How Real Is That Golf Course Photo?

By Bill Woodward & Glenn Garfold

Have you ever looked at a photo of a beautiful golf course and wondered, “Is the course REALLY that perfect?” After all, photos can be faked, right? What about this Photoshop thing we’ve heard about?

Enhancing golf photos is probably more common than you think. Let’s discuss it a little and see some examples.

Ethics

Isn’t this whole thing dishonest? It’s natural for a golf course owner to want to portray his course in the best light, but how far can he go before he is guilty of false advertising?

First, understand that all photos need a bit of “adjustment” before they are printed in a magazine or brochure, just to bring them back to looking like the real scene actually appeared when the photo was shot. Film is made with chemicals that have their own color bias, and digital photos need to be adjusted to account for the kind of light that was present when the photo was shot. Usually that adjustment happens automatically using the software built into the camera. When you set your digital camera for “Daylight” or “Cloudy” you are adjusting the software to account for the overall color of the scene. The “Auto” setting allows the camera to make its own judgement. Most times it’s close, sometimes it’s a little off. Sometimes the colors of the photo must be adjusted to account for the ink and paper used in the printing process.

The gold standard in image editing software is Photoshop, made by Adobe Systems. Photoshop allows the experienced user to make changes to photos ranging from minor tweaks in the overall color cast to the complete elimination or addition of any features the photo editor desires.

An adjustment in Photoshop called "curves" was used here to make the dark colors darker and the light colors lighter. This makes the whole scene seem sharper and less hazy.

Most articles in golf magazines are there to tell a story, not necessarily to present the news. It’s rare that a Golf Digest writer shows up in California, with the assignment to “blow the lid off Pebble Beach.” More likely he is there to tell a story that makes the average golfer want to play Pebble Beach, and nice photos are more likely to make that happen.

What Makes a Fake Golf Photo?

How much adjustment can be done to a photo before it goes over the line into fakery? Are there legitimate reasons for faking a photo?

Magazines operate on their deadlines and golf course developers operate on theirs. On The Green may do a story on a new golf course that is scheduled to be open and ready for play in two months, but our deadline is NOW. We know that when the course opens it will be beautiful but right now it has bare spots in the fairway and the greens are a little yellow. It’s normal for us to shoot a photo of the course in its current condition, use Photoshop to fix the bare spots and off-color greens, and go to press. Yes, the photo is greatly enhanced over the reality of the shot when it was taken, but on opening day the course usually looks better than our “fake” photo of it. It would be misleading for the magazine to show photos of scraggly fairways and yellow greens, when the course is nothing like that.

Sometimes even a normally well-manicured course will have a bad place where the mower took bounce and scalped a chunk of the fairway. The scalp mark wasn’t there yesterday, and it will be grown-in in two days. Is it fair to publish a photo showing the scalp mark, when that is only a temporary condition?

What about enhancing a photo that is already good, just to make it better. To me, it’s OK if the enhancement is something that could happen, but didn’t on the day of the photo. Some photos are great, but the sky is washed out. We can put in a more interesting sky, just to make the photo look better.

In the photo above, the entrance to the course is great, but reality intrudes with a fire hydrant and an electrical box. You can't actually erase things without showing a blank place in that spot. Using Photoshop's "clone tool" we can copy some good features over the offending items. In this photo we copied flowers, dirt, grass, and road on top of the fire hydrant. Sometimes everything is perfect but the light is about to change and the mower in the distance just won’t move. I would take the shot anyway and "erase" the mower later. What if the scene looks great, but the fairway has just been mowed and looks a little yellow? I would green up the grass so that it looks the way it will look a day later in real life.

What Crosses the Line?

I wouldn’t add a deluxe clubhouse when the real clubhouse is a double-wide mobile trailer, with no plans to replace it. If there are no plans for elaborate landscaping, it would be wrong to add banks of azaleas, a la Augusta National. If it’s not possible, then don’t do it.

How can you tell when a photo has been enhanced? Here are two giveaways.

Just because grass looks better when it’s green, doesn’t mean that a ridiculous shade of green is better.

When you see a golf course where the grass is the color of a lime lollipop, then it has probably been enhanced. Especially if all of the grass is uniformly the same color. In the photo above, even the weeds in the water have been made the same emerald green.

Can you spot the two identical trees in the forest? Both are on the right side of the photo. The tree on the left is the original. The one on the right has been copied to hide something.

More Examples of Golf Course Retouching

This aerial shows a nice course in town, close to the ocean, but all the buildings and parking lots look too urban and industrial. They need to be toned down a little to keep the mood.

Here is a course that had to be photographed before it opened because of our deadline. As you can see, the grass has been fixed, water has been added to the lake, and a flag is on the green. Once the course opened, this spot actually looked much better than the photo.

This photo had to shot during a severe drought. The lake on the left had almost been totally drained for irrigation, although by the looks of the original grass it still wasn’t enough. After the drought was over, the course actually looked like the enhanced version on the right.

This photo was staged at the request of the course owners. The course was already in good shape the weather was great, and the golfers seemed like a good idea at the time. Afterwards, they changed their minds about the golfers. And they really didn't like the garbage scow going by.

The authors. We're here to "Pump You Up" about photo retouching. When we're not on the course, we're in the gym – seriously!

Golf Holiday's Choices for Top 5 Restaurants in Myrtle Beach

By Brandon Tucker,
Senior Writer, Worldgolf.com

Nothing gets the mouth watering and the belly growling quite like 18 holes of golf in Myrtle Beach, S.C.

The Grand Strand's dining and bar scene is endless, with something for just about everybody, from upscale dining to wings and sports.

But the Grand Strand golfers have spoken.

Myrtle Beach Golf Holiday, the marketing cooperative of the Grand Strand's golf courses has compiled a panel and narrowed the choices into Top 5 lists in four categories: hot wings, bars, steaks and, of course, seafood buffets. Here, according to GolfHoliday.com, then, are the best of the best.

Myrtle Beach's Best Buffalo Wings

1. The Original Fat Jack's Wings & Things (Surfside Beach): Fat Jack's has been around Myrtle Beach since the 1970s. Now just south in Surfside, Fat Jack's offers 15 different sauces. You can try the party tray, which offers up to five different sauces and 50 wings. Lunch goers take note, Fat Jack's doesn't open until 3 p.m. and is closed Sundays.

2. Murphy's Law: Murphy's has three locations (though each especially caters to Pittsburgh "Steeler Nation" on Sundays). Though its wings have a variety of sauces, its specialty is the hot wing.

3. Wing Kings (Myrtle Beach): Off Myrtle Beach's beaten Kings Highway, you'll have to head down Socastee Boulevard for Wing King's fresh, never-frozen wings - along with 20 different flavors.

4. Bully's Pub (North Myrtle Beach): Located at Barefoot Landing, Bully's doesn't have the sauce variety of Wing Kings or Original Fat Jack's, but what it does serve suffices, especially its eccentric (for wings at least) spicy ranch sauce.

5. Hooter's: We all know Hooters, the "delightfully tacky yet unrefined" institution for the ideal mix of babes and wings. Good news for Hooter's fans, with three area locations, you're never too far from the perfect combo.

Myrtle Beach's Best Steakhouses

1. New York Prime (Myrtle Beach): A New York-style steakhouse off 28th Avenue in Myrtle Beach with an upscale ambiance is the Strand's favorite high-end steakhouse. Its menu serves up a whopping 40-ounce porterhouse for two.

2. Angelo's Steak and Pasta (2011 S. Kings Highway in Myrtle Beach): Angelo's is known for its all-you-can-eat Italian buffet, but Angelo's steak is a cut above. Big bellies can try the "Big Daddy" - a 24-ounce cut of Ribeye or New York Strip.

3. Martini's (North Myrtle Beach): A diverse menu in this upscale, elegant atmosphere with a piano bar, the food upholds its look, with top dishes such as the steak au poivre, a filet rolled in cracked peppercorn and sauteed with assorted mushrooms in a Dijon and brandy cream sauce.

4. Greg Norman's Australian Grille (4930 Highway 17S in North Myrtle Beach): The Shark's brand is on everything, but this is his only steakhouse, located right around the corner from his Barefoot Resort course design, where you can enjoy wood-grilled steaks overlooking the Intracoastal Waterway.

5. Thoroughbreds (Myrtle Beach): Open since 1988, Thoroughbreds has made a name for itself by serving nothing but the freshest steaks and seafood, including one of its signatures, the 20-ounce, bone-in ribeye.

Myrtle Beach's Best Seafood Buffets

You'll find almost as many all-you-can-eat seafood buffets along King's Highway as miniature golf courses. Vacationers love indulging on the endless bowls of buttery crab legs and shrimp, but not all are created equal. Here are Golf Holiday's five favorites:

1. Original Benjamin's (9593 N. Kings Hwy. in North Myrtle Beach): The first standout seafood buffet in the Myrtle Beach area remains the Grand Strand's largest, with more than 170 excellent items. Calabash-style seafood, crab legs and shrimp highlight this extensive buffet lineup.

2. Captain George's (Myrtle Beach): Right by the PGA Tour Superstore, Broadway at the Beach and Myrtlewood in the heart of Myrtle Beach on Highway 17 Bypass, you won't pass Captain George's too many times before stopping in eventually. With the area's largest dining room and a buffet to match, waits are seldom.

3. Crabby Mike's (290 Highway 17N in Surfside Beach): Everyone notices Crabby Mike's, thanks to the lighthouse and the "crabmobile" with a giant crab on top. Inside, the atmosphere is good fun, though there's no joking around in the kitchen, which serves up a first-class array of choices on the buffet line.

4. Seafare Seafood Buffet (Surfside Beach): This pirate-themed buffet features live mermaids, but the food will still steal the show, featured in Southern Living twice thanks to its top broiled, baked and steamed seafood.

5. Preston's Seafood & Country Buffet (North Myrtle Beach): An under-the-radar favorite located at the entrance to Barefoot Resort, Preston's features a mountain of crab legs, as well as baby back ribs and prime rib.

Myrtle Beach's Best Sports Bars

In Myrtle Beach, the 19th hole is hardly optional, especially considering its spring and fall seasons coincide with NHL and NBA playoffs in the spring and football season in the fall. Suffice to say after golf, you've got some games to watch. Here are Golf Holiday's five favorite bars for a cold drink and sports:

1. Overtime Sports Cafe (North Myrtle Beach): The biggest really is the best at Overtime in the North Strand, featuring 150 televisions capped with a 12-foot video wall for the main event that day, plus three 10-foot projection screens.

2. Five O'Clock Somewhere (Myrtle Beach): Named after the famous Alan Jackson/Jimmy Buffett tune, this sports fan's paradise in the heart of the Grand Strand serves up 72 TVs, including 60 HD models, surround sound and multiple bar areas. There's also a full menu, both in the kitchen and with its sports network packages.

3. Broadway Louie's (Myrtle Beach): If you're at Broadway at the Beach, the best place to catch the game and a cold one is Broadway Louie's, boasting a mammoth 27-foot projection screen, meaning there's never a bad spot in the house. Its proximity to dozens of clubs and bars at Celebrity Square makes it the perfect "pre-game."

4. Oscar's (North Myrtle Beach): Nearly 100 TVs and a menu with great pub grub makes Oscar's a great Pittsburgh Steelers bar.

5. Dagwood's (Surfside Beach): Dagwood's is the spot for something less TV, sports heavy. It's an inviting atmosphere in the slower South Strand.

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.”

Five Must Have Items for Your Myrtle Beach Golf Vacation

When it comes to a golf vacation, you’ve got to think about more than just tossing the clubs in the car or plane.  You’ve got to plan for an adventure. Here’s a list of five must have items for your trip.

Deck of Cards
You and your buddies will have some time in the room and around the pool and a game of hold ‘em it’s a great way to win back the cash you lost on the course.

Sunscreen
Yeah, you’re not going to be on the beach all day… or are you? Either way, make sure to toss some sunscreen in the bag. Even in the fall, you’ll be enjoying the 70’s and 80’s in Myrtle and that sun can get hot.

Beverage Repair Kit
Guess what, you’re not 21 anymore and the evening activities may take a toll on your game. Toss in some antacid, aspirin, an anything else that will help you recover from the day before.

Laser Range Finder
You'll spend hundreds in "hopes" of saving a few strokes off your game.  With a laser range finder, you'll KNOW that you're saving strokes.  Just point and shoot to get exact measurements to anywhere on the course.  You're guaranteed to save strokes by eliminating miscalculation.  Though it can't help you if you still think you can get a 9 iron over that pond.

If Lost Call...
Ever try hearding cats?  It's easy compared to keeping up with your golfing buddies.  Create some credientials for your buddies on your computer, print out and laminate.  Stick everyone's numbers on the back and your official group name and barcode on the front.  People will think you really are someone and if you've got a man down, at least everyone will have their phone number, hotel information and other critical trip data.

See something we're missing?

Comment below and well add it to the list.

Ten Anti-Traditional Myrtle Beach Courses

By Brandon Tucker,
Senior Writer, WorldGolf.com

For daring golf course design in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, check out Grande Dunes Resort Club, True Blue Plantation or King's North at Myrtle Beach National. Some golf courses honor the game's roots, using minimalist, classically-styled, low-budget architecture. Then there are the head-turners that break the mold, utilizing the imagination (and machinery) of modern golf design. Myrtle Beach, which boasts more than 100 golf courses dating as far back as the 1920s, has a design for every taste.

Here are some of the Grand Strand's most dare-to-be-different golf courses:

Grande Dunes Resort Club

The centerpiece of this multi-billion dollar development, Grande Dunes Resort Club has some pizazz to it. Roger Rulewich's design offers dramatic views of both the Intracoastal Waterway and the multi-million dollar, southwestern-themed villas along the fairways. A good amount of land was moved and shaped to get the best waterway views. Grande Dunes has six tee boxes going back to 7,600 yards.

True Blue Plantation

Opinions vary on the Mike Strantz-designed True Blue Plantation course, and for good reason. True Blue is simply one of a kind. The holes are imaginative, and the green complexes are unlike anything you've ever seen if you've never played a Strantz course. There's even a hole with alternate left and right greens (also found at area courses Barefoot Fazio and Oyster Bay).

King's North at Myrtle Beach National

When Arnold Palmer redesigned his King's North course at Myrtle Beach National, he aimed to make it a modern day, resort-style stand-out with plenty of unique holes. The island fairway on the par-5 sixth hole, named "The Gambler," is the first such example, followed by No. 12's par-3 island green (each of the four par 3s require a water carry here) and finally the 18th hole's more than 40 bunkers.

The Founders Club

The Founders Club is set in the historic lowcountry seaside town of Pawleys Island on the former Sea Gull course. But the brand new Founders Club, opened in 2008, is anything but conventional. Sprawling waste bunkers encircle each fairway, leaving little rough; and large, dramatic mounding surround the greens

Oyster Bay Golf Links

Legends Resort founder Danny Young took a hands-on approach to the construction of most of his golf courses, including working with Dan Maples on Oyster Bay Golf Links. The greens here are severely sloping, and some holes are anything but conventional, including the short, par-3 13th. It plays to a green high above the fairway and sits atop a concrete wall over the water.

Prestwick Country Club

The mission at Prestwick Country Club was to create an old-world links, but Pete & P.B. Dye left there stamp as well, moving 1.3 million cubic yards to create 30 feet of elevation change on a once flat landscape just off the ocean. There are 10,000 railroad ties, and Scotland's Prestwick has nothing on this modern version's closing ninth and 18th holes, which wrap around a lake.

Barefoot Resort, Dye

Dye moved a lot of earth in creating the Dye Course at Barefoot Resort. The result is typical Dye mounds, humps, railroad ties and countless bunkers.

