FEATURE STORY

Living large? Stick with these Myrtle Beach golf resorts for big groups

By Tim McDonald,
National Golf Editor

MYRTLE BEACH, S.C., Feb. 06, 2006 - The Grand Strand is a big place with more than 100 golf courses, and golfers from all over the world flock to it. They come in all sizes, some in large groups, some in small.

Few things do more damage to a golfing holiday than taking a large group to a resort only to find it doesn't have room for everyone, or that its course is too easy for the best golfers in the bunch or too hard for the high-handicap crowd. Then there's the problem of squeezing everyone in on the driving range and practice areas and in the restaurants.

Whatever you might look for in a golf resort on your own, some are better suited to handle large groups that others. Here are some of the best on the Strand:

• Featured Myrtle Beach golf courses • Grand Strand course closures getting scary • The Myrtle Beach Top 10 • Yes, Myrtle Beach is backwards. Embrace it!

• Wild Wing Plantation has four courses: Avocet, Hummingbird, Wood Stork and Falcon. Most golfers in your group will find something to their liking.

Avocet, the third course to open at Wild Wing, has become the resort's most popular due to its thought-provoking shots and player-friendly wide fairways and big greens. Falcon has extensive mounding, giving golfers a sense of privacy, and is known for the huge, 515-yard bunker separating the 12th and 13th holes. Both nines play around lakes or more than 25 acres. Falcon is also known for its green complexes. It's a bit to bite off from the back tees with its slope rating of 134.

"The 18 green complexes on the Falcon may well be the best I have ever designed," architect Rees Jones said of the course.

The Willard Byrd-designed Wood Stork was the first to open at Wild Wing, in 1991. It's a parkland-style course with only two forced carries, and most of the water hazards are lateral. It has a reasonable slope of 130 from way back and 123 and 121 from the middle tees.

•Hummingbird should be played only by low handicappers. It's the toughest of Wild Wing's four courses, and the cheapest. "The course requires surgical precision on tee and approach shots and, generally speaking, more hard thinking than a Mensa meeting," TravelGolf.com wrote in a 2003 review.

Wild Wing has a state-of-the-art practice area, including a 50,000-square-foot putting green, and a 30-acre practice range. Wild Wing rentals feature two-bedroom, two-bath villas with large living rooms, full kitchens, washer/dryer and an outdoor pool. For dining, Wishbones restaurant is known as one of the better clubhouse restaurants in the Myrtle Beach area, and the Players Club opens seven days a week for lighter fare.

• The Legends has three 18-hole courses, Heathland, Moorland and Parkland. Heathland was designed by Tom Doak and modeled on British links courses. It's 6,785 yards with a slope of 127 from the back. The wind and the deep rough that closely borders the fairways are the toughest challenges here.

Moorland is the most controversial of the Legends courses; though it has garnered national awards, it has also been derided as tricked-up. It's a P.B. Dye design that throws deep bunkers, multi-level fairways and greens, and bulkheads at golfers.

"Standing on the greens of this golf course, you feel like an ant stuck on a Ruffles potato chip," according to one TravelGolf.com analysis. "Gazing out on its ridiculously undulating, meandering, perplexing fairways, you can't help but [feel] hate, anger and the overwhelming desire to go rip your $100 right back out of the cash register."

Parkland has a slope of 137 from the tips. It's 7,170 yards, and has massive, multi-level greens, deep-faced bunkers and vast natural areas.

The Legends' accommodations include its Scottish Village and Gleneagles condos, with two- and three-bedroom, two-bath villas or condos with full kitchens.

For eating and drinking there's the Ailsa Pub, with wide-screen TVs and adjacent pool, hot tub and putting green. The Legends also has a lighted, 30-acre practice facility that's been ranked one of the top 50 in the United States. The resort has meeting space to accommodate up to 80 people, and plans are in the works for a new conference center, sports bar and health club.

• Barefoot Resort and Golf has four courses designed by Greg Norman, Davis Love III, Tom Fazio and Pete Dye. The Love and Fazio courses are generally regarded as the best of the four, and both made Golf Digest's list of the top 100 courses for 2005-2006.

The Norman course has seven holes that play along the Intracoastal Waterway, with a 136 slope from the back and 130 from the black tees. The Love course, though it has slope ratings of 138 and 133 from the two deepest tees, has wide-open fairways and landing areas.

The Fazio course is only slightly more difficult, a low-country course with a lot of trees and lakes. Though it has water on 15 holes, much of it is out of play. The Dye course has a whopping slope of 149 from its tournament tees, 132 from the championship and 124 from the member tees.

Barefoot has a 30-acre practice facility due to open in the spring of 2006, along with a teaching school, a sports bar, and a deli and pizza restaurant. Both the Dye and Barefoot clubhouses have eateries.

• Sea Trail Plantation has three courses, the Dan Maples being the easiest. "I would say it's more forgiving than the [Willard] Byrd," said Golf Director Eddie Pratt. "It's a traditional style golf course with a resort/tourist atmosphere."

Your average tourist doesn't want to get beat up by a golf course, and the Maples withholds the low blows. At 6,751 yards and with a respectable slope rating of 135 from the blue tees, the course isn't overly long, and it offers a combination of fairly easy holes balanced by moderately tough ones, especially the longer par-4s. Women request the course often: The ladies tees, one of four sets, are 5,090 yards.

The Byrd course is a bit of a hybrid. "I'd say you're looking at a parkland-style golf course with a little target golf," Pratt said. "You hate to tell people to keep it in the fairway - that's pretty much true everywhere - but it's really true here. If you're playing from the member tees and your short-iron game is good, play to the 150-marker and you'll play all day."

The Rees Jones course is the longest of the plantation's three courses, and is generally reckoned the hardest. It's 6,761 yards from the back tees and easily played from back there. With a slope of 132 from the tips, mid-handicappers can brag about playing the back tees like the pros without being knocked around.

Located on North Carolina's southernmost coast, Sea Trail has one-, two-, three- and four-bedroom accommodations as well as mini-suites and luxury suites from $72 to $386 a night. Most of the golf villas are on the fairways of the courses, within walking distance of the Byrd/Jones clubhouse and the Magnolia Restaurant. The villas have full kitchens and the plantation has tennis, swimming and fitness centers. It's a terrific place to stay for playing the resort's three courses and others at the Grand Strand's northern end.

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.