MYRTLE BEACH FEATURES

Links Land in the Grand Strand: Myrtle Beach's Best Links Style Courses Await

By Shane Sharp,
Contributing Writer

MYRTLE BEACH, S.C. (July 22, 2002) - Admit it. Watching the British Open at Muirfield has you chomping at the bit to get out and test your game at a Scottish links style course. You pine for the bump-and-run. You relish the opportunity to save double bogey from a ten-foot deep pot bunker. You long to feel the razor blade edges of fescue grass against your bare calves. You yearn to knock down a 5-iron under a 30-mile per hour head wind.

• Myrtle Beach Course Guide • North Myrtle Beach Overview

So what are you waiting for? Dawn your kilt, grab your bagpipes, and drain that last bit of single malt Scotch. You've got a plane to catch ... to the beach.

You'll need more sweat towels than golf sweaters this time of year in Myrtle Beach, but you can find a good sampling of courses strewn across the Grand Strand that will scratch the itch for links style play. The degree to which the courses honor true Scottish design characteristics ranges from "dead ringer" to "loose interpretation." But isn't some semblance of the Old Course or Muirfield better than the dregs of yet another 18 holes of target golf in the swamps?

Prestwick Country Club

Prestwick Country Club is not only one of the best links style courses in the Grand Strand, its one of the best golf courses, period. P.B and Pete Dye designed the course, so you know you'll get your fair share of dune-like berms, bulk headed green complexes and timber-lined bunkers with steps.

Prestwick has its fair share of water (unavoidable for those courses that hope to stay green), but the layout oozes Scotland with its pot bunkers and large, rolling greens. The par 5, 515-yard 17th hole is rated as one of the 18 most difficult in the entire Grand Strand.

Heathland

Tom Doak is part golf course architect, part golf historian. The Heathland Course at the Legends Resort is reflective of Doak's fusion. It is playable enough that even high handicappers enjoy the course, but it pays enough homage to Scotland to provide a true links style experience. The layout contains nary a tree, and the winds that kick up in the spring and fall invite golfers to (at least attempt) play low iron shots. Doak has provided a good collection of pot bunkers and heather grasses, fairway mounding has been kept to a minimum, and landing areas are as generous as landing strips.

Heather Glen

The Glens Group of Myrtle Beach is unabashedly after a Scottish flavor with their collection of "Glen" courses. Heather Glen - a 400 acre fusion of Live Oaks, pot bunkers and behemoth greens -- is the linksiest of the lot. Grand Strand architectural staples Willard Byrd and Clyde Johnston designed the course, and the duo actually retained a number of natural streams and brooks (burns, for you Scottish golf fans). Heather Glen is also home to one of the Beach's most diabolical bunkers, the "Devil's Mistress."

Glen Dornoch

Five words that make the average golfer cringe: Glen Dornoch Waterway Golf Links . Carved through a cow pasture, this Clyde Johnston designed links course is not. The setting is marshland and Intracoastal Waterway, and the final three holes are considered one of the most hair-raising stretches of golf in the Grand Strand. Glen Dornoch is a tribute course - a nod to legendary course designer Donald Ross who was born in Dornoch, Scotland. Pot bunkers abound, but so do forced carries over reed-choked marshlands. Glen Dornoch is not quite as linksy as its sister course, Heather Glen, but the Low Country meets High Country feel of the course is one of the most unique golfing experiences at the Beach.

Moorland

Some golfers love it and some hate it. But the Moorland Golf Course at Legends Resort is as mystifying a links style course as you'll find in the southeastern U.S... P.B. Dye designed the course, and some might say he did so while under the influence of a good spot of Scotch Whiskey. Dream up almost anything you would never expect to find on a golf course - multi-tier fairways, pot bunkers you have to hit backwards out of to clear the edges, three and four tiered greens the size of airplane hangers - you will find it at Moorland.

Other "Linksy" Courses

The Thistle Golf Club offers up 27 holes of wide-open, links inspired golf, devoid of some of the true trappings of Scottish layouts. Missing are the deep pot bunkers (9th hole on the new nine, excepted). But also missing are the trees, so the wind whips around the track something fierce and encourages a Scottish style game and there's plenty of fairway mounding ... Farmstead Golf Links is similar to the Thistle, with its wide open layout and deep rough ... The Wizard is Pinehurst based architect Dan Maples' attempt at Scottish flare, and admittedly, not a bad go at it ... Wicked Stick is a Clyde Johnston designed track with linksy overtones that claims to be a John Daly signature course.