Arcadian Shores Golf Club - A Classic is Reborn

"Return with us now to the thrilling days of yesteryear..." Though the original words were meant to describe a return to the old west of the masked lawman, they could just as easily be used to describe a welcomed message sent by the Burroughs & Chapin Company on June 1, 2009, a day that may very well be looked at as a milestone for Myrtle Beach golf.

On that date, Burroughs & Chapin, for more than a century one of the driving forces in the development of the Grand Strand, renewed an agreement to lease Arcadian Shores Golf Club to FelCor Lodging Trust of Irving, Texas, owner of the Hilton Myrtle Beach Resort (which, with its Myrtle Beach sister property the Embassy Suites Hotel all make up the Kingston Plantation), and, perhaps more importantly, for the first time in the course’s celebrated history, took on the responsibility of managing the course as well through its own Burroughs & Chapin Golf Management team. The combination of a golf course with a renowned past and a worldwide hotel brand with vision enough to bring in excellence and experience in golf course management begins an exciting new chapter in Grand Strand golf.

A Storied Past

The Myrtle Beach golf scene had already seen its share of noteworthy course architects by the time Arcadian Shores was being planned. Robert White, first PGA President, in 1927 (Myrtle Beach’s first course, the Ocean Forest Club). George Cobb, the design consultant at Augusta National, in 1960 (Surf Club) and 1972 (Bald Head Island Club in NC). George Fazio, also in 1972 (Bay Tree Golf Plantation). Arnold Palmer in 1973 (King’s North at Myrtle Beach National). The Myrtle Beach Farms Company (who would merge in 1990 with the Burroughs & Collins Company to form Burroughs & Chapin) had built George Cobb’s Pines Course at Myrtlewood in 1966, and was about to complete Edmund Ault’s stylish layout at Myrtlewood’s Palmetto Course. Regional architects had also made their local mark. It was a booming time for Grand Strand golf.

It was against this backdrop in the early 1970’s that the Guilford Mills Co. of Greensboro, NC set out to create an oceanfront resort in Myrtle Beach, which would also include golf. According to Bill Pritchard, now Interim President/CEO of Burroughs & Chapin, the folks at Guilford Mills knew where to turn. “The Burroughs and Collins Co. leased the land for Arcadian Shores to the Guilford Mills Co.,” says Pritchard, “and they went out and hired Rees Jones to design the course. They were building a Hilton Hotel, and the course was built in conjunction with that.”

It was a strikingly perfect hire, for as 1973 approached, one design name stood higher than the others. Robert Trent Jones, Sr. had put Myrtle Beach on the golf map with his course at The Dunes Golf and Beach Club in 1949, an epic course that had since been voted onto Golf Digest’s most prestigious list, “The Top 100 Courses in America.” The Dunes Club layout had not only proven it could stand the test of time, it was a beacon against which other courses were continually measured.

It was also, at the time it was being built, the playground for a young boy who in the early 1970’s was about to put his own stamp on the Myrtle Beach golf landscape.

“I had spent a lot of time in Myrtle Beach as a kid when my father was doing the Dunes Club, so it was very close to my heart,” says Rees Jones today. “It was a terrific experience for me to get a piece of ground so close to the Dunes Club and with so many parallels.”

It was this connection to his own family history, and the chance to strike out on his own after 10 years beside his father at Robert Trent Jones, Sr. Inc., that made Arcadian Shores even more meaningful for Rees. “I was on my own, and just did it myself,” he says. “It was the first time I had my name on the marquis, and it was very special to me. I wanted to build the greatest course I could.” There was no question that he succeeded.

The knowledge, sensitivity, style and design ability that would later be called upon to remodel and to restore some of the world’s greatest layouts for major championship play by the man now known as “The Open Doctor” took root, literally and figuratively, at Arcadian Shores. Jones created a masterful blend of visual beauty and strategically challenging golf course, drawing on the years beside his father and a lifetime of soaking up classic designs, to bring to Myrtle Beach a worthy companion to the Dunes Club he loved. Gene Weldon, now Head Professional at the Thistle Golf Club in Sunset Beach, NC, spent 1973 preparing the course as part of Head Pro Mack Briggs’ superintendent crew before spending the next 6 years as Briggs’ 2nd Assistant. “Arcadian Shores was as pristine and perfect a golf course as you could find anywhere,” Weldon says. “Everybody knew it was special, that it was Rees Jones’ first solo course. People came from everywhere to play it, and the combination of hotel and golf at Arcadian Shores was magnificent.”

