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Myrtle Beach Golf Scene MYRTLE BEACH GOLF FEATURES:

Overrated and
Overlooked on the
Myrtle Beach Golf Scene

MYRTLE BEACH, S.C. - You know the chant by now:

"Overrrrrrraaaaaatttteed."

And the other side of the coin?

How about those off the beaten path restaurants, golf courses, gentlemen's clubs (did we say that out loud), beaches and honkey tonk's that are, without a doubt, underrated?

Myrtle Beach, the self proclaimed "Golf Capital of the World" has its fair share of both, so pull up a chair at the 19th hole as Shane Sharp, our TravelGolf.com Senior Editor, takes his best shots at the Grand Strand's best and worst.

GOLF COURSE

Overrated

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

This is goofy golf, my friends.

Moorland golf course This is the Moorland Golf Course at the Legends Golf Complex off of Highway 501. P.B. Dye, typically a thoughtful, talented course designer, must have come up with this hunk of junk on an off bet from a buddy over a couple of cold ones.

Has golf in Myrtle Beach gotten so competitive that course owners and architects are tricking players into spending their hard-earned coin on a round of miniature golf on steroids?

The irony is, almost every player I have talked to that has played Moorland has vowed never to return. Why bother when Parkland and Heathland - both excellent tracks - are sitting there on site just a sandwedge away?

Underrated

Why is it that the Tradition Golf Club in Pawleys Island doesn't get more play as one of the best layouts in Myrtle Beach? Probably because its not in Myrtle Beach, and its stuck in the middle of a host of outstanding golf courses.

The South Strand is in a world of its own, replete with tasteful architecture, quaint seafood dives and beautiful, isolated beaches. It also happens to be home of some of the Strand's best golf courses. If you've ever played Caledonia, the River Club, Blackmoor, the Heritage Club or the Tradition, you know what we're talking about.

This Ron Garl designed masterpiece doesn't get nearly the hype of Caledonia, or even Pawleys Plantation, but it is right there with them in terms of thoughtful design and superior conditions. What's more, most golf package outlets offer the Tradition as a non-surcharge course, which to us is one of the best deals going in the entire Strand.

SS

PLACE TO EAT

Overrated

How much of this disgusting, stomach turning, all-you-can-eat buffet business can America tolerate? If the sheer number of pigout-till-you-need-your-stomach-pumped joints in the Grand Strand is any indication, our gluttony knows no boundaries.

Overrated is ANY all-you-can eat joint on the Strand. Doesn't anyone realize that most Americans can only handle one plate of this crap before they hit the proverbial wall? Sure, there is the occasional sick bastard that can sample all 80 of the slop lines' grotesque items, but most of us cop out after the first pork chop, pizza, and egg roll combo.

Underrated

Take the time to find the places with character in and around the Grand Strand. Heck you don't even have to take the time, I've done it for you. Here is a quick list of some of the best joints I could find. And sorry to disappoint you, but only one serving per person.

Using those three golden rules, here are the top five local joints we have discovered over the past year.

Crab Catchers Crab Catchers in Little River (843-280-2025): Crab Catcher's on the Waterfront in Little River is nothing short of the hardcore seafood eatery, slash nightclub, slash local hangout that appears in your mind's eye when your brain is simply thinking good food, and your stomach is simply saying now.

First, there is the location. While it sits only about 1.5 miles east of U.S. 17, Crab Catchers might as well be one hundred miles away from Myrtle Beach.

Second, there is the building. Crab Catcher's is as Maritime as the Morton's seafood guy. The structure is essentially a two-story crab shack that is so close to the water you can feel the wake of passing vessels. Inside, the decor is dark and cozy, with natural wood walls, ceiling fans, and an inviting bar with a couple of TVs good for viewing your favorite sporting event.


Depending on whether you opt for sandwiches or dinners, an evening's meal at Crab Catchers will run you between $4.00 and $16.00 per person. But you'll need to subtract between five and ten dollars from this total due to the sheer enjoyment of local fare, a rustic venue, and the fact your appetizer didn't cost as much as a round of golf.

Shuckers World Famous Raw Bar in Myrtle Beach (843-448-6162, 843-626-9535): Shucker's World Famous Raw Bar has two locations in Myrtle Beach, and taken together, the two venues are a juxtaposition of eating seafood in the Grand Strand. The original Shucker's is just that - original. Located on Business 17, this Myrtle Beach institution gives off the aura of dive bar from the outside, and local seafood joint on the inside.

The new (although also dubbed "the original) Shucker's is located at Broadway at the Beach and is everything the original Shucker's is not. New Shucker's has ferns, slick new furniture, about 20 state-of-the-art televisions, and an upstairs with a pool table and video games. Heck, there is even a big screen T.V. that hangs from the main wall.

The original Shucker's is what Myrtle Beach was like 20 years ago, and what it would be like today had not commercialism and capitalism popped a few steroids and come rushing in like the storm surge of a hurricane. The joint is housed in a little wooden building that sits right on the highway, and is dark and comfortable on the inside.

The Grouper sandwich is one of the biggest in Myrtle Beach, and the Grouper pasta is a unique twist on the beach's staple fish. Don't be surprised to see a number of Shucker's patrons ordering up a couple of appetizers and calling it a meal. Grouper fingers, grilled shrimp and calamari all make appearances on the restaurants' appetizer menus, as well as the traditional Buffalo wings and chicken fingers.

