oaks along the right side of the fairway, which narrows as you get closer to the hole, squeezed by the trees. It also drops off to water left.

The verdict

The Wilbrook Plantation is one of the most scenic courses along the entire Grand Strand, and the course is a ton of fun to play. Women especially enjoy it.

"I think women enjoy it primarily because of the approaches," Dreyer said. "The greens are open and you don't have to loft the ball."

The only drawback is the relatively slow, Bermuda greens. They were bumpy in October as a result of overseeding, and the fairways had some brown patches.

"I love the layout," said Bob Osbourne of Texas. "I'm a little disappointed in the conditioning. I come down here and expect pristine conditions. I guess I've got to understand it's Bermuda. But it sure is a gorgeous setting."

Pace of play can also be a problem. During peak seasons, they double-tee, which can cause logjams and five-hour rounds.

Stay and play

River Oaks Golf Plantation, just to the west of the Intracoastal Waterway, is a good, centrally located place for golfers to stay. It's easy to go north or south via Highway 17 and it's close to Broadway at the Beach and the Atlantic Ocean.

They have one-, two- and three-bedroom villas, many of them overlooking the fairways of the 27-hole golf course on the property. It's also within walking distance of both Fantasy Harbour and the Waccamaw Pottery shopping complex. There are also indoor and outdoor swimming pools, tennis and walking trails.

Dining out

Myrtle Beach has more than 1,600 restaurants and they aren't all fried fast food. In fact, the area has some nice eateries: Jimmy Buffett's Margaritaville, Frank's Restaurant and Bar on Pawleys Island, Bella Napoli, Islamorada Fish Company, just to name a few. The buffet at Sea Trail Plantation is said to be excellent.

Fast fact

TravelGolf.com named Willbrook Plantation one of the best "marsh" courses along the Grand Strand.