Barefoot Resort, Fazio

One of three Tom Fazio-designed golf courses along the Grand Strand, the newest of the bunch - the Fazio Course at Barefoot Resort - is set on expansive acreage, so there are few parallel holes. The course features huge waste bunkering with native trees.

Long Bay Club

Jack Nicklaus got out his chisel on this unassuming piece of land out on Highway 9. Long Bay Club features a lot of mounding, especially around the well protected greens. A vast amount of waste bunkering was used; you'll be driving through them occasionally, including on the signature horseshoe bunker encircling the 10th fairway.

Moorland at Legends Resort

Moorland at Legends Resort, P.B. Dye's stadium-style design, features target golf and penal waste areas. Despite a modest length - under 6,700 yards from the championship tees - Golf Digest ranks Moorland among the 50 most difficult golf courses in America.

Inside the Ropes at the US Open (wrap up)

By Joan Shafer

In real life, Joan Shafer is a global business consultant with a tremendous love of golf. This week she's a volunteer Marshall at the US Open on Hole #5. What follows are her observations from "inside the ropes."

(Editor's note: Each new addition to Joan's report is added to the end of this story, so that new readers can follow it in order, as it happened. Use the links to jump to the parts you haven't seen yet.)

Go to Day 3

The Wrap Up

Day 2:

We did not see Tiger today since our shift started in the afternoon and we decided to miss his morning practice.

So, some highlights of today:

1. We had a massive breakfast at a local diner and got to talking to the guy in the booth next to ours. He is one of the Rules Officials and has presided at all sorts of tournaments including college and seniors events. This guy is a judge by profession and will be working his 13th US Open this week. We peppered him with questions which triggered his telling us things he had witnessed such as: 1) following Sergio here in 2002 when he would grip and re-grip and re-grip and re-grip his club before taking every shot and the NY crowd deciding to count for him "ONE! TWO!! THREE!! . . . etc. " Then when he would fluff the shot, they would yell "ALL THAT? FOR THAT??!!." 2) Another Sergio story when he was clearly not going to make the cut at Winged Foot and asked the Rules Official if there would be a penalty if he threw his club. The official replied that if he threw it like a man over the fence and far into the woods, then maybe. Otherwise if he threw it to the ground, then not. Sergio told him that the woods option sounded good to him and the official said "Wait - let me have it and I'll auction it for charity". Sergio went to his bag, pulled out his driver, signed it, and handed it to him. The official got $1000 for the First Tee Foundation as the result. 3) Ask me to tell you the Jack Nicklaus story whenever I see you. Too long to write. Suffice it to say that the judge had me (and himself) in complete tears after telling it.

2. The NY gallery. I have been to about 20 big golf tournaments in my life in Scotland, Australia and across the USA. I have NEVER ever seen or heard anything like the people who come out here. They hold back no punches or thoughts. They just yell across the fairways and greens what they want to the players, caddies, or anyone else in their entourage. Like at our hole yesterday, Todd Hamilton hit his second shot to the elevated green and it landed short. One of the guys on the sidelines called out "What club did you just hit Todd?" Hamilton voiced back "A 7 iron." The guy cried "That is NOT enough club on this hole!!" At which point Hamilton pulled a 3 iron out of his bag, dropped another ball and struck it to within 8 feet of the flag. The crowd went WILD in applause. Upon reaching the green, Hamilton picked up the first ball, signed it and walked over to the ropes and gave it to the guy who advised him. Nice. The spectators all have strong NY accents. They all wear long khaki shorts, faded golf shirts, golf hats, and hold beers in their left hands and cigars in their right. If you ask them who they want to win this week, they get all soft and genuine and say "Phil . . . especially for what he is going through." If a player is a jerk and does something dumb, they show no mercy.

3. Speaking of Phil. Our hold captain told us that Phil flew home to CA on Sunday night after the St. Jude tournament to be with Amy and will be flying in here tomorrow night. So no practice this week. The marshals at each hole are going to be wearing some sort of pink something in support of him and Amy such as wrist bands, ribbons, or pins on our hats.

4. As Angel Cabrera was walking off the green, he looked up directly into my eyes and gave me the friendliest "Hi!" a girl could get. I was completely star struck for several hours after that.

5. In the merchandise tent, Rocco Mediate was at a table signing his new book co-written by John Feinstein titled "You've Got to be Kidding Me" about last year's US Open match between him and Tiger. I handed him my copy and said that it was for a prostate cancer charity auction in August. Boy - he is another one that looks you dead in the eyes when connecting with you and so could not have been more thoughtful in the words he finally and briefly inked down. These guys are good.

I realized today that golf is like the movies. A topic that universally yields animated conversation with a stranger. It is the best leveler in that one could talk to another for hours out here about this subject and never get into "What do you do for a living" and all those other questions that lead to hierarchical judgments about the other.  Everyone to a person is excited in this event whether the girl scout gals at the concession booth who are donating their time free in exchange for a percentage of the take from the food company as a gift; the volunteer grounds teams 10-strong each who started work at 3 am this morning under lights and came out in full force at the end of the round today to pick up every divot off the fairway, put sand it its place and repair each ball mark.  It seems like everyone wants to talk to everyone and so we are.   Whether it is commenting on the player, the weather, exchanging information, or teasing a stranger uncompromisingly because you know they are from New York and will give it back to you better than you could deliver it.

Day 3:

"Yesterday we were not scheduled to work a shift, so went out to the course to spend the morning in the grandstand at 17 where you can see 4 other holes in play. It was then that Phil played his only practice round of the week and it was more than moving to see and hear the fan support along the way. He is New York's love child.

Before leaving at noon to play 18 ourselves, I spent the smartest $29 of the past 10 years. I bought a golf umbrella knowing that the forecast was for big rain today. No wonder golfers carry umbrellas in the USA. When I lived in Scotland, an umbrella was worthless because rain is not only horizontal, but it becomes a wind sail which pulled you uncontrollably down any path you were walking resulting in joint displacement.

Today marked the first day of official play, so easy banter between the players and gallery was now gone, the relaxed amble of the golfers replaced by focused pacing, and high stakes felt behind every shot. We left our hotel at 6:15 am in all our rain gear in a downpour to get to the course and hike out to our hole. Our hole director is an 'on it' gal named Kathy who gave us a whole series of directives about crowd control, crosswalk management and fore-caddying. Huddled under our umbrellas in the non-stop rain, the question was whether play was really going to start. Word came back "yes" - the first groups had just teed off at 7: 04 am at 1 and 10. We knew that Tiger was teeing off at 8:06 am with Angel Cabrera and Padraig Harrington. I was sent down the right side of the fairway to be the first of 3 fore caddies and it wasn't long before the first group reached our hole (the 5th). It instantly became clear that today was going to be different from the practice rounds with the rain shortening their drives by 10-40 yards and their nerves affecting their swing and thus ball flight so that they were landing in the front bunkers that they had consistently cleared the 3 days before. The first 4 groups came through composed of mostly unknown players. The marshals were then moved up one place so I was now the middle fore caddy. Vijay Singh, KJ Choi and Jeev Singh teed off and for the first time all week, a ball landed in the high grass on the right side of the bunkers which I saw land near to me and marked with a flag. It is a daunting position to be in since you can't see the ball come off the tee and you need to trust the 2 marshals standing behind the golfer on the tee who raise yellow paddles indicating which direction the ball is coming down the fairway. If you see the yellow boards being waved toward your side, you start madly looking at the sky for incoming with ears on high alert for the sound of the ball thud ding.

Then the tsunami of spectators appeared over the hill making their way down both sides of the fairway to be in position for Tiger and his group's drives off the tee. We could barely see them in the distance walking up to it with caddies, umbrellas, scorers, etc. First ball from the group landed in the fairway not too far along. Then wait. Next player hit the ball and the tee marshals are wildly waving their paddles toward us. We hear a thwack of a ball shooting back off a tree trunk in front of us back into the high grass. I saw it land and trooped hurriedly over to mark it with my flag. I looked down at it and saw the Nike swoosh logo. It was then my heart started thudding like mad and I realized whose ball it was. The third shot was hit over into the short left rough. A mass of media inside the ropes came down my way as I stood protective of that little area. Stevie then appeared with Tiger's bag and I pointed to the flag. Dave, the fore caddy behind me explained to Stevie that the ball had hit the tree in front and thus why it may be scuffed. We reverently stood back a few paces and watched Tiger approach. I realized later that I was breathless. He was not bent out of shape or upset. Came over, looked down at the ball and the lie, went over to his bag and pulled out a wedge, took a moment to look where the other players were, looked down the fairway, took a focused practice swing, and then punched it out down the middle. Walked on and waited for the others. I just have to say . . . it was special. A moment I will never forget. He is as perfect in real life as he is in pictures and on TV. Dave and I smiled at each other after they all left just feeling that warmth of luck. Tiger went on to double bogey the hole, one of the hardest on the front 9, and then birdied the 6th in ever heavier rain. Play was suspended for the rest of the day not long after that.

We are not working tomorrow, but unanimously agreed to meet at 6:30 am to get to the course to follow Tiger for the rest of his round. We want to watch the best player in the world in action at the US Open. Realizing that history is in the making and that no one comes close to his play, we want to see and appreciate as much of him and his game as we can.

A FEW SIDE NOTES FROM TODAY:

1. It was pouring (!) all day. The greens became big ponds. The fairways like 1000 small lakes. You could not walk on the grass paths which had become 6 inch mud obstacle courses that Marine training camps only dream of. Parking lots were closed after the cars emptied out because of all the mud damage. The massive rains of today had been predicted since last weekend. Yet - we saw guys in their late teens and early 20's both on the course and in the gallery wearing only a golf shirt and shorts. No umbrella, rain hat, waterproofs, etc. A lot of outraged mothers are on the corrective action warpath tonight.

2. Tickets were $40 for each practice day and are $100 for each tournament day. 42,000 tickets per day max and they are pretty much sold out. The people who comprised the gallery today were golfers. No one else would have been mad enough to come out in this weather. So crowd control was not needed. We know this game and its etiquette. We play in this weather. Even though it was so wet that play was suspended, we all loved being out there in it.

Can't wait for tomorrow . . . "

The Wrap Up

It is all over now and I imagine you know that Lucas Glover won the US Open yesterday afternoon. A deserving win after a most exciting final hour where any of 5 golfers could have taken it. When Phil eagled #13, you could hear the roar in Philadelphia. Loudest and most excited response of the week. It was just not in the stars for him to win this one. However, I think he had to leave feeling deeply loved and supported by the 1000's and 1000's and 1000's of people who cheered his every step over 6 days.

I learned some things this week.

1. All you have to do to get a successful outcome from a group of people whom you don't know and want their best is just ask them to just use their common sense as the guideline. There were 1000's (not 100's but 1000's) of volunteers who ran this tournament including hole marshals, grandstand marshals, ground crews, transportation drivers, parking lot directors, concession stand servers, cleaners, information guides, ticket takers, security screeners, ticket sellers, merchandise vendors, etc. etc. etc. etc. These are people who love golf, want to be helpful, and be in the thick of action. It all worked like a charm. The amount of responsibility given to these groups is impressive and other institutions could learn a wonderful lesson from this. We don't need controls, manuals, trainings, and micromanagers to make big things work. Just have faith in the people who are already there. There were some 45,000 people on this golf course every day and it flowed beautifully.

2. Give your people all the benefits that make sense and they will deliver in spades. As volunteers, we could attend every day even if we weren't working. For each shift we worked, we were given a voucher good for a sandwich, piece of fruit, bag of chips, and drink of our choice. There were tents set up especially for the volunteers with tables and chairs, breakfast take-away items, snacks, TV's on the wall, and course guides for the taking. In the back of each tent were 3-4 massage chairs and professional masseuses who gave free 5-15 minute sessions for any volunteer who wanted one. We got free parking in a special lot too. That is a lot of giving in my book.

3. I discovered that I could have another career as a fore caddy since I seem to have a talent for spotting incoming balls off the tee that land in the rough. Probably developed as a result of all the hours I have been in there looking for my own ball.

4. American Express knows smart marketing. At the main gate, they had a booth where they gave away little ear pieces for anyone who had an AmEx card. These were little radios that broadcast the tournament via satellite radio (XM and Sirius), so that wherever you were on the course, you heard what was going on elsewhere. Easily 30% of the people had them on and collectively would get excited when hearing that Tiger had birdied a hole or something similar. Everyone wanted one.

5. Golfers are universally great people. Whether they are professional or amateur, from New York or New Mexico, they are ready to talk to you, open to sharing information, wanting to play.

6. It was Father's Day on Sunday and I missed my Dad . . . . He died 8 years ago a few weeks after he and I spent the weekend watching the US Open together with Retief Goosen winning. He was the golfer in our family who inspired his children to learn. He was a life long volunteer at the Greater Hartford Open (in all its various names) since the early 1960's and got a special award in his later years for all that he contributed. He would have been watching it on TV if he were still alive. I think he was watching it from above with an even greater perspective. Part of what makes this sport so heavenly . . .

10 Classic Myrtle Beach Courses That Traditionalists Will Love

By Brandon Tucker,
Senior Writer at World Golf Wire

For many golfers, the blood starts pumping the most when they put the peg in the ground of one of the game's classic golf courses.

Myrtle Beach, South Carolina is a relatively new golf destination, with many of its courses not coming around until the 1980s and 1990s. That said, there are a handful of historic designs, including Pine Lakes Country Club, which dates back to 1927 (and is sporting a fresh new look).

Other courses, while newer, were built with the game's traditional design traits in mind. Little land was moved, and the courses have a timeless look. Here are Myrtle Beach's top 10 best bets for design traditionalists.

Dunes Golf and Beach Club

Dunes Golf and Beach Club - One of the oldest golf courses in Myrtle Beach, Dunes Golf and Beach Club is considered among Robert Trent Jones Sr.'s finest designs. It's also believed to have the first "signature hole," the par-5 13th, nicknamed "Waterloo." Jones' large, splashed bunkers, raised greens and doglegs make the Dunes as timeless a test as any course here.

Pine Lakes Country Club

Of course Myrtle Beach's "Granddaddy" is going to be on this list. Pine Lakes Country Club is the area's first golf course, opened in 1927. It reopened in the spring of 2009 after an extensive renovation by Craig Schreiner, who built new holes and restored originals designed by Robert White, founder of the American Society of Golf Course Architects.

"My design challenge was integrating the nine newer holes with White's nine original holes," said Schreiner. "The end result was improved consistency in the strategic play quality and aesthetics of every hole." These improved aesthetics also include views of the historic 80-year-old clubhouse (also restored) from 16 holes.

Shaftesbury Glen Golf & Fish Club

The mission of this Glen Golf Group's course was to employ the design style of A.W. Tillinghast, one of the great "golden age" architects. Its setting, with no holes playing through real estate, meaning parallel fairways, gives Shaftesbury Glen Golf & Fish Club an old school vibe, while the quick, raised bent grass greens and bunkering are vintage Tillinghast.

Litchfield Country Club

Litchfield Country Club - Myrtle BeachThis 1966 design by Willard Byrd is a step back in time. Litchfield Country Club is on the short side but defends itself with small greens and sharp doglegs through thick Carolina forests. It's also extremely walkable.

Caledonia Golf & Fish Club

The late Mike Strantz is hardly a traditional architect, but he was on his best behavior when building Caledonia Golf & Fish Club. Thanks to natural-looking shaping around the course's most beautiful trees (and there are plenty here), the course feels well advanced of its 1995 debut. Caledonia is also squeezed on a very old school-sized plot of land, under 120 acres.

Legends Resort, Heathland Course

Usually minimalist golf architect Tom Doak will be the first to tell you there was plenty of earth moved for the Heathland Course at Legends Resort, but it was done at the discretion of the Legends Group, who wanted a links-style design. Doak delivered the best faux links on the beach.