Jones’ reward came 3 years after its opening, his first listing on Golf Digest’s “Top 100 Courses in America,” confirming that Arcadian Shores had signaled the arrival of yet another Jones on the architectural superstar roster.

A Track Worthy of Renewal

The design at Arcadian Shores revealed an architect who years later would articulate his philosophy to perfection. “At Rees Jones, Inc., we work to create courses that are fair, challenging, continually interesting to play, and visually exciting,” the designer wrote. Arcadian Shores was, and still is, all of the above. Utilizing the natural landscape of thick woods to define narrow fairways, clearing rolling terrain to create undulations and ground movement, placing bunkers both in the fairways and around green complexes in a manner that changes strategy, and options, on every hole, and using water hazards that include natural ponds and the Singleton Lake that is, amazingly, common to both the

Dunes Club and Arcadian Shores, Jones forged a truly beautiful and subtle masterpiece. Arcadian Shores would gather awards and play host over the next 25 years to a multitude of championships, including the Carolinas Open and as late as 1997 the Senior PGA Tour Grand Champions ProAm, an event at which Sam Snead, Doug Sanders and Charlie Sifford would test their considerable games.

Into The Future

Over the course of the next few decades Arcadian Shores would experience a decline from its lofty Top 100 perch. Though always a Burroughs & Chapin property, the course was always managed by a number of different hotel entities, whose expertise understandably laid elsewhere, and a slow deterioration of course conditioning made it difficult to keep the course at its prior levels of playability and reputation. Over time there was severe thatch build up under the turf, which affected drainage, which in turn affected the quality of every part of the course. And even though in the summer of 1994 Rees Jones came back with original blueprints, redid the greens to their original size, and replaced their bentgrass with TifDwarf Bermuda for ease of maintenance, Arcadian Shores never quite regained its place among Myrtle Beach’s elite layouts. That, thankfully, is about to change.

“With Arcadian Shores having been out of the company’s control, it’s comforting to have us back where we can influence the quality of the experience there,” says B&C CEO Pritchard. Others who are part of B&C and the Golf Management group, which now is involved with ownership and/or management of 10 Grand Strand courses, feel the same, and are extremely vocal about their eagerness to make a difference.

Bob Swezey, Executive Vice-President/Golf & Resorts for B&C, is perhaps loudest among them. “ We’ll be able to bring to Arcadian Shores a renewed vision to maintain the course at a level that’s conducive to the stature it deserves,” he says, “and we’ll do even more than we’ve already done by inserting the people that we have into the product.”

It is indeed an impressive group. 6 highly talented and effective members of a larger team that recently helped to bring B&C’s Grande Dunes Resort Course the highest possible honors: “Myrtle Beach Golf Course of the Year,” “SC Golf Course of the Year,” and in 2009, the “National Golf Course of the Year.”

Led by General Manager Archie Lemon, Head Pro Jason Mitchell and Superintendent Steve Martin, the entire team will be focused on one thing: the rejuvination of Arcadian Shores. “We always realized that it is one of the top layouts, tee to green, you’ll find at the beach,” Lemon says, “and we’ve stepped up and made a commitment to bring it back to today’s standards and expectations.”

Change has come rapidly to Arcadian Shores because of that attitude. Within the first 90 days, 9000 sq.’ of green surfaces had received new TifDwarf Bermuda sod. There’s a new fleet of carts, ground crew equipment, and new or completely renovated signage around the entire course.

The biggest changes, however, will center on course conditioning. According to Swezey, “We have a large agronomic plan that will eliminate the threats to the future deterioration of the turf. We’ll concentrate on drainage around the course, to avoid disease and correct other challenges.” Adds Lemon, “ We’ve eliminated a large number of trees and thinned others out, so the grass can get more sun,” Lemon says, a necessary process of “sunlight enhancement,” which will obviously strengthen the turf.

Add to the changes already made a wellrespected Hilton Golf Academy run by 25- year teaching pro Bill Whitaker (one of only 4 Hilton Academies in the country, and offering great Stay-and-Play packages), and you’ve got the basis for a rekindling of excitement about Arcadian Shores.

Given that B&C recently rescued Pine Lakes International, Myrtle Beach’s first course, from a possible loss to real estate considerations, it’s gratifying to hear Bob Swezey say, when asked about B&C’s position relative to Arcadian Shores, “We feel it’s a responsibility, an inner philosophy that we need to, if possible, protect where we came from, and our ability to lease the property and manage it at the same time is definitely an advantage. Arcadian Shores is absolutely a classic course, and it’s about to become one of our favorites again.”

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