FEATURE STORY

MyrtleBeachGolf.com's
Spring Golf Guide: This Ain’t Your Father’s Grand Strand

Everything you need to know about the packages, the courses, and all things Grand Strand

By Shane Sharp,
Contributing Writer

Part Four in an ongoing series

MYRTLE BEACH, S.C. -- Has it been a few years since that last Myrtle Beach golf trip? Maybe you think Arcadian Shores is still the most expensive course at the beach, The Breakers is the only upscale resort on the water, and the Crazy Horse is the only gentlemen’s club between the Stateline and Pawleys Island.

If so, you need to get your head out of your golf bag, and we’re here to help.

First off, golf in the Strand Grand is no longer cheap. Don’t get us wrong, it is still one of the most affordable golf destinations in the world. But the Myrtle Beach area is home to a cadre of courses that demand $150 plus in the peak seasons.

The TPC of Myrtle Beach, Caledonia Golf and Fish Club (at right), Grande Dunes, Barefoot Resort, True Blue, and the International World Tour Golf Links are some of the area’s newer, more expensive tracks. While some may argue the merits of True Blue (too tricked up), or the International World Tour Golf Links (gimmicky replica course), the rest of the list is well worth the extra cash (especially with the discounts brought about by golf packages).

Oh, and that blue collar, K-Mart By the Sea golf destination reputation Myrtle Beach carried through the 1970’s and 80’s? It’s gone the way of sans-a-belt slacks. Two Grand Strand golf courses (Tidewater and Caledonia) appear in Golf Magazine’s “Top 100 You Can Play”, Grande Dunes was recently awarded a “Top Ten You Can Play” for 2001 by that same publication, and True Blue, Tiger’s Eye, Marsh Harbor, Pawleys Plantation, and dozens of other area courses have received hordes of statewide and national recognition.

If you want to sample the Stand’s newest tracks this spring, plan on traversing the beach’s outskirts. The TPC, True Blue and the International Club all opened within the past five years in the South Strand, the Thistle, Tiger’s Eye, Farmstead Golf Links, and Crow Creek all opened within the past five years in the North Strand, and Diamondback, Crown Park, and Shaftsbury Glen have everyone logging onto Mapquest.com for directions.

However, if you don’t like to venture too far from restaurant row, you’re in luck. Two of the most ambitious real estate and golf projects in Strand history are located right in North Myrtle Beach. Nearly a year and a half after its opening, Barefoot Resort (at right) is on its way to becoming one of the east coast’s premier golfing facilities. Tom Fazio, Pete Dye, Davis Love III and Greg Norman are the names you’ll find on the resort’s four top shelf tracks.

The Dye Course is making its way towards becoming private, but the other three more than make up for its absence from the lineup card. Barefoot’s resort courses have almost systematically prevailed themselves upon Strand golfers. First, the Love III Course was all the rage.

Voted the “6th Best New Course in the United States” by Golf Digest in 2000, “DLIII” shocked the golfing world by upstaging the venerable Fazio and Dye. In all fairness to the other great designers, the Love Course was the beneficiary of a great piece of property that winds its way through the ruins of an old plantation.

At just over 6800 yards, the Fazio course is slightly shorter than the Love Course, but with a par of 71 and Fazio’s signature bunkering, players will find it to be just as challenging as its siblings. So much of Fazio’s reputation has been built upon what he does with the piece of land that he is given.

But sometimes, it’s what he doesn’t do that truly makes his golf courses unique. He completely redesigned the 458-yard par 4 second hole to protect the native Live Oaks, making it one of the better two-shotters on the golf course.

Norman has been trying his hand in course design since the late 1980’s, with a number of his layouts garnering critical acclaim from national and international media outlets. Norman claims Augusta as the model for his Barefoot Resort (at right) creation, but the old courses of the British Isles seem to serve as his true inspiration. The majority of holes allow players to bump-and-run the ball onto greens, and the course’s seemingly infinite number of bunkers sport sloping grass and sand faces, a la Alister MacKenzie.

One of the most recognizable (and feared) names in golf course design, Pete Dye has been churning out diabolical layouts ever since he and Jack Nicklaus unveiled the Harbor Towne Golf Links at Sea Pines Resort in Hilton Head.

• Reader Forums • South Carolina Course Guide • Part One: Spring Golf Guide • Part Two: Breaking Down the Grand Strand • Part Three: Myrtle Beach’s Best Finishing Holes • Past reviews by Shane Sharp

The first four holes, three medium length par 4’s and a manageable par 3, are billed as “warm up” holes, and with good reason. The 564-yard par 5 fifth hole is unreachable for anyone who doesn’t have his name embroidered on his bag.

Just up Highway 17 from Barefoot Resort is one of the best golf courses to open in the Grand Strand since The Thistle. The Robert Rulewich designed Grande Dunes Country Club (pictured) is perched on a bank overlooking the Intracoastal Waterway to the west, and U.S. Highway 17 to the east. And unlike many Grand Strand courses that shy away from their maritime environment, Grande Dunes puts water in play on almost every hole.

Rulewich may not have as recognizable a signature as his mentor – Robert Trent Jones Sr. -- but his design credits are impressive. He played a major role in the design of the Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail in Alabama, and his revamping of Medinah for the 1999 PGA Championship, Valderamma, and the Dunes Club have made him one of the most sought-after designers of the new millennium.

The final 10 holes at Grande Dunes should easily go down as some of his best work, as they play out along the Intracoastal Waterway and feature some of the strongest designed holes and best scenery outside of Tidewater.

Other New and Semi New Courses

When its in prime condition, the TPC of Myrtle Beach is one of the five best golf courses in the Grand Strand … Shaftsbury Glen was inspired by Winged Foot and for the most part is true to the letter. But the 18th green is quickly forging some love/hate relationships … The International Club in Murrells Inlet, despite its management by the now defunct Links Group, is a decent course in fair condition … Tiger’s Eye is the “Crown Jewel” of Ocean Ridge Plantation, but its also one of the best inland courses in the North Strand … Rivers Edge burst onto the scene about three years ago, and has quickly made its way into most people’s Top 10 at the beach.

In case you missed it

The River Club has new A-1 bentgrass greens, and they are some of the best putting surfaces at the beach … True Blue has new Tif Eagle Bermuda greens, but for most the spring season they are overseeded … The new clubhouse opened at Barefoot Resort … Farmstead Golf Links conjures up comparisons to the Thistle, and the par six is worth the price of admission … Speaking of the Thistle, a new nine recently opened and according to preliminary reports it can hang with the original 18.