West Course, Myrtle Beach National

One of Arnold Palmer's oldest golf course designs (with former associate Francis Duane), the West Course at Myrtle Beach National meanders around the same terrain as the flashier King's North course, but this 1970s design delivers large, bent grass greens, many of which slope severely from back to front. There's no residential development, so you'll find your stray drives on pine straw under the tall pines lining the fairways.

Arcadian Shores Golf Club

Built in 1974 near the heart of Myrtle Beach and just off the ocean, Arcadian Shores Golf Club is "U.S. Open Doctor" Rees Jones' first solo design, and the result is a golf course that defends itself with tight doglegs and strategic bunkering over length.

Tradition Golf Club

The name forebodes a timeless test, the Ron Garl design delivers it. Tradition Golf Club's more understated characteristics in a golf-saturated neighborhood make it a bit of a lesser-known, but the golf course features some of the best green complexes around.

World Tour Golf Links

The World Tour Golf Links replica course of 27 of the world's most famous holes will probably make some traditionalists cringe at the concept. But those who have visited St. Andrews, Augusta National and Cypress Point will be curious to see how accurate - or inaccurate - World Tour's efforts were.

The Grand Strand's Top Signature Holes

By Brandon Tucker

Each golf trip has one: that special hole which leaves a lasting imprint in your noggin' long after you've returned home.

Myrtle Beach golf courses are chock full of them. And, interestingly enough, the concept of a "signature hole" is considered by many golf architecture historians to have been born in Myrtle Beach at the Dunes Golf and Beach Club. Robert Trent Jones' famous "Waterloo" hole, a par 5 that wraps around Lake Singleton just off the Atlantic Ocean, is the first known hole purpose built to stick out like a sore (well, a very scenic "sore") thumb.

Today's definition of a "signature hole" lies, depending on your tastes, somewhere between the best-designed, most drama-laden, most difficult or most scenic hole on any golf course.

There are roughly 100 golf courses in Myrtle Beach, and most of them have tried to employ their own offering as Myrtle Beach's best golf hole.

Here is just a sample of the headliners:

No. 6, King's North at Myrtle Beach National: Any worthy signature hole has a nickname. In this instance, No. 6 at King's North was christened by musician Kenny Rogers as "The Gambler," thanks to its island fairway that allows the hole to be played close to 100 yards shorter than the conventional dogleg left around the water. The shallow, peninsula green leaves little room for error both front, long and left. For some golfers, it makes their trip. Others call it "gimmicky," but no one deems it guilty of false advertising.

This isn't the only contender at King's North. The par-3 12th hole features an island green with "S" and "C" bunkers to the left, symbolizing "South Carolina," making it a popular favorite spot for aerial photographers.

No. 18, Caledonia Golf & Fish Club: Caledonia's 18th hole is the best closing hole on the Grand Strand thanks largely to its 19th hole.

The club has become infamous for its often rowdy back porch just steps off the 18th green. As players finish up their morning rounds, the porch fills up, and groups tend to stay here longer than most other clubhouses due to the entertainment provided by the 18th hole's approach shot: a long carry over water that sees one wet, embarrassing failure after another. Jeers and cheers echo off the porch long into late afternoon.

Of all the shots in the Grand Strand, this is the one that will most likely be watched by the most eyes and will certainly test your mettle.

No. 13, Pawleys Plantation: Pawleys Plantation's back nine hugs the marsh so close you'll always have the smell of saltwater in your nostrils. Both the par 3s on the back must carry marsh, but it's the short 13th's island green, with a miniscule putting surface jutting out into the marsh, that will have your group talking - or cursing.

And when the tide is out, you can see enough balls sitting in the muck to stock a golf shop for years.

No. 14, Grande Dunes' Resort Course: A handful of courses boast at least one striking hole along the bustling Intracoastal waterway, where anything from jet skis to fishing and luxury leisure boats pass by parallel golf holes at clubs like Arrowhead Country Club, Waterway Hills Golf Links and Myrtlewood Golf Club's Palmetto Course.

But the most distinctive is Grande Dunes' par-3 14th hole. It's a daring shot both over the waterway to a green perched to the left of it - up to 240 yards long if you're a gamer. A weak fade's only hope of finding dry surface is if it somehow lands on a shrimp boat.

No. 16, Glen Dornoch Waterway Golf Links: If your personal thesaurus has "signature" and "difficult" in the same entry, look no further than Glen Dornoch's 16th hole, which kicks off the North Strand's most sinister trio of finishing holes. It heads straight downhill towards the waterway. Depending on your length, a delicate layup is required to stay short of a perpendicular hazard.

The approach shot plays further downhill, to a green guarded left, right and back by the waterway. Often requiring a medium-to-long iron, few golfers move on to 17 with 4.

No. 6, Barefoot Resort, Love Course: Barefoot went out of its way here to leave a little something extra, recreating slave quarters behind the sixth green. In fact, the structure is so close to this drivable par 4, it isn't unheard of to actually fly the green with your drive, strike the structure and have it kick backwards onto the green.

While this structure is replicated, other courses have authentic plantation remnants. Willbrook Plantation is full of excavated slave ruins and even a cemetery. The Heritage Golf Club's 440-yard fourth is completely encircled with centuries-old oaks and a slave burial ground to the left of the green, which leaves little evidence of anytime later than the 18th century.

No. 18, Farmstead Golf Club: If "signature" means "longest," this hole is the hands-down winner. Those who haven't been to the Grand Strand aren't often aware that there are some golf courses that spill over across the border in North Carolina. But there is only one golf course that plays in both South and North Carolina and only one hole that plays in both. It's Farmstead's endless 767-yard par 6.

That's just a sample of some of the area's most vivid holes. But in the end, it comes down to what the golfer remembers when he's with his buddies a year later in the poker room and the topic of his "trip to Myrtle Beach" comes up.

So what's yours?

Master's Club In Myrtle Beach Cater' To Multiple Tastes And Both Genders

By On The Green Group

Many gentlemen's clubs are following a new trend and trying to appeal to a couples market and employ male dancers as well as females at least part of the time. Many clubs now offer discounts on entry to couples, amateur male dancer night as well as ladies, and discounted couples lap dances where the couple can share time with a dancer. Master's Club in Myrtle Beach is a large tasteful establishment that caters to both gender's and offers a wide range of adult entertainments.

Special events such as professional dancing competitions and parties can draw a large crowd but can be a lot of fun. Attending a strip club as a couple may seem strange but many couples find it invigorating. It seems to be a good way for them to openly explore feelings that have until recently been taboo or shameful for them. Many couples have toyed with the idea of inviting a third party into the bedroom but this can be dangerous and almost always awkward. There is the issue of disease and jealousy can occur if anyone feels the relationship is threatened. Spending an evening in a club can be a good alternative for some.

Many female dancers enjoy dancing for other women and will go through trouble to make sure everyone is comfortable and offer equal time, or even pay more attention to the female if the couple prefers it. Many people, both men and women, enjoy seeing the athleticism displayed by good professional pole dancers and tip according to the difficulty of a well-performed routine. Master's Club also has a women only Ladies Night Male Burlesque review. Such shows have been popular in Las Vegas for many years and can be a great deal of fun for a group of friends to attend together. Overall many clubs such as Master's Club are making an effort to shake off any negative connotations associated with the business in the past and offer services they can be honest and proud about.

Master's Club is a rather large club with high ceilings and adequate lighting. The club serves a variety of alcoholic beverages and has comfortable seating throughout and a wide range of dancers to suit multiple tastes. Featured Guest dancers, events, and nightly specials vary so check ahead and plan your evening accordingly. Master's Club can help you plan your His, Hers, or Couples bachelor party so it's an event to remember.

 

Leopard's Chase at Ocean Ridge

Big, bold, and beautiful is the best way to describe the new Tim Cate course at Ocean Ridge. Leopard’s Chase is an architectural accomplishment of gigantic proportions. Every twist and turn presents unparalleled challenges and bountiful scenery. This par 72 layout is a pleasure to play and is already receiving rave reviews. It certainly deserves to be a part of the Big Cats family at Ocean Ridge.

It was difficult to top the highly acclaimed Tiger’s Eye, but the Leopard has done just that. The 7100+ yard layout features TifSport Bermuda fairways and perfectly manicured bent grass greens. The level of detail for this spectacular layout with its natural elevations, scenic landscapes, native grasses and that beautiful white coastal sand used for the waste areas, creates a series of flowing picturesque holes. Each one is different and demands the best shot making possible. Natural wetlands are used in such a way to enhance each holes beauty and playability.

A magnificently placed waterfall on number the 18th green can make an approach shot seem menacing but adds to the total golf experience. Cate’s latest accomplishment was flawlessly designed on more than 220 acres of prime coastal land. The large lakes, significant mounding and elevation changes make it visually awesome. The course incorporates a big bold design with very distinctive features including the outstanding island green fourth hole. The finishing holes on each nine are brilliant. The “wow” factor is everywhere. It’s the perfect combination of all the land’s natural elements and Cate’s unique design.

Hole # 1 par 4, 303 from the white tees.
Large lake on left, great visual with traps on right. Short but dangerous hole. Fade it to about 80 yards to the green. Sand wedge to a small undulating green that banks from left to right.

Hole # 2 par 3, 141 from the white tees.
Again plenty of large tees. Can be difficult depending on the pin placement. The large undulating green is very receptive. It can play anywhere from 120 to 160 yards.

Hole # 3 par 5, 503 from the white tees.
A beauty, dogleg to the right. Waste bunker with that white sugar sand runs all the way down the right. Keep it away from the bunker on the right. If you stay in play it’s an easy par. Large receptive green.

Hole # 4 par 3, 156 from the white tees.
Water, water everywhere. Classic par three. Plenty of big tees, big bunker in front, small undulating green, make sure you hit enough club.

Hole # 5 par 4, 365 from the white tees.
Rock and roll, great tees, tons of nicely placed mounds and native grasses frame out this impressive par 4. Green is huge – over forty yards long.

Hole # 6 par 4, 382 from the white tees.
Lake and trap on left, great set up. Must keep it on the right of the fairway. Once again a large receptive green.

Hole # 7 par 4, 385 from the white tees.
Straight and long, plenty of dangerous traps. This is a tough par 4 with undulated green. Be careful, this green is easy to three putt.

Hole # 8 par 3, 157 from the white tees.
Great long par 3 water left, draw it into the hole, and hit plenty of club to avoid the trap butting the green on the front right. Nice hole.

Hole # 9 par 5, 532 from the white tees.
Killer hole, with wetlands running all the way down on the left. This will take all of your best shot making to par. Keep it in play is a must if you expect to par it.

Hole # 10 par 4, 345 from the white tees.
Slight dogleg left with gigantic waste bunker down the right side, heavily trapped on the left with a small green. Place your drive between the two traps where you have about 120 yards into the green.

Hole# 11 par 5, 485 from the white tees.
Breathtaking hole, with plenty of forced carries over the wetlands. Accuracy and superb shot making are a must. One of my favorite holes, a real challenge.

Hole # 12 par 4, 356 from the white tees.
Plenty of big elevated tees, which is one of the great characteristics of this golf course. Rolling fairway, small undulating green, a sweet hole

Hole # 13 par 3, 151 from the white tees.
Down hill, the green is in the middle of the wetlands. Whatever you do, don’t hit it right into the deep bunker like I did. Bail out to the left if necessary.

Hole # 14 par 5, 486 from the white tees.
Big dogleg left, visually awesome, my favorite hole. Elevated tees give you a great look. Traps and wetlands everywhere. Play it smart, this not a hole where you want to take any chances.

Hole # 15 par 4, 381 from the white tees.
A brief relief, straight away with a huge green that you can’t miss.

Hole # 16 par 3, 147 from the white tees.
The perfect little par three, another beauty. Stay clear of the big bunker on the right and you should pick up an easy par.

Hole # 17 par 5, 527 from the white tees.
Another one of those big bold holes, huge mounds left, at all cost keep it play.

Hole # 18 par 4, 369 from the white tees.
What can I say, great finishing hole. Elevated green on top of this magnificent waterfall. Huge lake on the left frames out this wonderful signature hole. The perfect ending to a terrific golf experience.

My congratulations to Tim Cate for another job well done. He has certainly made his mark at Ocean Ridge with Panther’s Run, the highly ranked Tiger’s Eye and now the much heralded Leopard’s Chase. Leopard’s Chase is certainly destined to be one of the highest ranked courses in the Myrtle Beach area. We look forward to his next effort, Jaguar’s Lair, presently under construction in Sunset Beach for a opening in 2008 It is sure to be another great addition to the Big Cats family.

Ocean Ridge Plantation is located in Sunset Beach. It features 90 holes of superb golf. Conveniently located between Wilmington N.C. and the exciting Grand Strand of S.C. this community offers the best in coastal living. Numerous amenities include: walking /biking trails, a private oceanfront beach club, two grand clubhouses, with two more planned, spa and fitness center, swim and tennis centers, nature parks and more. It is a unique master planned community and one of the Carolinas’ most exclusive and luxurious golf and beach communities.

General Jim Hackler Championship College Tournament

By L. J. Gainer

The General Jim Hackler Championship is fast becoming a top-rated collegiate tournament.

For the last seven years, some of the best collegiate golf teams in America have been coming to the TPC of Myrtle Beach to compete in the General Jim Hackler Championship. In 2007, eighteen teams came to play in the 54-hole event that is emerging as one of the top-rated tournaments in college golf. Hosted by Coastal Carolina University, the field included seven teams that competed in the NCAA Championships and another seven that played in the NCAA Regionals. National golf powerhouses Duke, Lamar, Pepperdine, East Tennessee State and Southern California all came. Players included some of Golfweek’s top-ranked amateurs like Southern California’s Jamie Lovemark whom golf writers call “the next Tiger Woods.” After playing in the Hackler, amateur Lovemark racked up two top 20 finishes on the PGA TOUR.

(Note: General Hackler passed away in 2008. He will be missed.)

Through every round since the Championship began, the tournament’s namesake has been there to closely observe the competition. At 87, retired General James Franklin Hackler Jr. is as much a fixture at the Championship as he has been in Myrtle Beach for half a century.

The General first made his mark on Myrtle Beach in 1956 when he returned from duty in Europe to command the 354th Fighter Day Group at Myrtle Beach Air Force Base.

But even before he arrived — and decades before he entered Myrtle Beach golf history as one of the pioneers of the golf package — Hackler had already accomplished more than most men do in their entire careers.

And golf was always part of his plan.

“I’ve been involved with golf since I was a little boy,” he says enthusiastically. ”I went to the finals of the junior championship of the Carolinas. I played on the golf team at UNC Chapel Hill while I was there for one year and on the golf team at West Point. I played golf all the time, except for three or four years during WWII.”

As a cadet at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, he was the captain of the golf team, as well as a member of the first graduating class to get their wings. In 1943, he headed off to war, serving as a fighter pilot, group operations officer and squadron commander in England, France and Germany.

In 1947, he did some time at the Pentagon then moved to the headquarters of the Ninth Air Force at Pope Air Force Base in N.C. as chief of the Fighter Training Division. Later, he commanded a squadron with the 50th Tactical Fighter Wing in New Mexico. He then returned to Europe, becoming director of operations and training for the Twelfth Air Force.

Along the way, he attended the NATO Defense College in Paris, and was awarded the Silver Star, Legion of Merit, Distinguished Flying Cross with oak leaf cluster, Air Medal with 20 oak leaf clusters, both the Army and Air Force Commendation Medals, and the French Croix de Guerre with Silver Gilt Star. As a command pilot, he checked out in more than 45 types of aircraft, including several from other countries.

