Myrtle Beach Coures Win Big at Best of the Beach

MyrtleBeachGolf.com, one of the Grand Strand’s leading sources for the perfect golf vacation, has announced four “Best of the Beach” awards—three of them for golf courses and one for hotels. Drumroll please…

Best Golf Course For The Money

The two finalists in this category come from the southern half of the Grand Strand and represent different notions of what constitutes a “great value” in golf. Is it The Witch Golf Links, a mid-price course that many Myrtle Beach visitors regard as underrated, or is it the more luxe but nonetheless exquisite Caledonia Golf & Fish Club, the Pawleys Island gem long regarded as one of the two or three best courses on the Grand Strand and one of the best courses anywhere in the South?

In the end, MyrtleBeachGolf.com’s panel of judges decided to give the award to The Witch. Like its fellow finalist for the award, The Witch enjoys a tranquil setting, where on-course housing is nonexistent. A Dan Maples design, the Witch takes the player deep into Lowcountry woods, past blackwater cypress swamps where a number of holes cause the golfer to feel miles from anywhere. A delightful touch, painted cypress “knees” (the knobby roots which stick up from the surface of water where the trees grow) serve as tee markers. The more traditional inward nine is more compact but no less exciting.

Golf Course With The Toughest Hole

This turned out to be a three-way race between one course each from the Grand Strand’s South, Central and North regions. The north was represented by Glen Dornoch Waterway Golf Links, whose long par four 18th hole is reachable in regulation only after two mighty swings that manage to keep the golf ball out of the expansive marsh that borders the entire left side of the hole. Glen Dornoch took the bronze medal in this competition.

The runner-up was King’s North at Myrtle Beach National Golf Club, an excellent Arnold Palmer Signature design. The 18th hole, known as “Bull’s Eye” for the more than 35 bunkers that surround the fairway and green, is a doozy.

The winner, representing the South region, is Mike Strantz’s excellent but sometimes-incorrigible True Blue Plantation. This author is unsure which of its holes was dubbed the toughest by MyrtleBeachGolf.com’s panel, but he suspects it’s either the 17th or 18th hole, both long par fours bordered on the right and left, respectively, by water hazards from tee to green.

Best Golf Course Overall

The most prestigious of the awards given for golf came down to two perennial favorites of scores of thousands of visitors to the area, and two courses already mentioned in this article: Caledonia Golf & Fish Club and King’s North at Myrtle Beach National. This time, the former walked away with the award, no doubt on the strength of the dozens of live oaks adorning the property, its fascinating, undulating greens and superb conditioning. This is no knock on King’s North by any means; many golfers hold it in even higher regard than they do Caledonia and it can be difficult to argue against them. That is, of course, to say nothing of ten or more other area golf courses that are in the same echelon as Caledonia and King’s North. In the end, it is a testament to the high average quality of golf courses on the Grand Strand.

Hotels For Golf Packages

This hotel-oriented award from MyrtleBeachGolf.com came down to two hotels that are practically neighbors, separated by a mere nine blocks in the heart of Myrtle Beach. They are the Caribbean Resort & Villas and the Breakers Resort. These are two of the iconic Myrtle Beach oceanfront hotels and guests cannot go wrong with choosing either as their base of operations for a golf vacation.

In the end, though, the Caribbean Resort came out on top. With a wide range of accommodations—from single-bed rooms to four-bedroom condos overlooking the brilliant Atlantic—and such amenities as indoor and outdoor waterparks and on-site dining facilities from Skip Jack’s Tiki Bar to WHITECAPS Frozen Yogurt, the Caribbean is one of the beach’s great hotels—this time, the best.

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