On the Waterfront: Best Myrtle Beach Golf Courses With Water Views

One of the enduring pleasures of playing golf is the opportunity to spend time in nature. The most treasured golf courses tend to be the ones whose layouts provide a high-quality test and those situated on what seems to be a magical tract of land.

In the Myrtle Beach area, home to some 100 golf courses, there are a number of layouts that stand out from the rest due to some very distinct scenery-based advantages. Given that we’re talking about coastal South Carolina, that scenery often comes in the form of water. Going back to the 16th century, when the first links of Scotland were laid out by the sea, great golf has come to be closely associated with beguiling bodies of water. Here are six Myrtle Beach golf courses where that relationship most prominently endures:

Rivers Edge Golf Club
This Arnold Palmer design is one of the Grand Strand’s most challenging, due in large part to its interplay with the Shallotte River and its outlying marshes. Golfers who end up losing a golf ball or two on holes like the ninth, where marsh guards the left side of the hole before wrapping tightly around the green, take solace in the natural beauty of the place.

Carolina National Golf Club
Located just a little south of the aforementioned Rivers Edge, the 27-hole, Fred Couples-designed Carolina National is home to one of the most spectacular par-3s in South Carolina, thanks to the presence of the Lockwood Folly River, whose winding nature inspired the name of the property on which the course sits, Winding River Plantation. That par-3 is the fifth hole on the Heron Nine, whose tee areas are spread out in a near-semicircle, affording multiple different playing angles. From the back tee, at 203 yards, the golfer is faced with nothing but wetlands between him/her and the green.

Tidewater Golf Club
Tidewater Golf Club occupies a unique plot of land that is simultaneously secluded and seemingly “in the middle of it all” just south of the border between North and South Carolina. The plot of land the course occupies enjoys marsh frontage and views of the Cherry Grove Inlet and Cherry Grove Beach on its southeastern side and the Intracoastal Waterway on its northwestern side. In all, eight holes enjoy stunning long-range water views.

The Dunes Golf & Beach Club
In many ways, The Dunes Golf & Beach Club is the archetypal Myrtle Beach golf course. One of these ways is the fact that it is the only golf course on the Grand Strand from which the Atlantic Ocean is clearly visible. Its waters heave into view as the player approaches the green on the par-3 ninth. Although the Ocean fades from view, the next four holes play along some spectacular marsh and lake scenery, culminating in the world-famous par-5 13th, aptly nicknamed “Waterloo.”

Grande Dunes Resort Club
The Intracoastal Waterway is an engineering marvel that comes into view from a number of Myrtle Beach-area golf courses. But no course boasts more Waterway frontage than Grande Dunes Resort Club, with seven of its last 11 holes enjoying views of it. The Intracoastal Waterway even comes into play on a few of them, particularly the dramatic par-3 14th, where missing the green to the right spells almost certain, watery doom for one’s golf ball.

Caledonia Golf & Fish Club
A favorite golf experience of thousands of Grand Strand visitors and locals alike, the Mike Strantz-designed Caledonia Golf & Fish Club serves up one of South Carolina’s most memorable finishes: a mid-length par-4 that plays along the outlying waters of the gorgeous Waccamaw River. The clubhouse, with its porch just behind the green and overlooking the proceedings, is one of the great spots in the world for a post-round drink.

These are just a few of Myrtle Beach’s waterfront golf courses. To book your tee times at these and more, visit our tee times page.

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