By the mid-1950s, Hackler was back in the states assuming new challenges at the Myrtle Beach base. He became director of operations for the 354th Tactical Fighter Wing and, as part of Tactical Air Command's Composite Air Strike Force, helped develop a worldwide deployment capability.

With so many contributions to national defense under his belt, involvement in the local golf business was far from his mind.

Just as he was called back to Washington to attend the National War College and work with the Secretary of Defense, Hackler received a call from his friend George "Buster" Bryan, a local developer who was a founder of the Dunes Golf & Beach Club.

“Buster asked me to come by his office,” Hackler recalls. “He said he would like to have me participate in building a motel called the Caravelle. My wife and I got together the resources and invested. Then I left for D.C. and Europe.”

Over the next decade, Hackler kept in close touch with Bryan. With partners, they built two golf courses, Robber’s Roost and Possum Trot. Then, on a golf trip to Pinehurst, Hackler had an idea that would change golf in Myrtle Beach forever.

“I was on a golf package from D.C.,” he says. “I called Buster and said ‘we should have stay and play golf packages. We have everything in Myrtle Beach except the Pinehurst tradition and we have more entertainment, restaurants and there’s that beautiful ocean.’ Once we put it in place, the package plan took off like topsy and created a need for more golf courses.”

Bryan started Golf-o-tel to promote packages with the two golf courses and the Caravelle. He planned to keep the golf package idea exclusive, not letting any other hotels or golf courses participate. That situation motivated local hotelier Clay Brittain and advertising executive Cecil Brandon to start a marketing cooperative with all the other golf courses and accommodations. Named Myrtle Beach Golf Holiday, today that cooperative is universally recognized as putting Myrtle Beach golf on the radar screens of golfers worldwide.

“After a fairly short period of time, Buster and I saw Golf-o-tel was a duplication so we went into Golf Holiday,” says Hackler.

In 1968 while serving another tour at the Pentagon, Hackler received a phone call that would alter his life radically. Bryant had died suddenly of Hong Kong flu. The General took emergency leave and headed for Myrtle Beach.

“It was then that I decided to get out of Air Force,” he recalls. “When I arrived here, I could see what was going to happen in Myrtle Beach with golf and tourism. I got out of the Air Force even though I had about 9 years left.”

Back on the Grand Strand, Hackler remained involved with the management of the Caravelle for a few years before selling his interest to Bryan’s family. He set his sights more on golf and started putting his available resources into courses.

He served two years as president of Golf Holiday, helping the fledgling group to establish itself. He pioneered the building of golf courses in then-distant parts of the Strand where conventional wisdom said they would never succeed. Skeptics said a successful golf course couldn’t be built across the waterway, but Hackler and his group built three profitable layouts at Bay Tree. He reached farther north with new partners to create Heather Glen. In the south, another partnership built Indian Wells.

Ever keen on “stay and play,” he invested in condo projects at Bay Tree and Heather Glen.

In 1983, he cast an international spotlight on Myrtle Beach when he persuaded the World Championship of the International Golfing Fellowship of Rotarians to hold their event on the Strand. A long-time member of Rotary, Hackler had played in the 1979 tournament at Pebble Beach for the first time and immediately resolved to bring the event home.

“It took a few years, but we finally brought it to Myrtle Beach where it was a tremendous success. Everybody in town pitched in,” says Hackler.

Through the years, golf has been a family business for the Hacklers, as well as a personal passion. The General is proud that his family has won several Dunes Club championships. His grandson won the junior championship; Mrs. Hackler has been Women’s Club Champion; and both the General and his son are club champions.

So it’s no surprise that CCU wanted to name their invitational event for this golf icon. Yet, with typical modesty, he admits “I told them I didn’t think it’d be good to call it by my name but they did it anyway.”

Starting with college teams from South Carolina, the event added North Carolina teams, then those throughout the Southeast, and ultimately nationwide. And General Hackler wants everyone to know that it could not be possible without the contributions of the TPC and its owner Chip Smith.

“Chip and the TPC have really helped the college tournament and have gone all out,” he says. “That’s a great, great assist for the event.”

At CCU’s graduation 2007, Hackler received an honorary doctorate degree. Reflecting on the honor, the General expressed his gratitude, yet could not resist a wry observation: “If any of my teachers in college found that out, they’d say ‘what!’ How’d he do that?’”

But, in fact, he did it all — from exemplary military service to pioneering the golf package concept that built the Grand Strand. They would be proud.

Call To Book Myrtle Beach Golf Tee Times

Not all of the golf courses in the Myrtle Beach area are set up to allow online booking of tee times. To book the courses listed below, you'll need to call On The Green's booking partner – Village at the Glens – directly. Village at the Glens books golf packages, but they can also book golf only. You can use the phone numbers below to book all of the courses you want to play in the area, or just the one's that don't book online.

• Bald Head Island Club
• Brunswick Plantation
• Dunes Club
• Lockwood Folly
• Whispering Pines
  

 

To book these courses, call one of these numbers:
Toll Free: 888-999-9520
Local: 843-281-2002
Ask for Jason

The Restoration of Pine Lakes

The Awakening of "The Granddaddy"

By Mitch Laurance

As Myrtle Beach grew to become the seaside golf capital of the world over the last half of the 20th century, one of its most enduring draws was Pine Lakes Country Club, the first golf course built on the Grand Strand almost 90 years ago. The combination of its historic position in the evolution of Myrtle Beach golf and its famed hospitality brought golfers back time and time again to enjoy a truly unique experience.

Over that same period, ownership of the property changed hands a number of times, and the demands of business sometimes made for uncertain times for Pine Lakes. But as the first decade of the 21st century nears its completion, a once proud icon now finds itself poised to regain its rightful place as the true foundation of Myrtle Beach golf, once again backed by Myrtle Beach’s most prominent development company, and in the hands of two talented, passionate advocates.

A Visionary Beginning: The Ocean Forest Hotel and Country Club

A little more than 80 years ago, Greenville, SC textile magnate John T. Woodside had a dream.

Arcady was to be its name, and it was Woodside’s vision that a fantastic resort with spectacular amenities, built on the shores of a relatively uninhabited section of the South Carolina coastline named Myrtle Beach, would be far beyond the scope of any other spot on earth, a place, according to Dino Thompson, long-time Myrtle Beach resident and local historian extraordinaire, that was to be  “the most desirable haven of rest and recreation in the world…. the most complete playground ever contemplated.” Miles and miles of white sand dunes and forests would be a perfect backdrop for this retreat for wealthy vacationers moving up and down the East Coast between New York and Miami. So in 1926 Woodside purchased 65,000 acres from the Myrtle Beach Farms Co. (which would later become Burroughs & Chapin Co., Inc.), and began building an extravagant summer resort, whose centerpiece would be the glorious 10-story Ocean Forest Hotel, overlooking the Atlantic Ocean, and its adjacent 27- hole golf course, the Ocean Forest Country Club.

Work quickly began on the Ocean Forest Club golf course. Hired to bring Myrtle Beach’s first layout to life was the esteemed golf course architect Robert White, a St. Andrews’ native and the first President of the then decade-old PGA of America. White was considered one of the top architects of the day, a contemporary of, and closely tied to, the legendary Donald Ross. After consulting with Ross, White laid out 18 true linksland holes along the dunes of the Grand Strand, in a non-returning layout (9 out and 9 back, a la The Old Course at St. Andrews and the courses of his youth) that were routed to the south and east, with holes 19-27 routed away from the dunes, to the north and west.

The Ocean Forest Country Club, complete with a magnificent 62-room antebellum clubhouse designed by Lincoln Memorial architect Henry Bacon McKoy, opened in 1927, the same year that construction began on the elegant Ocean Forest Hotel, with noted architect Raymond Hood at the helm (Hood had already designed the Tribune Tower in Chicago and would go on to design New York’s Rockefeller Center in 1933). The biggest national names in golf course design and building architecture had come to the Grand Strand, instantly signaling Myrtle Beach as a player on the list of the country’s elite resort destinations. Plans for Arcady were well on their way, and the future looked as bright as the radiant sun on a summer afternoon.

Then came Black Friday in October of 1929, and the collapse of the stock market that would signal the beginning of the Great Depression. For all intents and purposes, that day would put an end to John Woodside’s Arcadian dream, along with the dreams of so many others. Woodside would feel the effects of the troubled times, and the rest of Arcady would never materialize.

Luckily for Myrtle Beach, the truly wealthy were less affected by the Depression, still needed places to play, and the Ocean Forest Hotel would have its grand opening in February of 1930. After the opening Woodside, unable to make the mortgage payments on the hotel and country club, would see the property revert back to Myrtle Beach Farms. The hotel would close for 2 years, but would survive until 1974, and become one of the East Coast’s most beloved vacation and entertainment stops. With visitors the likes of the Rockefellers and the Vanderbilts, and entertainers and performers from Frank Sinatra and Count Basie to Tallulah Bankhead, the early belief that Myrtle Beach was a desired vacation spot would begin. More importantly, Woodside, Robert White, and the Ocean Forest Country Club had brought to Myrtle Beach a relatively new game that would change the course of the development of the Grand Strand forever.

Pine Lakes Country Club: The Next 50 Years

In 1944, Frederick A.W. Miles took over and reorganized the Ocean Forest Country Club. The Miles family was well known as owners of some of the south’s finest hotels, including the famous Jefferson Hotel in Richmond, VA, and  the Belvedere Hotel in Baltimore. Fred Miles changed the name to Pine Lakes Country Club, and in 1946 sold 18 of the original 27 holes for real estate development. He brought back Robert White to redesign the original 9 remaining holes and to add 9 more. At this point, the original 9 holes were almost 20 years old, and needed updating. Technology had changed, the game was starting to catch on, and Miles probably saw an opportunity to utilize White’s abilities one more time to energize his new property. It was a pattern that would reoccur at Pine Lakes as the years went by.

The foundation Robert White laid at Pine Lakes Country Club in 1927 and in 1946 would undergo numerous changes and course revisions over the next five and a half decades, owing to increased play and to general decisions to try to stay ahead of the competitive business curve. In the 1960’s, according to Tom Slavish, Pine Lakes’ longtime superintendent, areas of the course were shifted for housing interests and riding trails, and some changes were made to the course by Fred Miles himself. In the mid- 1990’s, work was done on the Pine Lakes bunkers, and 1999/2000 saw former Jack Nicklaus Senior Designer Rick Robbins put his stamp on roughly half the holes at Pine Lakes as well.
One constant remained through it all. It was obvious over the course of time that Pine Lakes was something special, to Myrtle Beach and to the history of golf in America. On November 7,1996, the United States Department of the Interior agreed, placing Pine Lakes Country Club on its most prestigious list, the National Register of Historic Places, citing its historical and architectural significance. It is the only South Carolina golf course to be so honored.

Into The Future

In 2001, the Miles Family sold Pine Lakes back to Burroughs & Chapin Company, Inc., by then Myrtle Beach’s largest commercial development company, and the original owner of the Ocean Forest property. Business can be a cold game, and for the next few years, B&C attempted to decide what to do with their obviously valuable piece of property.

Both the golf course and clubhouse now held genuine historical significance, but both needed quite a bit of scrutiny. The course, though a favorite with golfers for years, had grown somewhat unsafe, with features that were just “too tight for each other, especially on the back 9,” said Randy Allen, B&C’s Senior Director of Golf and Grounds Maintenance.  Older turf on the greens was seriously outdated. Shade on greens and fairways where trees had evolved, inconsistent green soils, differences between the ‘newer’ back 9 and the historical Robert White- designed front 9, inadequate irrigation systems, older cart paths in need of repair, the list went on and on. According to Allen, Pine Lakes “needed work, and a lot of it.”

The clubhouse, a prime example of classical revival architecture, had also drifted into a less-than-sparkling state, and questions remained about what to do to with what was once such a stylish and graceful hub of social activity.  Options ranged from completely doing away with the golf course in favor of increased real estate development, to leveling Pine Lakes and building an entirely new golf course. Finally, in 2004, B&C decided to restore Pine Lakes Country Club to its magnificent roots, and, after a demanding preplanning stage, in 2006 began an extensive, multi-million dollar project to “restore Pine Lakes to its 1927 glory days.” It seems only fitting that the company that grew out of Myrtle Beach Farms, the original holder of the property bought by John T. Woodside in 1926, should make that crucial decision.

Craig Schreiner and The Shrouded Lion

The most obvious concerns would be, “What to do with the golf course?” and “Who should do it?” Given the new B&C mission, there was no question that as much as possible the original Robert White design should be utilized. But to what extent, and on what holes? How much to keep, how much to change?
When it came time to pick the agent of that change, B&C had already had the chance to work with an architect who had impressed them with his creativity, his work ethic, his knowledge of environmental and budget issues, essentially his ability on all fronts.

Nationally renowned architect Craig Schreiner had recently worked on the Members Course at Grande Dunes (a B&C property), in collaboration with Hall of Famer Nick Price. Schreiner’s impressive resume featured not only new course designs in 13 states, but renovations and restorations on 28 courses, 9 of them by Donald Ross, at some of the most well-known tracks in the country, including Oak Hill Country Club in Rochester, NY, site of the 1995 Ryder Cup. The challenge of creating a playable and interesting course for today’s golfers, with their modern equipment and abilities, on the framework of a course created almost a century ago was right up Schreiner’s alley, and the chance to restore a layout with historical significance, a “shrouded lion” as he puts it, had to add fuel to his fire. After 2 ½ years of preplanning, working with the State Historical Preservation Office, the City of Myrtle Beach (to conform with tree ordinances), Randy Allen and Bill Pritchard of B&C, and finally, in 2006, with B&C Pine Lakes Senior Project Manager Tom Fous, and going through, according to Schreiner, “12 or 13 different routing plans,” the new layout of Pine Lakes was determined.

What was the front side of Robert White’s original 18-hole links course would remain as the new, restored back 9, holes #10-18. 7 holes of the old back 9 configuration, that had gone away from the dunes and bore no resemblance to White’s original style of design, would be reworked into a new front 9 in the initial White style, with 2 completely new holes (#4 and 5) created to replace the old #17 and 18, which were removed to make way for the brand new public entrance to Pine Lakes off Grissom Parkway (the old entrance on Woodside Ave. will now be a gated entrance for the use of Pine Lakes’ community residents and social club members).

Schreiner worked from researched material of the old Ocean Forest Country Club, committed to staying as true to White’s original drawings, and to the spirit of the Ocean Forest links course, as possible. He restored the greens and bunkers to their original size (they had shrunk over the years, amazingly, to 1/3 of that size), and expanded the course from a 6,600- yard par 71 to the new 6,700- yard par 70, putting in over 650 hours on the shaping bulldozer on the fairways of Pine Lakes (“It was so important to spend the time there,” he says. “It gives you a chance to really feel the golf course, to adjust to your creative instincts”).

He cleared trees and opened up the beautiful vistas on 16 of the original 18 hole corridors. He retained a classic Scottish element of fairways without bunkers (only 3 of the new Pine Lakes’ holes present that obstacle), virtually eliminated cart paths where possible on holes other than the par 3’s, and carefully brought back to the mix the feel, the movement of the land, and the shotmaking options on every hole that characterized the old game. Designed to build in dramatic intensity as the golfer moves through the round , Schreiner is literally like the conductor who takes you through the rise of drama of a round of golf (“By the time you get to #15, the symphony is really building!”),  while at the same time enhancing the experience for every level of player (“We want golfers to come out here and have fun, not lose a bunch of balls”).
On the environmental front, no one understands the relationship of the game to nature more than Schreiner He has done everything from using the native coastal grass Seashore Paspalum on fairways and greens (tremendously tolerant of salt water that might kill other grasses, drains incredibly well, “environmentally the future of golf”), to recycling as much as possible of the plants, trees, and flowers (a temporary nursery was built to hold them until they could be replanted) and even using native sand found in the original bunkers and in other parts of the course. Schreiner may be proudest of all of the drainage capability he created (“We can get 4 or 5 inches of rain and there won’t be a puddle on it”), of the harnessing of the self-sufficient irrigation power of the reworked lakes and pumps he has produced at Pine Lakes, “an enclosed golf course” as he calls it, capable of delivering 16 times more usable water to the course than before, in an efficient and ecologically responsible manner (“We’re making a statement”). It is a stunning example of the marriage of modern technology in the service of golf course design and restoration.

