Nobody Knows Myrtle Beach Golf Better than Charles Rishel

By Shane Sharp,
Contributing Writer

But no one has played them all, right? Wrong. Charles Rishel, a Baltimore, Maryland native, has played every last one of them, and plans to play the new courses like Tiger's Eye and the International Club as soon as they come on line this spring.

Rishel's formula is simple - time and determination. Rishel and three friends from Baltimore first started coming to Myrtle Beach to play golf in 1969, and plan to keep after it as long as they are able.

"On our first trip, I was just subbing in for a guy that couldn't go," remembers Rishel. "When we came down there were only about seventeen courses open it seems. We stayed at the Swamp Fox motor lodge in Myrtle Beach."

And so it began in 1969, a Myrtle Beach golfing dynasty that few others can claim to have established. After a few years at the Swamp Fox, Rishel and his friends made their way to the Breakers Hotel, mainly because the beachside hotel had the vaunted Dunes Golf and Beach Club on their golf package.

As consistently as Greg Maddux hits the strike zone, the Rishel-crew would fly into Myrtle Beach the week after Mother's Day, and each year they would add a few new courses to their docket. Then in 1983, something clicked in Rishel that hadn't hit home yet with the rest of his foursome.

"Seventeen years ago I decided that I loved the people, the area, the weather, and I decided that I wanted to retire here," says Rishel. "I started coming down in October in addition to our spring trip. I formed a new foursome and we played in the mornings, and then in the afternoon I played with a real estate agent." One day while out on the course, Rishel's real estate agent offered to show him some property in River Hills, and by the time he left Myrtle Beach for Baltimore, he was a property owner.

"I had the house built in 1989, and in April of this year, I decided that enough was enough and I retired to Myrtle Beach for good."

Rishel has seen them all, and he has his favorites. Among his foursome's favorite courses are Heritage, Tidewater, Oyster Bay, and Sand Piper, and if the group had to pick a favorite "sub" area of the strand, it would be the North Carolina portion because of the courses in Calabash.

Rishel himself has also been impressed with a number of the new layouts that have been rolled out in the past year.

"I think River's Edge is a very beautiful and very difficult," says Rishel. "For me, I thought it was a little more than I can handle. I have played Diamondback, and when it grows in and matures it will be beautiful, too. The World Golf Tour is also a touch of class, I have even applied for an ambassador job there."

So as the week after Mother's Day approaches, Rishel's old foursome will be one can short of a four-pack until they reach their final destination. But when Rishel retired to Myrtle Beach, they all actually came out on top.

"My guys are going to stay with me when they come down," explains Rishel, "And they are going to use the money they save on lodging on airline tickets, so they will have a three hour plane trip instead of an eleven hour car ride."