What Were They Thinking? Things that Make You Go "Hmmm"
in the Grand Strand

By Shane Sharp,
Contributing Writer

MYRTLE BEACH, S.C. (July 29, 2002) -- The mullet, animal head covers, another movie starring Adam Sandler … for every tiny morsel of common sense that exists in this world there are ten things that defy reason. Golf courses are no exception. Most golf course architects know what they are doing. They've studied their craft in school, apprenticed with a mentor, and put theory into practice dozens of times.

Still, you can count the number of golf courses on one hand that don't have some tragic flaw. Budgets are finite, environmental issues are omnipresent, and development footprints and roadways alter course routings.

In the end, there are simply some golf holes, and even entire courses that are the cause of some serious head scratching. These oddities, folks, are the things that make you go "hmm" from around the Grand Strand golf scene.

Calling agents Mulder and Scully

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The green on the par 4 12th hole is described in Heritage's yardage book as the "most severe," but that is like saying that WorldCom was a "little" off on its accounting techniques. Bust out the windmills, as this putting surface drops off about five feet towards the water behind it and is simply unfair if the hole is cut back there. The par 3 13th could be one of the best one shotters at the beach - 235 yards from the cranks and all carry over the lagoon. But the green can't hold an approach shot from a long iron or fairway wood, so nine out of ten players just aim at the mound behind it and hope for the carom.

Just up the road at the Dan Maples designed Willbrook Plantation sits one of the most diabolical opening holes in the Grand Strand. This par 4 plays 425 yards from the back of the bus and the prevailing wind is typically in your face. The hole doglegs to the right, but if you cut the ball just a couple feet too much, the trees on the right will take the green out of play on the approach. Cross your fingers and pray that via double teeing you get to start on the 379-yard 10th.

Not to pick on the South Strand, but is anyone buying the notion that the par 3 13th hole at Pawleys Plantation and the par 3 ninth hole at Caledonia Golf and Fish Club aren't simply afterthoughts? The former consists of a tee box that makes a footlocker feel roomy and a semi-island green that's actually an outgrowth of the putting surface on the 16th hole. The latter is the one-hiccup in what is otherwise considered one of the best golf courses in the entire Strand. The ninth plays to 118 yards from the back tees and just 92 yards from the Wood Duck (members) tees and features nothing more memorable than a glimpse of the antebellum clubhouse.

Highway 501 has the dubious distinction of being one of the most congested corridors in the state, but this clogged artery has its fair share of offroad monstrosities. The notorious, over hyped, smugly dubbed "Gambler" hole at King's North is the primary perpetrator. This par 5 (the No. 6 hole) sports a gimmicky island fairway straight away to center and a safer, dryer fairway to the right. The idea being you can gamble by hitting your tee shot to the island fairway and then have a legitimate chance of getting home in two.

The reality, however, amounts to nothing more than hogwash, tomfoolery, and chicanery. Even a tee shot that is absolutely crushed still leads to a knee-knocking, long iron approach to a narrow green, and it's not uncommon for golfers to hit back out to the landlocked fairway once they assess the situation. For a good example of a risk reward par 5 that doesn't need a tricked-up island green to buoy its reputation, try the 18th hole at the River Club.

And then there's Man O' War, the golf course that claims to have been dropped into a lake by a super sized flying saucer, yet there's rarely a hole with water in play. Not only that, there's not a single mound, mogul, elevation change of more than six inches, or even the slightest undulation in a green. We've heard of player friendly, but ...

Oh, and hats off to International World Tour for making an earnest attempt at being a good replica hole facility. But shame on them for opting for the first and 18th holes from the Old Course at St. Andrews - the only two forgettable holes on the entire golf course, that if not examined through the rose colored glasses of golf history, simply consist of a large sheep field with a creek running down the middle.

In the North Strand, the Meadowlands Golf Club has a couple holes that, for lack of a better treatment, need to be blown up and redesigned. The par 4 sixth hole (originally the 15th hole before the nines were flip flopped) has a plateau in the middle of the fairway that slopes off into the marsh on the left and into the trees on the right. The hole plays to 432 yards from the back tees, and sticking a drive on the flat part of the plateau is a feat fit for Ken Venturi's "Stroke Saver" videos. Then there's the 180 yard plus approach shot over water to a green that doesn't hold long iron shots. Not to be outdone, the par 4 third hole asks you to lay-up over water with a midiron (you'd drive it through the fairway with a wood). Then you're left with a long iron shot over water into a green that is better suited for pitching wedge.

And what is the deal with trees in the middle of fairways? The 10th hole on the Pearl East, the 9th hole at Farmstead Golf Links, the 15th hole at Glen Dornoch … the list goes on and on. Is this the golf course design equivalent of the goatee - an obnoxious trend that just won't go away?

Bad holes, stupid greens and strange, solitary trees, are just the tip of the tee box when it comes to things that make you go hmmm around Myrtle Beach. Sometimes it's the clubhouse, i.e. the new Shaftesbury Glen structure, which if you didn't know better, you'd swear was the product of a not so healthy burp from the Wizard Clubhouse. Sometimes it's the routing, like at Crown Park where the Sapphire Nine crosses up with the Emerald Nine and you often find yourself in the line of fire. Other times, it's the conditioning, where at courses like Deer Track, this "luxury" has become optional.

So what are you waiting for? There are 120 courses in the Grand Strand, so there's a better chance of the Cubs making the playoffs than you running into any of the madness mentioned above. But in case you do, wear a visor. It makes it easier to scratch you head.