Tom Fous and A Classic Era Reborn

When you ride into Pine Lakes Country Club from the new entrance off Grissom Parkway, you feel as if you’re leaving the modern age of Myrtle Beach development and are suddenly approaching a scene right out of The Great Gatsby. An elegant white building, a lavish fountain, dormers, columns, and cupolas reminiscent of a bygone era… Is this Pine Lakes today or the Ocean Forest Club in 1927?

If B&C  VP/ Senior Project Manager Pine Lakes Tom Fous has anything to say about it, that’s exactly the connection you’ll make. In 2006, Fous had come to the Grand Strand from Traverse City, Michigan, where he had a flourishing career developing high-end residential/golf course projects (including 8 of Golfweek’s Top 100 Golf Residential Communities). While in discussion with B&C about coming aboard for their Grande Dunes project, he toured Pine Lakes, and had seen a clubhouse already gutted, about to be renovated, but basically kept the same. A keen golfer himself, and very much a traditionalist (“ I played persimmon clubs until very recently”), Fous realized, after moving to Myrtle Beach, that Pine Lakes had gotten under his skin, and with his wife Kim’s exhortation early on that “you need to take over this project” lingering in his mind, he set his course.

Fous, charged with managing all details of the golf course restoration and residential community construction process, did a lot of research on the origins of the Ocean Forest Hotel project. He realized how drawn he was to that 1920’s “Gatsbyesque” era, and to all the lore attached to it. The feeling of grandeur that came with a vacation at Ocean Forest, the hospitality of an exciting, yet relaxed, customer-oriented destination. “I wanted to lift the entire project, from preserving the best golf holes, to truly restoring the historic nature of the property,” he says, and proceeded to put together, literally, a picture of the times for others to see. Little by little, they began to see Fous’ vision of a place he called “too precious to lose.”

Working to bring the regal stature of the Ocean Forest Hotel to the Pine Lakes clubhouse, what was a decaying structure was restored using elements and materials that reflect a bygone time….. milled trim work, 10” siding, interior plaster molding, and even a spectacular chandelier from the original Ocean Forest Hotel. The clubhouse reflects, aesthetically, other great buildings of the times…… The colors, the patterns, the prints, all in the style of the Greenbriar in W. Virginia, Pinehurst in NC, and other resorts of the Gatsby era. The old stable from the 1920’s, which housed the donkeys used to clear the land for the original course and clubhouse, has been restored to look like the old barn, and houses Pine Lakes’ golf carts. 2 beautiful ballrooms have been returned to their earlier splendor. A “Great Event Lawn,” with the golf course as a backdrop, offers full catering facilities for weddings and events, bringing the clubhouse alive once again.  The Robert White Pub will provide a wonderful respite after a round of golf, joined by an open and airy pro shop, and men’s and women’s locker rooms. What was formerly The Governor’s Apartment now offers a fitness center, locker rooms, snack area, and an outdoor pool, open to Pine Lakes’ social members.

History will, of course, be well served at Pine Lakes. Fous’ face lights up when talking about the restored Snug Pub, a private gathering spot, a “whisper room,” as he calls it, said to be the original meeting spot, in 1954, of Henry Booth Luce and the 67 executives of Time Life, Inc. who traveled to Myrtle Beach and Pine Lakes for the meeting that would give birth to a new weekly magazine, Sports Illustrated. And if you want to really get an idea of the history of The Ocean Forest Hotel and Country Club and of Pine Lakes and the famous people (Bobby Jones, Gene Sarazen and Sam Snead all made appearances) and events that make it such a treasured place, a stroll through the new History Hall and Library will provide that experience.

It was also only fitting that the newly created Myrtle Beach Golf Hall of Fame would reside at Pine Lakes Country Club, and when the first inductees are enshrined, in conjunction with the reopening of Pine Lakes in the spring of 2009, and every subsequent year, it will be at the new Hall of Fame Garden, next to the Pine Lakes clubhouse.

“Ocean Forest and Pine Lakes is on the National Register of Historic Places as a ‘Geographic Area of Particular Concern,’” says Fous. “Not the clubhouse, not the golf course, but the entire area. This whole thing is about the experience, about the camaraderie and the convivial nature of golf.”

The members of the Pine Lakes community, old and new (a just-added 282-acre exclusive gated community), and all who love the game will be the beneficiaries of a bountiful project that is destined to be a milestone, in every way, for the Grand Strand. You can be sure Robert White would be proud.

Waccamaw Golf Trail

For avid golfers, the Myrtle Beach, S.C. area has long been one of the most popular destinations in the world, and for good reason. Here you’ll find more than 100 championship courses designed by some of the greatest names the game has ever known. Included among this fabulous collection of courses are 10 of the “Top 100 Greatest Public Courses in America,” with the highest concentration of awarded courses located along the Grand Strand’s southern shores between Murrells Inlet and Pawleys Island, a region recently designated as the “Waccamaw Golf Trail.” Courses along the Waccamaw Golf Trail include:

Caledonia Golf & Fish Club – Mike Strantz’s first solo design that has captivated golfers since its fairways were opened in 1994.

Blackmoor Golf Club – Gary Player’s only layout in the Myrtle Beach area. This gem was gently carved along the shores of the Waccamaw River.

Founders Club at Pawleys Island – one of the area’s newest courses, Founders Club opened in the spring of 2008 to rave reviews.

The Heritage Club – a perennial Top 100, the Heritage Club’s marshfront setting is one of the area’s most unique.

Litchfield Country Club – this Lowcountry classic just celebrated its 40th birthday in style with a newly awarded 4.5 stars from Golf Digest.

TPC of Myrtle Beach – carrying on the tradition of fine TPC facilities all over the country is no problem for this Murrells Inlet course. TPC of Myrtle Beach is one of three Southeastern United States designs to receive a 5-star rating.

Wachesaw Plantation East – no trip on the Trail is complete without a round on the 2007-2008 Myrtle Beach Area Golf Course Of The Year, Wachesaw Plantation East.

River Club – one of Tom Jackson’s finest works is located in Litchfield Beach at River Club. Featuring some of the area’s finest bent grass greens.

True Blue Plantation – as Caledonia’s sister course, True Blue’s heady design showcases Mike Strantz’s wonderful imagination.

Tradition Club – another member of the Golf Course Of The Year club, Tradition Club is the quintessential Lowcountry club.

Willbrook Plantation – renowned architect Dan Maples calls it “one of my best,” and we will not disagree. Willbrook Plantation is a consistent 4.5-star and Golf For Women Top 50 course.

Pawleys Plantation Golf & Country Club – a waterfront gem located on the south end of the Trail. Wherever Jack Nicklaus makes his mark, golfers flock to play and Pawleys Plantation is no exception.

All 12 Trail courses offer fabulous layouts built upon the sites of 18th century plantations, where mosscovered oaks stand tall as reminders of the rich history of this region. Among them are three of “America’s Top 100 Public Courses,” one of Golf For Women’s “Top 30 Courses in America,” six 4.5-star courses and one of only three 5-star courses in the Southeastern United States. Many of the courses bear the names of the original plantations – True Blue, Caledonia, Willbrook, Pawleys, Heritage, Wachesaw and others.

The golf along the Waccamaw Trail is complemented with numerous award-winning restaurants, scores of unique specialty shops and a beautiful, wide stretch of pristine beach. Litchfield Beach & Golf Resort is the official host accommodation of the Waccamaw Golf Trail, with golf vacation packages that include preferred tee times on all of the Trail courses. Guests at Litchfield Beach & Golf Resort enjoy a wide selection of amenities and accommodations that range from plush oceanfront condominiums and hotel suites to spacious fairway villas. For more information about the Waccamaw Golf Trail, visit us online at WGolfTrail.com or call 888-293-7362.

World Amateur Handicap Championship - 2008 Results

Paula Morton stood 60 yards from the 18th pin at the famed Dunes Golf & Beach Club with a sand wedge in her hand and the realization that her dream of being crowned World Champion at the PGA TOUR Superstore World Amateur Handicap Championship was on the verge slipping away.

Morton, who had just dumped her third shot in the water, took a drop in the rough on a downhill lie and told herself to get the ball close. She did even better, delivering the most dramatic shot in the 25-year history of the World Amateur.

The Greenbrier, Tenn., resident landed the ball on the front of the green, clearing the hazard with ease, and watched it role into the cup, prompting her to throw her arms in the air and scream with delight. The magical shot gave Morton a gross score of 91 and a net 67, good enough for a one stroke victory over Percy Hayes of Granbury, Texas who shot a gross 80 and a net 68.

“I had a pretty good lie, but I still had all that wonderful water in front of me, so I said just don’t leave it short,” an ebullient Morton said.  “There must have been angels on my hands because next thing I know that thing went in.”

Morton, the second consecutive woman to be crowned world champion and the fourth overall, is no stranger to making clutch shots at the World Amateur. In 2004, she won a condo at Barefoot Resort in a putting contest, draining a 10-footer to clinch the prize.

J.P. Holt of Cleveland, Tenn., Dennis Monahan of Largo, Fla., Keith Gehlman of Johnstown, Pa., Kevin Wirth of Crestwood, Kent, and Robert Reynolds of Arab, Ala., all shot a net 69 to finish tied for 3rd.

The World Championship Playoff field consisted of the 41 golfers who won their flights at the PGA TOUR Superstore World Amateur Handicap Championship, a 72-hole event that annually attracts more than 3,600 golfers from all 50 states and more than 30 foreign countries to the Grand Strand. More information about the tournament is available at www.WorldAmGolf.com.

Brunswick Isles Golf Trail

Imagine a golf trail that stretches out along the coast of the Carolinas, offering some of the South’s most award-winning golf courses.

You’ve discovered the Brunswick Isles Golf Trail.

When the Brunswick Isles Golf Trail debuted in 2008, golfers started talking. For the first time ever, outstanding accommodations were bundled with a select group of the Carolina coast's most award-winning courses, and the Trail's partners created packages that made experiencing the Trail extremely affordable.

If you haven't stayed and played on the Trail, you need to pull your group together and book a vacation soon. No other golf trail offers 432 awe-inpiring golf holes and nearly a dozen layouts that are on Golf Digest's list of "America's Top 100 Greatest Public Courses," and Golf Magazine's lists of "Top 20 Courses in North Carolina" and "Top 20 Courses in South Carolina."

The Trail stretches 60 miles from Southport, N.C. to North Myrtle Beach, S.C., winding through the unspoiled coastal area known as the Brunswick Islands. Along the Trail, the golf courses are in such close proximity that golfers can easily play two or more different courses within a day. In fact, you can travel the Trail from end to end in just a little over an hour.

 

The northernmost course on the Trail is The Bald Head Island Club, a layout that Golf Digest calls “one of the Top 50 Courses In Myrtle Beach.” This 18-hole beauty was designed by architect George Cobb who created The Par 3 Course at Augusta National and was charged with tweaking Augusta’s championship course for more than 20 years. A 20-minute ferry ride transports golfers from Southport, N. C. across the Cape Fear River to the island where you’ll be treated to a picturesque layout that roams over dunes and along the oceanfront.

Lockwood Folly Country Club is the next stop on the Trail. This course near Holden Beach, NC,  was designed by Willard Byrd and offers Tifdwarf Bermuda greens. Set on a former seaside hunting preserve, this visually grand layout with salt marsh and freshwater hazards offers an exciting day of golf in a beautiful setting. It's no wonder that readers polled by Myrtle Beach Golf Magazine called it the area's "Most Picturesque Golf Course."

Rivers Edge in Shallotte, N.C. is the next stop on the Trail, and one you won’t want to miss. An Arnold Palmer Signature design, this visually stunning course has 7 holes that play along the Shallotte River and the surrounding marsh. With generous landing areas and large greens, it delivers a tough but fair challenge. After you tee it up at Rivers Edge, you’ll understand why Golf Digest calls it one of  “America’s Top 100 Greatest Public Courses.”

Seven miles south of Rivers Edge in Sunset Beach, N.C. is Ocean Ridge Plantation, home of the 4 “Big Cat” courses: Lion’s Paw, Panther’s Run, Tiger’s Eye and Leopard’s Chase.

Taming the cats begins with Lion’s Paw, one of  Golf Digest’s “ Top 50 Courses In Myrtle Beach.” A Willard Byrd design, it features boldly-contoured bent-grass greens and mounds of sugar-white sand marking deep bunkers and high embankments.

Different challenges are served up by the other three cats, all designed by architect Tim Cate. Panther’s Run, ranked by Links Magazine as one the “Top 30 Courses in Myrtle Beach,” offers wide, open fairways with little mounding. Tiger’s Eye — one of “America’s Top 100 Greatest Public Courses” (Golf Digest) — challenges golfers with abundant natural waste areas, dazzling scenery and elevation changes reminiscent of the North Carolina sand hills. Leopard’s Chase, which debuted as one of Golf Digest’s “Best New Public Golf Courses $75 and Over” for 2007, and Golf Magazine’s “10 Best New Public Golf Courses in the United States,” features undulating greens, varied terrain and striking natural vistas.

Ride the Trail another six miles and you can enjoy three distinctive and classic courses at Sea Trail Golf Resort. Sea Trail’s three courses have been praised as “America’s Best Residential Courses of Distinction” by Golfweek; ranked among the “Top 50 Courses In Myrtle Beach” by Golf Digest; and rated among North Carolina’s Top 20 courses by Golf Magazine.

Sea Trail’s Maples Course is named for its architect, Dan Maples. It features subtle bent grass greens, water on ten holes and massive waste bunkers; five holes lead along the scenic Calabash Creek, home to nesting ospreys and other native wildlife. The Jones Course, designed by “The Open Doctor” himself, Rees Jones, is an exciting layout with elevated bent grass greens, generous fairways, dramatic mounds and water on eleven holes. The (Willard) Byrd Course is built around several man-made lakes that come into play on 13 holes. It also offers bent grass greens, plus a scenic 18th hole that snakes between two beautiful ponds to a picturesque finish at the Jones/Byrd Clubhouse.

Nestled along the marsh next to the Lake Shore entrance to Sea Trail is Oyster Bay, another Dan Maples gem. Named “Best New Resort Course” when it opened 20 years ago, this innovative course serves up wickedly undulating greens and cavernous bunkers along with spectacular water views. The layout is a par 70 that will test your mettle.

Sandpiper Bay is a 27-hole course located in Sunset Beach. With its rolling contoured fairways and naturally sculptured bunkers, Sandpiper has become known as one of the best groomed courses in the area. The newly renovated clubhouse, including Piper’s Restaurant and Lounge, offers a beautiful panoramic view of the surrounding pines and lakes. Sandpiper Bay is rated 4 Stars by Golf Digest  “Places to Play” based on course condition, pace of play, and overall experience.

A short drive away, The Pearl serves up a spectacular twosome of courses. Both were Golf Digest nominees for "Best New Public Course" when they opened. The East Course plays through pristine forests and finishes along the banks of the Calabash River. The links-style West Course is known for its dramatic 18th hole perched on the bluffs overlooking the river. These courses are regularly rated 4 to 4 1/2 stars by Golf Digest "Places to Play."