Angelos Steak and Pasta in Myrtle Beach (843-626-2800): Whether or not you see the billboard on the way to the beach -- or even if Angelo himself knows that it is still standing - is immaterial. Anyone who has spent any significant amount of time in the Grand Strand chasing the white pill around, or scorching skin at the beach knows about Angelo's.

Holding true to his roots, Angelo offers the all-you-can eat Italian Buffet for only $9.95 that features Lasagna, Spaghetti, Italian Sausage, Meat and Cheese Ravioli, Meatballs, Pizza, Chicken Cacciatore and Tortellini Alfredo. Need we go on?

Believe it or not, Angelo is as famous for his read meat as he is for his red sauce. All steaks are seasoned, cooked to order, and could be devoured in full by 100-year-old men without teeth. And get this - the menu says that every steak comes with a "side" of spaghetti, but when that bowl full of pasta comes out, there is little doubt it could be a dinner all on its own.

Russells Seafood Grille in Murrells Inlet (843-651-0553): You don't walk into Russells Seafood Grille - you saunter. Chances are, if you have been to this remote "locals only" joint once, you have been there a hundred times. For those of you just passing through who would prefer to hang with birds of a feather, head back to the busy all-you-can eat restaurants on Business 17.

For those who want a little taste of how local Low Country folk live, head down to the very Godforsaken end of Murrells Inlet, where you'll find one of the best, but least known Raw Bars in the Strand.

The Grouper sandwich comes on a long hoagie bun, with lettuce, onion and tomato, and is as good as any you will find around these parts. The French Fries are old style crinkles - crisp on the outside and hot and fluffy on the inside.

No Low Country meal is complete with out a little desert, and Russells offers homemade Key Lime pie with graham cracker crust. For those of us who grew up in Florida, this simple treat is the perfect complement to a spicy hot blackened Grouper meal.

You are not going to find anything at Russells that you can't find at any other seafood joint along the beach: crab cakes, Grouper sandwiches, oysters and shrimp are all their for the taking. But eating seafood in Myrtle Beach is not about what you eat anymore, it is about where you eat it.

Pawleys Island Restaurant and Tavern (843-237-8465):It just changed it's name, but you may not know that unless you case the southern portion of the Grand Strand along U.S. 17 a few times a week monitoring the streetscape (or refreshing lack thereof).

Pawleys Island Tavern and Restaurant, formerly the Island Country Store, is tucked away in the back of a cozy little set of gift shops called the Low Country Stores about fifteen miles south of Myrtle Beach in the relatively rustic community of Pawleys Island.

The specialty of the house is crab cakes, and a little sample revealed why: the cakes are lightly coated and melt in your mouth with a little lemon and red wine vinegar. But I was meat and potatoes style hungry, so I opted for the lunch special, which included a slab of meatloaf, butter beans, peas, rice with gravy, and cornbread for just $4.50.

River City Café in Murrells Inlet (843-651-1004): Be gone all-you-can-eat pit stops. Good riddance snooty upscale restaurants. Hello, peanut shells on the floor, cold long neck beers in the cooler, and hot, juicy burgers cooking up on the griddle.

Greetings and salutations River City Cafe. "River City", as locals refer it, is the kind of straight up, license plates hanging on the wall, patrons in jeans and shorts kind of joint that harkens when pretense and usher em' in and out seafood buffets have got you down.

The lineup of juicy sirloin burgs ranges from traditional lettuce and tomato editions to chili and blacked burgers. If you are not in the mood for a prescribed set of ingredients, River City Cafe is one of the few places that let's you build you own burger with such tasty toppings as bacon, grilled onions, mushrooms and hot peppers.

If red meat is not your thing (although no one keeps it red anymore), River City has more than it's fair share of chicken sandwiches as well as a grouper sandwich that can go toe to toe with almost any seafood joint. Sides dishes are as basic as the venues and center on skin-on French fries and coleslaw.

SS

GREENS

Overrated

true blue True Blue has had a world of trouble getting its new Tif Eagle Bermuda greens to take hold this summer, and yet the price remains about the same to you, the consumer. True Blue is not the only course to charge the same price, even though conditions have slipped - it's the norm, not the exception to charge the same for your course's "A" game as it is for its "C" game.

Still, the way this Mike Strantz designed oddity that bills itself and golf's heaven and hell props itself as being one of the best tracks in the Strand, we had to call it out as overrated.

Underrated

Is it possible that anything could be underrated at Tidewater Golf Club? After all, the Ken Tomlinson designed gem is a regular in Golf Magazine's Top 100 You Can Play. But have you ever knelt down on one of the greens and rubbed your check up against that soft bentgrass?

Okay, some of us TravelGolf.com'ers have issues when it comes to our love of good turf, these babies are flawless and true - part supermodel, part girl next door, if you get our drift. For the record, I have been moved to cuddle up with the greens at Wild Wing's Avocet Course, Rivers Edge and Tigers Eye. To all the Bermuda grass greens out there, you're a little on the wild side for my taste.

SS

CLUBHOUSE FOOD

Overrated

Getting sandwiches off the beverage cart. Sure, it's convenient and you get to spend a little more quality time with the cart girl, but these puppies are ronch. If you are going this route, you are better off just getting some crackers, or pretzels, or another gin and tonic.

Underrated

Chili Dogs. Look, you can count on one hand the number of opportunities you'll have to scarf down one of these bad boys without getting petrified looks from your friends and family. So go for the dog and the turn, and don't be shy - load it up with onions and jalapenos if they've got them.

The Legends Complex has an incredible chilidog, and you'd be remiss not to stop and grab one at the turn. If you take issue with dogs, check out the hamburger at Wild Wing, and throw a little chili on it for good measure.

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