Just north of the state line near the village of Calabash, the Thistle Golf Club offers one of the most beautiful and challenging 27-hole layouts on the Grand Strand. Thistle takes its name from an ancient Scottish golf society dating back to the early 1800’s, and the course layout posses a distinct Scottish links feel, with wind-swept fairways, large bentgrass greens and surrounding hillsides covered in heather and wild flowers. Designer Time Cate’s skillful blending of natural elevation changes and wetlands with carefully carved bunkers and large green complexes is visually stunning. For 2008 – 2009, Golf Digest awarded The Thistle 4 ½ Stars.

Next up, take a short seven-mile drive to Brunswick Plantation where you’ll find 27 holes that meander through tall Carolina pines and around expansive lakes. Architects Willard Byrd and Clyde Johnston collaborated on these golf courses which are best known for their quick, smooth and challenging Champion bermuda greens. An official Trail accommodation, Brunswick Plantation is listed among both the “Top 50 Golf Resort Communities in the U.S.”  and “America’s Best Master Planned Golf Communities” by Where To Retire. It offers spacious greenside villas on a compact and convenient campus. There are indoor and outdoor swimming pools, as well as the driving range, practice green and a pro shop housed in an ante-bellum clubhouse that is the very definition of Southern charm.

Just three miles west of Brunswick Plantation, the Trail leads to Meadowlands Golf Club, a classic Willard Byrd layout that twists through groves of large native hardwood trees, over meadows, and along natural wetlands. North Carolina Magazine called this course one of the “Top Ten Best New Courses” when it opened.  It rapidly became a favorite with women golfers, capturing a spot on Golf for Women’s prestigious list of “Top 100 Women Friendly Courses.”

Right next door to Meadowlands is its sister course, Farmstead Golf Links. A Willard Byrd design, Farmstead literally straddles the North Carolina-South Carolina border and features the only par 6 on the entire Grand Strand. The mammoth 767-yard, 18th hole begins with a drive to a wide swee ping fairway in South Carolina and concludes on a large undulating green in North Carolina. It’s no wonder that North Carolina Magazine put Farmstead on its “Mighty 90” list.

A mere 4 miles south, Trail travelers will be transported to a place that evokes the best of Scottish-style golf. Heather Glen Golf Links and an official Trail accommodations choice, The Village At The Glens, are just outside the scenic town of Little River, S.C. From the unique British design of the Heather Glen Clubhouse to the Scottish-themed Pub with its spectacular views of Heather Glen’s finishing holes, the environment is tailor-made for a special and memorable golf vacation. Stay here and you’ll enjoy on-site amenities like a heated outdoor pool; a putting green right outside your villa; and a practice facility complete with driving range and a chipping/bunker area.

The three nines that make up Heather Glen Golf Links are the icing on the cake. Crowned “America’s #1 Public Golf Course” by Golf Digest when its first 18 opened, Heather Glen is known for its pristine conditioning. Designed by Willard Byrd and Clyde Johnston as a homage to traditional Scottish golf, Heather Glen has all the right Old World touches from stacked sod pot bunkers to ornamental plants like Scotch Broom. Each of the three nines is unique with ever-changing elevations, heather-laced dunes and winding streams that combine to create a golf experience that will stick in your memory for years.

Right across the street from Heather Glen is Glen Dornoch Waterway Golf Links. This course is architect Clyde Johnston’s tribute to legendary architect Donald Ross, who was born in the north Scottish coastal town of Dornoch.

Glen Dornoch’s honors are many. It’s on Golf Digest’s list of the Top 10 Courses in Myrtle Beach and Top 25 Courses in South Carolina, as well as Golf Magazine’s Top 20 courses in South Carolina. Step up to the first tee and you’ll soon find out why. Glen Dornoch is a real heart-stopper that has panoramic views of the Intracoastal Waterway, wide fairways that roll naturally over the sandy terrain, centuries-old live oaks, massive magnolias, and 35-foot elevation changes. Its final three holes are among the most unforgettable and exciting closing holes on the East Coast.

The setting at Glen Dornoch is so pristine and beautiful that you’ll want to pause for a post-round drink on the back porch of the clubhouse. Watching players finish on the course’s unique double green that serves both 9 and 18 is the perfect way to end a day of golf.

Just south of Glen Dornoch, the Trail leads to River Hills Golf & Country Club, also in Little River. A blend of old and new design ideas, this scenic course by architect Tom Jackson takes players through heavily wooded, rolling terrain with frequent 40-foot elevation changes. Golfweek named River Hills to its list of the “Top 50 Courses in the Southeast.”

The Trail ends six miles south of River Hills at the spectacular Tidewater Golf Club in North Myrtle Beach, S.C. Known as “the Pebble Beach of the East,” this superb test of golf sits high on the bluff of a magnificent seaside peninsula. It stretches out alongside the Intracoastal Waterway and saltwater marshes of Cherry Grove Beach Inlet, offering views of the Atlantic Ocean beyond.

As the most decorated course along the Grand Strand, Tidewater’s rankings are almost too numerous to recount and include Best New Public Course In America and America’s Top 75 Golf Resorts (Golf Digest); Top Ten Public Courses in America, Top 100 Public Places You Can Play and Top 20 Courses In South Carolina (Golf Magazine); and Top 100 Residential Golf Courses (Golfweek). You won’t want to miss this classic design modeled after storied courses such as Merion and Pine Valley. It delivers an exciting conclusion to the Trail.

Easy To Reach, Easy To Travel

Reaching the Brunswick Isles Golf Trail is easy. It’s within a day’s drive of most major East Coast and Midwestern cities, and a quick trip down Route 40 from North Carolina cities like Raleigh. Convenient air service is available via Myrtle Beach International Airport (MYR) located in downtown Myrtle Beach, or Wilmington International Airport (ILM). Located just minutes from the first stop on the Trail, the Wilmington, N. C. airport is one of the most dynamic, hospitable, and progressive airports in the Carolinas. The Wilmington Airport offers nonstop service to a variety of cities.

Golf Packages

Accommodations and golf can easily be arranged by one of the Trail’s exclusive golf packagers.
Brunswick Plantation • 800-332-8576
Coastal Golfaway • 866-781-7252
Village at the Glens • 866-259-0558

Wilmington International Airport • www.flyilm.com

The PGA TOUR Superstore World Amateur Handicap Championship

All that you have come to love about the event will stay the same for 2008. About 4,000 Amateur golfers all competing for the chance to become World Champion regardless of age, gender, or playing ability, the USGA Handicap system makes us all EQUAL.

BUT?? there will be some great additions and changes that will enhance your enjoyment of the event..

PRIZES will take on a whole new meaning with PGA TOUR Superstore as your title sponsor, in fact the event will distribute over $130,000 in gift certificates for the Top Ten finishers in each flight! THE WORLD'S LARGEST 19TH HOLE will be a great new experience with the addition of a 40,000 sq. foot store that could only be described as a "Tour Van" for amateur golfers. There you will find rows of the newest equipment from the top manufacturers ready for demo, apparel from top designers, high tech swing simulators and launch monitors, putting greens, games and contests, all creating an entertaining, interactive atmosphere second to none.

Of course all of the food, drinks, and live entertainment that have come to define the tournament's nightly functions will be there for everyone's enjoyment. Whether you have played in the event for years or thinking about it for the first time, we guarantee you will have a golf experience like no other at the PGA TOUR Superstore World Amateur Handicap Championship. To receive your free brochure or to enter online please visit the website www.WorldAmGolf.com.

To receive your free brochure or to enter online please visit our website www.WorldAmGolf.com.

 

Fast Facts:

• For More Information - Visit www.WorldAmGolf.com or call at 800-833-8798
• Dates - August 25 - 29, 2008
• Location - Tournament is held on over 70 coursesin the "Golf Capital of the World", Myrtle Beach, South Carolina

What's Included:

• Four rounds of golf (cart included) on four different golf courses
• Matched handicap flights for Men, Senior Men, Mid Senior Men, Super Senior Men, Women, and Senior Women
• Four evenings of food, drinks, golf expo, games, contests, and camaraderie at the Myrtle Beach Convention Center for you and a guest
• A final day championship playoff on Friday, August 31st. (Flight Winners and ties)
• $500,000 in prizes and awards - a gift bag on arrival, trophies, top-ten prizes in each flight, and random drawing prizes

Tournament Format:

• Four rounds of net stroke tournament play
• Divisions: Men (49 and under), Senior Men (50-59), Mid Senior Men (60-69), Super Senior Men (70 and over), Women (49 and Under), Senior Women (50 and over)
• Flights assigned based on verified handicap index
• Winners (and ties) of each flight after four days of competition advance to Championship Round
• Nightly entertainment/score viewing

 

Linda Hartough Once More, With Feeling

As the 2005 United States Open came again to Pinehurst's famed #2 course, it marked the 16th consecutive Open immortalized by painter Linda Hartough. No one is more passionate about her work or captures the spirit of the game quite like this renowned golf landscape artist.

I am transfixed.

Standing in the sun-splashed studio of Linda Hartough’s glorious home on Spring Island, off the coast of South Carolina, I have found myself drawn, trance-like, to an easel in front of a large bay window.

My wife and I have strolled through Hartough’s home, getting a first-hand tour of a house and studio that are as comfortable and gracious as is our hostess, a fairy-tale setting of country manor and fenced pastureland, horses grazing outside, light and brick and warm wood inside. As we’ve moved into the studio area, where Hartough spends so much of her time, painting, watching golf and movies on a state-of-the-art flat-screen TV, the heart of her workplace has become increasingly apparent, and I feel as though I have a entered a sacred space. Not only a master artist’s sanctuary, but the emerging world of one of the most famous of the game’s Par 4’s, Ballybunion’s 11th hole, two-thirds completed, waiting for Hartough’s touch, her brush, her inspiration, to bring this Irish paradise to life. It is an incredible moment, especially to those of us who don’t share The Gift. The scene’s top portion completed, vibrant and alive. The bottom section stark, blank white, save for a line drawing of basic composition. It is then that it really hits home, the exceptional, elusive ability Hartough, and all great artists, possess. Having stood on that spot at Ballybunion myself, I get chills looking at a partially finished painting.

Linda Hartough’s ability to ellicit a golfer’s deep emotional connection to the game and its great courses has characterized her work in golf over the last two decades, and has made her the most sought-after golf landscape artist in the world. Her official paintings of the 2005 U.S. Open (one for the USGA series, one for Pinehurst’s official poster) long since completed, her enormous body of work includes not only paintings that hang in the halls of the most exclusive private clubs (Augusta National, Pine Valley, Laural Valley), and in the homes of some of the most famous names in the game (Jack Nicklaus, Robert Trent Jones, Sr., Rees Jones), but also as reproductions in the living rooms of golf lovers around the globe. The myriad paintings of courses both public and private, by the only artist ever commissioned by both the R &A and the USGA to paint the official series of Open championship courses, have evolved, onto coasters and placemats, greeting cards and pillows, and one of the most beautiful coffee-table books you can own, “Hallowed Ground”. They have appeared on two ABC Golf Specials on the “World’s Most Dramatic Holes,” hosted by Nicklaus, and Hartough’s travels have taken her from her South Carolina home to the far corners of the earth.

As a child, there was no inkling that golf would play the central role in Hartough’s life. Though her father had a passion for the game, the young girl did not. Her lifeblood was tied to seemingly traditional outlets, horses and art. Her career timeline seems natural enough, marked by life’s usual assortment of fortuitous meetings, coincidences, and decisions. One can find all the particulars of Hartough’s path on her website or in her gallery on Hilton Head Island.

What isn’t available in either place, however, is the rare opportunity to get a first-hand feel for her process, to watch her work, to talk about her approach to each painting. It is in those moments that you begin to understand why the paintings seem to truly live. It is in those moments that you can feel her passion.

The process is time-intensive and laborious, and can stretch out to 2 years or more for a given painting. Whichever course is to be painted, Hartough begins by discussing with the people at each course their thoughts. “They have their opinion, I have mine, and we’ll come to a consensus,” she says as she stands next to her chair. “I of course want to pick the one that would make the best landscape and give the best feeling of the course,” she continues, and it is the first time of many that the word “feeling” will be used.

Hartough goes on, sitting in at the easel. “Once I make a selection of the hole, then it’s a matter of finding the light that will make it do what I want it to do,” and now, surrounded by literally hundreds of photos of Ballybunion’s 11th , part of a her “Courses of Ireland” series, you get an idea of the commitment it takes to do what sounds a seemingly simple thing, “finding the light.” Up to 40 rolls of film per painting are a testament to the days, the weeks, the different times of year, the varied conditions, changes in shadows and angles, all a part of Hartough’s initial stage of preparation. “When I’m at the course, I don’t really know exactly what I’m going to do,” she says, but once she returns home, she continues the analytical part of the process, moving toward a final composition. “I’ll take the best parts of everything I’ve got in pictures. I’ll use a different sky, a single cloud, the green at one time of day, the fairway from another. I’ll find the best parts that work with that composition.” She has said before that when she looks at a golf hole, she tries to “see it as a golfer sees it, how a golfer would play it, then as a landscape, as a work of fine art.” It has proven to be a stunning combination of ideals.

Once she’s decided on the form, the artistic brain kicks in, and listening to Hartough speak, you sense that this is where the magical part of the routine really begins. “The compostion is so important in what I do,” Hartough says, staring at Ballybunion’s elegant landscape. “I see the painting completed, before I ever put a mark on the canvas, and as close as I can get to that initial vision, the better.” A very thin blue line will go on the blank canvas, as a guide. And then it happens, in front of me.

Hartough picks up her brush. Colors mix. Back and forth her eyes go, from the hand-held picture to the canvas, brush moving now, impulses and creation taking over. Working from the top of the painting down, what can be done in one day will be the next section painted, as “I like everything to be wet when I’m working on it.” And so it goes, minute detail by minute detail. Try as one might, unless you live in this world, this is the part we can only imagine, the miraculous unfolding of art, which in some cases, can take up to 6 months.

Hartough’s single most telling comment comes as she fleshes out Ballybunion. “The work reminds me of being there, which is what I hope happens to a golfer, too. I try to achieve that perfect moment, where you feel like you’re there, by yourself, at the most perfect time. Most people who are really into the game, think of it as a spiritual thing. Once I got into the spiritual side, I was hooked. It’s what I try to convey, the sense of timelessness and spirituality.”

As I let myself drift into the painting in front of me, I once again understand where my place of worship is.

On Pinehurst and the Open

On the challenge of painting Pinehurst: “It is a difficult course to capture, from a design perspective, as there are obviously lots of pine trees, shade, and similar hole designs, with little dramatic lighting. Finding the right lighting is really the key to showing off Pinehurst.”

On The 2005 Open

Linda Hartough chose the convergence of # 2’s 16th and 17th holes as the USGA official painting of the 105th US Open, because “so many dramatic events happened at 16 and 17 at the last Open.” The 18th hole, scene of the late Payne Stewart’s dramatic, walk-off putt, is her subject for the official Pinehurst poster for the Open, which captures the Sunday pin placement from 1999 (used every Sunday now), and the commemorative statue of Stewart’s now-famous gesture after making his historic putt.

On the USGA and The Merchandising of Linda Hartough

Chris Johnson, Director of Licensing and Merchandise at the USGA, recently retired after 29 years of service, who was involved in the original deal in 1989 that brought Linda Hartough to the USGA, recalls that Hartough’s friend and agent at the time, Bob Pringle, a Scottish artist himself, “stopped by the USGA Museum, asked to see me, and suggested using Linda to do a US Open painting. It just took off from there.” The USGA, according to Johnson, had a catalog at the time, but no specific marketing plan, and says “The USGA has always been extremely proud to offer her work.”

What They Say

“Linda has a gift for capturing the world in a wonderful and captivating way. I’m the proud owner of several of her paintings, and each time I look at one, I see something new. What Linda paints is the essence of a hole, and in it, the essence of the entire course. A Linda Hartough painting makes me want to play golf.” - Jack Nicklaus, owner of 7 original works.

“Whenever you see a Linda Hartough golf course rendering, you have to resist the urge to grab a club and drop a ball.” - Robert Trent Jones, Sr., who, when asked what he would save in a fire at his home, said it would be Hartough’s U.S. Open painting of the 16th hole at Hazeltine National.

“I first saw one of Linda’s prints at the U.S. Open at The Country Club in Brookline, Mass. It was on the restored 9th of the Open Course, and it captured our restoration work perfectly.” - Rees Jones who purchased Hartough’s U.S. Open painting of Congressional Country Club, and commissioned Hartough to paint the 15th at Haig Point.

“I think of Royal County Down, which I’ve visited virtually every year for 25 years. To me it’s the greatest course in the world, and to be able to sit in my house and look at that painting of the 9th hole, I can feel the course, the mountains, the beach. I think it’s the most wonderful painting I’ve ever seen.” - John Runette, neighboring resident on Spring Island, owner of 3 original works, including Ballybunion #11.

“Ever since I saw the first one Linda did here of the 10th hole at Winged Foot for the Open in 1984, I’ve wanted to collect them. I can’t wait for the next one to come out.” Tom Neiporte, Head Golf Professional at Winged Foot, collector of Hartough Limited Edition Prints.

For a complete listing of Linda Hartough’s biography and work, available originals and reproductions, a virtual studio tour, and contact information, visit www.Hartough.com.

The Striking Viking Ewa Mataya Laurance

Since her early teens, Ewa Mataya Laurance has been relentlessly pursuing the act of hitting a ball with a stick. First in billiards, and now in golf, that pursuit has brought the woman known around the world as “The Striking Viking” from a small town in Sweden to Myrtle Beach, and a life that for her, becomes more perfect with every passing day. For more than two decades, much has been written about the Hall of Fame billiards career of Ewa Mataya Laurance, a career that started in the city of Gavle, about 2 hours north of Stockholm, on a day when then 14 year-old Ewa Svensson followed her older brother Mats into a poolroom. Always a good athlete, she had excelled in soccer, basketball and skiing, but after a second trip to the poolroom, a different game grabbed her heart. “All other sports paled by comparison,” she once told the Swedish Scanorama Magazine, adding that she was “fascinated by the mystique surrounding the game, and the silent intensity with which players tried to solve the layout of the rack.” With a new focus, she dreamt big dreams, of becoming the best in the world at billiards. Though her family was supportive, many others laughed at the idea of a small-town female player, in a man’s game, who thought she could compete on the world stage. Those who did could not have known the fire that lived inside the schoolgirl who did her homework between racks for hours on end.

The combination of world-class talent and relentless work started to pay off quickly, and Ewa’s goal began looking like a real possibility when she won the Swedish National 9-Ball title at 16 and the European 9-Ball Championship the following year. That victory brought with it a chance to compete at the prestigious World 9-Ball Championship in New York, and in accepting that invitation, at 17 years of age, Ewa’s world would change forever.

A move to Lansing, Michigan, a short-lived first marriage to pool pro Jim Mataya, a daughter Nikki, all within a few years of moving to the States. The difficult work of pursuing her passion in an intensely competitive sport, rigorous hours of practice and long spells of life on the road, all while trying to single-handedly raise a daughter, in a sport that at the time offered almost no monetary reward, especially to women, for such a drive to excellence. All of it forging a determination and inner drive that characterize all great champions.

“Back when I started,” she says, “no one was really making any money. Only a couple of the guys, like Minnesota Fats and Steve Mizerak, made any kind of a living at pool, unless you gambled or hustled, which I wasn’t into. Then slowly but surely I found a way to turn my passion for the game into a way to make a living.”

That “way” began with an increasingly stunning tournament record, an undeniable certification of her talent and of her steady rise to the top of her sport. Two World Open 9-Ball titles and numerous tournament championships led Laurance, in 1988, to a sponsorship agreement with Brunswick Billiards, then as now the preeminent name in the sport, and to a level of stability for herself and for Nikki. For the first time she had a more stress-free opportunity to chase the world’s top spot.

Laurance did not let the chance pass her by, and with animal-like intensity, began a run that included two US Open 9-Ball titles, the US National 9-Ball title, two Player-of-the-Year seasons, a world high-run record set at the US Open Straight Pool Championship, and a case full of tournament trophies. More importantly, she had finally reached the much-coveted and long dreamt of ranking of World #1. The Best Player in the World.

With a record among the best in the game’s history and consecutive years with the #1 ranking, the stage was set for Laurance to truly become the face of billiards on an international level.

An articulate and passionate spokeswoman for the game, with head-turning good looks and a down-to-earth, good-natured sense of humor, The Striking Viking, in one quick strike, was all over the media. In 1992 she became, and still remains, the only pool player to ever appear as the feature cover story in the prestigious “New York Times Magazine,” in which she talked about cleaning up a much-maligned sport and her desire to have people see the beauty of the game in the same way she did. That article, and an ability to entertain a national audience by doing captivating trick shots, led to appearances on a broad range of national TV shows, including “The David Letterman Show,” “Live with Regis and Cathy Lee,” “The Today Show,” and many others.

Profiles in Sports Illustrated, People, Glamour Magazine and other national publications added to Laurance’s expanding presence, as did the 1994 WPA World 9 Ball title. All of it bringing as well an increasing demand for her corporate trick shot exhibitions (which continues stronger than ever), and a client list that now includes JP Morgan, Goldman Sachs, Pepsi, Sony, and automobile software giant OEConnections.

It was at one such corporate outing, at the Vantage Golf Championship in Winston-Salem, NC, that she met actor and golfer Mitch Laurance. It was the beginning of a relationship that has turned into 11 years of a storybook marriage, and a life on the Grand Strand that includes, for Ewa, an adventurous combination of pool and of golf, of frenetic business travel and tranquil home life with family and animals.

“Mitch and I got married in Charlotte, NC in 1994, and golf was not only responsible for our meeting, but for our move to Myrtle Beach,” Laurance says. When she began to do a lot more corporate trick shot exhibitions, she realized that golf was a good way to tie into that world. The fact that Mitch was an avid player and could offer his celebrity event connections the chance to invite Ewa to events, allowed Ewa not only the ability to enjoy the game with her husband, but the opportunity to pursue golf with almost the same zeal as she had her pool game, and to expand her ties to the golfing world in her own right.

As with pool, she has found a way to turn another passion into an interesting and rewarding part of life, in what she considers golfing heaven. “Mitch was already the host of ‘On The Green Golf Video Showcase’ in Myrtle Beach, and we had come down to the Grand Strand so many times while we lived in Charlotte that we both decided to make the move to a place we love. It’s the best of all worlds, with an incredible variety of courses, fantastic people and entertainment, and a wonderful quality of life,” Laurance says.

Ewa was just featured in “Golf For Women” Magazine, and plays in a multitude of celebrity Pro Am and charity events, including the ESPY Celebrity Golf Classic in Los Angeles, the Jimmy V Celebrity Classic in Raleigh, NC, and The Crosby in Winston-Salem, NC. She has competed in the LPGA Skins Game Pro Am (paired with Laura Davies), and this fall will participate in the PGA Tour Skins Game Pro Am in La Quinta, CA, with a couple of golfers named Tiger Woods and Fred Couples, among others.

And after hiring Ewa to perform trick shots and play pool as a way to draw golfers to their booth at the World Amateur Handicap Championship in 2004, Grand Strand developer Burroughs & Chapin recently hired Ewa to be the spokesperson for their “MyrtleBeachGolfTrips.com” brand and its golf courses. It is a relationship, and an opportunity, that Ewa takes seriously. “I think America is the only country in the world where you can have a dream and then create a way to truly live it,” she says, adding that she relishes the chance to help increase awareness for Myrtle Beach golf.

“Myrtle Beach, for a golfer, is a dream, a golf mecca. Where else can you play a different, great course every weekend for two years, and not play the same course twice?”

Ewa still competes full time on the WPBA Classic Tour and does billiards Color Commentary for ESPN. She is the President of the Women’s Professional Billiards Association and the Co-Host of GSN’s “BallBreakers” TV show. In 2004 Ewa became only the fifth woman in the history of the sport to be inducted into the Billiard Congress of America Hall of Fame. You can find more information on Ewa Mataya Laurance at www.StrikingViking.com.

Golf - A Passion and a Business

Dramatic population increases have occurred in the past decade in the three-county area that comprises the Grand Strand region. North Carolina’s Brunswick County, as well as Horry and Georgetown counties in South Carolina, are all among their states’ fastest-growing areas, with often-explosive increases in lot sales and building permits.

Nearly all of the 14 area golf courses that have already closed or are wrapping up operations this year will be the setting of future residential development. Most notable on that list are the three courses at Bay Tree Golf Plantation, a family-run operation for 30 years in North Myrtle Beach, and three of the four layouts at Wild Wing Plantation in nearby Conway.

“Wild Wing had a great run as a four-course public golf facility,” said Tim Tilma, General Manager and Director of Golf for the Wild Wing Company. “Our new owners are very successful local developers who recognize the need for a first-class residential community in the Conway area. We’re going to have about 700 single-family homesites with a great selection of waterway lots with boat slips.”

Tilma also noted that plans envision three additional communities of townhomes and condominiums at Wild Wing. By the end of this year, only the Avocet course will remain open for public play, with golf membership programs offered for new Wild Wing community residents.

Sweet Home Carolina

Not all new real estate initiatives have resulted in course closings. The large, multi-community residential developments at Grande Dunes and Barefoot Resort & Golf, which arguably helped to ignite the current boom, have contributed top-rated courses that are available for visitor play. Even “The Granddaddy” hasn’t been immune to the trend: Pine Lakes Golf Club and owner Burroughs & Chapin recently received approval to build 322 new residences adjacent to the historic course, which itself will get a major renovation.

“Overall, I think that the golf industry in Myrtle Beach will be healthier and better than ever in terms of quality,” said Archie Lemon, Director of Golf Operations for B & C, which owns five local courses and manages an additional three. “I think what we’re doing at Pine Lakes is a good example.”

Lemon noted that the 80-year-old Pine Lakes course will close this November and reopen in 2008 after a total renovation that will include all-new grass surfaces on the tees, fairways and greens. “We want to offer the player a fresh experience on the course,” Lemon said, “while retaining the site’s history and tradition. The historic clubhouse will remain, but we’re going to add new facilities for better service and convenience. The changes at Pine Lakes are part of a natural evolution in the life of any great golf course. Our goal is to make sure that ‘The Granddaddy’ will always be ‘The Granddaddy’.”

“It’s supply and demand,” said Jim Woodring, a 14-year veteran of the local golf business and Vice-President of Marketing and Golf Operations for the Myrtle Beach National Company, which owns and operates nine Grand Strand golf courses.

“We’ve still got 100 courses open for public play in the area,” Woodring continued, “so we have plenty of ‘supply’ for visiting golfers. And our total rounds and revenues have actually increased in the past year. But I think those dozen or so courses that are closing got hit by the ups and downs we’ve had in recent years, and they all had very attractive real estate offers on the table. What would any of us do?”

“I frankly think it’s a win-win situation,” said Tom Plankers, the President of Sea Trail Golf who’s been a part of the Grand Strand golf industry for 19 years. “For the course owners that sold to developers, I’m glad that they had an opportunity to make some money for their families and investors. They had ‘the right place at the right time.’ So if the rest of us can absorb their bookings and continue to improve the quality of our product, then everyone, including our customers, will come out ahead.”

“Myrtle Beach will always be a vacation destination, especially for golfers,” said Bill Golden, Vice-President of Myrtle Beach Golf Holiday, the region’s marketing cooperative that includes 85 golf courses and 54 accommodations hosts. “As the recent Golf Digest article points out, we not only have the most courses, we also have the most top-quality courses.”

The article which Golden cited came with a national accolade that reflects the changes in the local golf market. In its June 2006 edition, Golf Digest ranked the Myrtle Beach area No. 1 on the list of “America’s Greatest Golf-Home Towns.” The overall top rating was based on a combination of golf and non-golf criteria. The Grand Strand scored a nation-high point total in the golf category, with the magazine noting the unique quality of the region’s courses: 28 with ratings of 4 1/2 or better of a possible five stars in the current “Best Places to Play” guide and nine of those ranked among “America’s Top 100 Public Courses,” both the most for any US golf destination. Low course congestion and a high number of “golfable days” also contributed to the region’s superior golf score.

But what earned the Myrtle Beach area the No. 1 ranking among all residential communities in America was its strong showing in the non-golf category, with factors that included home prices, living costs, local amenities, crime rates and other lifestyle variables.

“What the No. 1 ‘Golf-Home Town’ rating acknowledges,” Golden said, “is that many of our vacationing players are becoming seasonal and even full-time residents. They’ve looked around and decided that the Grand Strand is a great area to invest in a villa or condo, or they’ve bought a home for retirement or relocation. And if they’re golfers, the very reasonable prices for golf-oriented lots and residences make Myrtle Beach a great place to live.

“But the tourists who come to the Grand Strand, whether they’re families in the summer or golfers in the spring and fall, will always be the engine that drives our local economy. So those of us in the golf business need to keep improving the quality of Myrtle Beach golf and creating new opportunities to grow our share of the market.”

Upgrading the Links

The most recent reports of Grand Strand “golf numbers” seem to paint a somewhat contradictory picture. While overall play in the spring this year was down about 3.7 percent from 2005, the average paid rounds per course in March, April and May were at their highest levels since 1999. Fewer courses to factor into that latter number probably accounts for the increased average.

“While increasing total rounds is our objective, the underlying trends are positive,” Golden said, reflecting an optimism that seems to be shared within the industry.

“We’re bullish on Myrtle Beach golf and we’re putting our money on it,” said Wayne Weldon, Director of Marketing for the five-course Classic Golf Group. He noted that major improvements at Classic Golf’s Indian Wells and Burning Ridge clubs had resulted in MBGCOA “Course of the Year” awards in 2004 and 2006, respectively.

“Sometimes a golf course closes for the right reasons,” Weldon said. “Take Black Bear, for example. We closed it earlier this year to make some important upgrades and we’ve gotten great feedback on the improved quality since it reopened in August, especially about the new Champion Bermuda greens. And we’ve closed the old Sea Gull course so that we can completely refurbish that great layout and I think people will be really impressed when we reopen next fall as the Founders Club of Pawleys Island.”

Legends Golf Group recently acquired the Tournament Players Course (TPC) of Myrtle Beach, expending its roster of local layouts to six. Director of Marketing Jim O’Neil said his company sees future demand in the visitor and residential market. “Legends has earned a great reputation for putting money back into our courses to keep them among the top tier in Myrtle Beach. And we’re moving ahead with work on our new conference center, which we expect to open by the end of next year.” The Legends facility will have 196 hotel rooms, extensive meeting space, an indoor pool, a spa and health club and a fine-dining restaurant.

“And our residential community is also continuing to grow,” O’Neil added, “so were building new townhomes to meet the demands of people who want to work or retire here.”

Brunswick Golf Plantation & Resort has also been serving both markets for over 15 years and isn’t resting on its reputation. “The time was right for a facelift on our course,” said Resort Director Billy Bernier of the 27-hole layout he manages, “for the benefit of our members and the public.” He noted that, in addition to resort accommodations and services, Brunswick Plantation has about 300 homes (with room for another 500) and 200 non-equity golf club members.

“We closed for 10 weeks this summer,” Bernier said, “to refurbish all of our greens with the Champion Bermuda, which plays like the bentgrass we had, but tolerates the heat much better. The course has a great new look with expanded tee boxes, wider landing areas, new cart paths and some very lush new landscaping. We needed to make those improvements to stay competitive among the area’s high-quality courses. And our members love the changes, which can only help to drive our real estate component.”

The Glens Group owns four golf courses, including the centerpiece of the growing Shaftesbury Glen residential community in the West Myrtle Beach area. President Jack Himmelsbach noted the need to invest in people, as well as layout improvements. “We’re committed to building a reputation for great customer service and top-quality course conditions,” he said, “because those are the factors that bring visiting players back year after year. We’re in this business for the long term.”

“Pawleys Plantation debuted in 1988 and we’re proud to say it has matured into a wonderful property," said Laura Rippy, general manager for Pawleys Plantation. "Our real estate sales have remained strong over the years and we will soon introduce some new luxury townhomes. We have a full-service conference center that recently helped Pawleys Plantation capture a prestigious 'Best of the South' award as one of the best meeting places in the Southeast. And, with the recent addition of ValleyCrest as our golf course maintenance company, we have seen our Jack Nicklaus signature course taken to new levels of conditioning, improving the entire golf experience at Pawleys Plantation."

Changes at World Tour Golf Links appeal to dual demands of daily-fee players and the local housing market, according to Director of Golf Dennis Nichol: “We’re closing the International Nine, but we still have 18 holes open to the public, with significant course and clubhouse improvements on the way. And we’re actually reworking the International into a private executive walking course that will be a unique amenity for our residents. We’ve already pre-sold about 200 condos and we’ve got plans for up to 800 more.

“At the same time,” Nichol said, “we’ve had our busiest summer ever this year, with many of those rounds booked by local golfers. I think that more year-round and off-season residents will eventually help us and other public courses, especially if we continue our resident-discount programs.”

MBN’s Woodring echoes the need for reinvesting in the quality of local courses. “At Willbrook, for instance, our company has made a major commitment to what we think is one of the best designs in on south end of the Strand. We totally upgraded the drainage system and expanded the greens back to their original sizes. And we installed the new Champion Bermuda hybrid that’s proven to be so great at Caledonia and Long Bay.”

“So you really have to get beyond the headlines,” Golden said, “when you read about a course closing. Yes, we’ve lost some for good in the past few years, but when owners shut down courses temporarily to make millions of dollars in upgrades, that’s a sign of a healthy, forward-looking industry.”

Come One, Come All

One of the ways that Myrtle Beach Golf Holiday attracts new visitors to the Grand Strand is through the promotion and management of the region’s impressive list of annual golf events. From the weekly Summer Family Golf Tournaments and instructional clinics to the Spring and Fall Palmetto High School Golf Championships, Myrtle Beach has established itself as a regional magnet for junior players from beginners to top-ranked competitors. Events like the Veterans Golf Classic and the FDNY 9-11 Memorial Outing draw participants from around the country to tournaments that support their favorite causes.

Local charities also benefit from the annual Hootie and the Blowfish Celebrity Pro-Am Tournament. Golf Holiday’s signature event, formerly the DuPont World-Am, had a new title sponsor and the PGA TOUR Superstore World Amateur Handicap Championship remained the world’s largest on-site tournament with more than 4,000 players.

“The golf events that Golf Holiday is involved in, along with dozens of others sponsored by individual clubs or resorts,” Golden said, “are a gateway for Myrtle Beach golf. The goal is to give that first-time visitor a positive experience so that he or she will come back, hopefully with some friends and family members.”

Two new events on the Myrtle Beach golf calendar highlight efforts by local companies to expand the market’s reach. In cooperation with sponsors of the Fall Harley-Davidson Rally, Classic Golf will host a one-day tournament event specifically for bikers on October 4 at Indian Wells. “We’re planning a party with golf and great music,” Weldon said, “and if it’s successful, we’ll do it again for the spring rally.”

Golfweek magazine and the Georgetown Country Visitor and Convention Bureau are sponsoring a new themed event set for May 2007 and called the “Glory Days Alumni Challenge.” Golfers will be invited to put together teams of college and university alums to represent their schools in a full-handicap tournament with gross and net divisions. The four-day event will highlight courses on the county’s “Waccamaw Trail” with rounds at Pawleys Plantation, Caledonia, Willbrook and the TPC of Myrtle Beach.

Woodring also stressed the importance of continuing successful initiatives like the “Kids Play Free” programs now offered by many Myrtle Beach area courses (which waive fees for juniors 16 and under when accompanied by a paying adult), as well as discounts and golf-only packages for locals and non-resident homeowners. “Making golf more affordable for families and newcomers,” he said, “will help to keep everyone operating on the positive side of the balance sheet.”

Access Points

Local golf leaders were unanimous in their support for improved access to the Grand Strand as a major way to boost business.

“We’re all watching the expansion plans at the [Myrtle Beach International] Airport very closely,” Golf Holiday’s Golden said. “Our members appreciate the importance of having the ability to handle more passengers and non-stop flights. The new Spirit schedule is a great step in the right direction because it puts all of New England just two hours away.”

Spirit Airlines on August 15 began daily, non-stop flights from Boston’s Logan International Airport. The addition brings the total to 13 US cities with direct flights into Myrtle Beach International.

Road improvements all over the region also won praise from local golf executives. Many cited the Carolina Bays Parkway (Highway 31) for relieving traffic on Highway 17 Bypass and hoped that the extension to Surfside Beach can be completed soon. Also noted were the new Veterans Highway (Highway 22) and the realignment of Highway 501 that both have thinned congestion for arriving and departing drivers. Next on the agenda is the Interstate 73 connection between 1-95 and the Grand Strand. A final route is expected to be chosen soon, with completion currently projected for 2010. The Myrtle Beach area is one of the largest in America without direct interstate highway access. Golden also noted ongoing improvements in “virtual access” to Grand Strand golf. “Many of our members, as well as Golf Holiday,” he said, “are enhancing their web sites with better content, more streamlined booking and features like downloadable video. And we’re working together with aggressive marketing in print and on TV.”

Future Developments

The golf and real estate industries in the Myrtle Beach area, once mostly separate entities with different markets, seem destined to become even more intertwined in the years ahead.

“New golf courses in this area will definitely be real-estate driven,” Plankers said. “I don’t think we’re going to see any new stand-alone public courses built for quite a while. Those days are gone.”

“The real-estate market will continue to be the biggest factor in our local golf business, Woodring said. “I think that over the next three to five years, you’ll see plans for new courses in golf communities all over the region. Some may be private clubs from the start, but others will be semi-private to generate revenue and attract potential buyers. It’s a natural progression for an area where so many people want to live.

“Golf in Myrtle Beach is a passion and a business,” Woodring said. “We love to play the game, and we wouldn’t want to live anywhere else. So, sure, we’re all sad when a golf courses closes down permanently, but we understand it as a business decision and part of what was probably an inevitable transition in our area. And it reminds us to all work a little harder to keep our golf customers happy.”

Play Where You Stay: Myrtle Beach is Four Golf Destinations in One

The Myrtle Beach area and The Grand Strand are synonyms for a 60-mile stretch of the Atlantic coast that straddles the state line between North and South Carolina. As a golfer, if you know only one thing about the region, it’s probably this: There are more than 100 golf courses in the Myrtle Beach area. That’s a lot of golf. In fact, that’s over 2,000 separate golf holes by the time you factor in the 27-hole layouts. If you’re lucky, that’s about 4,000 total putts, plus the roughly 4,000 swings that you’d need to reach all of those greens. If you played non-stop and finished every hole in 10 minutes, it would take you a little over 333 consecutive hours or just shy of 14 whole days and nights without a break. That’s a lot of golf. Myrtle Beach Golf Holiday is a non-profit organization formed in 1967 to promote golf vacations and golf events.

Our membership now includes 96 Grand Strand golf courses with the recent addition of Bald Bead Island Club. There are also 77 resorts in the Myrtle Beach area that are Golf Holiday members and more than 50 of those are located directly on the oceanfront. That’s a lot of rooms and a lot of views. When school’s out in the summertime, those rooms and suites and villas are full of vacationing families. During the other nine months of the year, they offer the same sweeping views of the Atlantic to golfers at big discounts. And since most golfers during the fall, winter and spring seasons in Myrtle Beach would rather spend their days on the golf course than actually swimming in the ocean, that deal works out pretty well for everyone. And since many of our resort members now have heated pools and hot tubs and lazy rivers, visiting golfers should pack their swimsuits for any Grand Strand trip - in any season.

If you think that sounds like a lot of fun, you’re going to like the golf-package part a lot more. A Myrtle Beach golf package usually includes at least three accommodations nights and three or more rounds of golf. All of the 77 Golf Holiday resort members offer complete vacation-package deals that include multiple room nights and golf rounds. Some have special super-savings offers with particular courses, but all will book you on any Grand Strand layout that you request, including all of the Golf Holiday member courses. That’s 77 resorts and 96 golf courses. You do the math. (OK, it’s 7,392.)

That’s a lot of choices. Actually, if you’ve never been to the Myrtle Beach area or haven’t been back to visit us in a while, that might even seem like too many choices. Like getting a whole pie when you really just wanted a healthy slice. At Myrtle Beach Golf Holiday, it’s our job to get you the information you need to plan a successful Grand Strand golf vacation, but we recognize that we’re serving up a lot for you to digest. So we’ve gotten together with our friends here at On The Green magazine to break it all down and let you know something about the Myrtle Beach area that you probably didn’t know: The Grand Strand is actually four major golf destination in one. At just about any other major American golf destination, you might have 15 or 20 courses from which to choose and those might be pretty spread out. In the Myrtle Beach area, we have four distinct regions that each have 22 or more courses usually located within a 15 minute drive of one another. Pick the adjacent places you want to play in a long weekend or full week of golf and then book your rooms nearby. Or decide on your accommodations first, then schedule tee times at you choice of layouts located in the immediate area. And don’t think that you have to compromise golf quality for vacation efficiency.

In each of the four Grand Strand regions, you’ll find one or more courses on Golf Digest’s list of “America’s 100 Greatest Public Courses 2003-2004” and at least seven rated at an “outstanding” four stars or above in Best Places to Play 2004-2005. All of the remainder that are listed earned a “very good” rating of three stars or more. That’s a lot of quality golf where your only short drives are to the next clubhouse. Every one of the four regional destinations on The Grand Strand has its own unique character and featured attractions. Pick the one that appeals the most to you and your golfing companions. Select an accommodations host and golf courses that are in the same general area and you won’t spend that part of your vacation on the road. At the same time, all four regions are easily accessible if you want to make a special trip to play a particular layout or visit an inviting attraction. And that makes a lot of good sense.

THE SOUTH STRAND

Pawleys Island, Litchfield Beach, Murrells Inlet, Garden City and Surfside Beach are resort communities located on the South Strand, along with 22 golf courses that include some of the Myrtle Beach area’s best. Pawleys and Litchfield are part of the historic Waccamaw Neck, a peninsula between the Atlantic Ocean and the Waccamaw River that was known as America’s “Rice Empire” in the 18th and 19th centuries. Murrells Inlet has its own unique history that’s still tied to the bountiful sea, while Garden City and Surfside Beach are oceanfront communities with scores of low-rise condominium properties that are spacious favorites for golf groups. The pace of life is a bit slower on the South Strand and the golf courses reflect that laid-back ambiance. Most could fairly be called “Lowcountry-style” layouts, a label that suggests generally flat, sea-level terrain with marshlands often in play and fairways lined with moss-draped hardwoods. Quite a few South Strand courses are actually located on the sites of those former rice plantations and provide rich winter habitats for migrating waterfowl. Brookgreen Gardens is just such a site and home to America’s largest collection of outdoor sculpture in an awesomely beautiful setting with thousands of flowering plants. Murrells Inlet bills itself as “The Seafood Capitol of South Carolina” because of the fresh catch that arrives on its docks every day to be served up in the many local eateries every night. Scores of additional fine and casual restaurants are located from Pawleys to Surfside along Highway 17 South and Business 17. You’ll also find quaint specialty shops, big golf stores, fun miniature-golf centers, small arcades, full-service marinas and seaside fishing piers.

THE CENTRAL STRAND

The Central Strand region includes the famous oceanfront heart of the City of Myrtle Beach and the Highway 501 corridor west towards Conway. The majority of the Golf Holiday resort members are found here along the beach, including high-rise hotels that feature sweeping ocean views and complete vacation hosts that have on-site dining and other great amenities. As a result, golfers who visit in the “off-season” between September and April find an astounding variety of lodging choices at prices to satisfy every taste and budget. The Central Strand golf courses offer their own distinct variety. Dunes Club and Pine Lakes are the most historic sites in Myrtle Beach golf history, but along nearby Highway 501 and Bypass 17 are a collection of more than 20 modern classics. Most have been built during the “modern era” of Grand Strand golf that began in the early 1980s and many boast big-name architects who were given plenty of land to create their roomy designs. Some are “links-style” layouts with few trees and frequent mounding, while others could be called “parkland” courses because of the abundance of trees along the fairways. In addition to the wonderfully old-fashioned pavilions, arcades and novelty shops on Ocean Boulevard, the Central Strand region includes Broadway at the Beach, a complete entertainment complex that includes restaurants, nightclubs, retail stores, the SC Aquarium and an IMAX movie theater. There are also dozens of superb restaurants along Kings Highway, great shopping at the new Coastal Grand Mall and unbeatable deals at name-brand discount outlets and golf superstores. And the big oceanfront fishing piers can hook you up with all the equipment you need to rent for the day.

THE NORTH STRAND

The growing city of North Myrtle Beach, which incorporates several seaside communities, plus the towns of Little River and Longs, make up The North Strand area. The variety of available accommodations here ranges from oceanfront resorts and hotels to fully furnished and equipped high-rise condos by the sea to spacious golf villas and townhomes. The two dozen North Strand golf courses are an inviting mix of old and new, including a number of classic resort layouts built in the 1970s that have been lovingly maintained ever since. You’ll also find several courses located right along the Intracoastal Waterway and a number of others with water-and-woodland settings that defy singular classification. Some are Scottish-style links, while others bear the signatures of the game’s most respected designers. Restaurant Row is a highlight of any North Strand vacation, with miles of sit-down and buffet-style restaurants that serve up hearty meals for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Nearby Barefoot Landing has additional eateries, plus shops, nightclubs and entertainment theaters. There are also designer outlets and big golf shops on the North Strand, plus a host of after-hours attractions and a year-round calendar of themed events. There are also several full-service North Strand marinas where you can charter a boat for deep-sea fishing or coastal sightseeing.

BRUNSWICK COUNTY

Just north of the state line between the two Carolinas is Brunswick County, the “youngest” of the four Grand Strand golf regions, but by no means the least. The friendly towns of Calabash and Shallotte are part of Brunswick County, as well as the oceanfront communities of Sunset Beach, Ocean Isle, Holden Beach and Bald Head Island. The quiet accommodations here include full-service golf resorts and large single-family homes on the barrier islands. Many of the best new Grand Strand golf courses are located in Brunswick County. Some feature countryside settings with a rural character, while a number of others are set in maritime forests that open up to spectacular waterfront views. Famous designers have left their marks in Brunswick, in addition to some of golf’s best young architects. Their natural styles are as varied as the terrain itself. Calabash is Brunswick County’s “Seafood Town,” with a tempting host of restaurants lined up for your dining pleasure. But while there has been some commercial development in recent years, including new movie theaters, restaurants and retail stores, Brunswick’s main attraction is the small-town lifestyle that the locals have worked hard to retain. So if you want a choice of 24 great golf courses without the arcades, nightclubs and neon lights, then a stay-and-play Brunswick vacation might be a good choice. Besides, the multitude of attractions and entertainments found in the Central and North Strand regions are just a short drive south if you want to enjoy a little day trip or a big night on the town.

Comments