Myrtle Beach Area Courses Escape Fire Damage

In late April, 2009, the Myrtle Beach area was the scene of a huge wildfire that grabbed national headlines for a few days. The main area of the fire was west of the Intracoastal Waterway – in fact, west of the Hwy. 31 bypass around Myrtle Beach.

The fire, which began April 22, burned 19,600 acres, caused more than $20 million in damages, left 76 homes destroyed and 96 homes damaged.

Amazingly, none of the golf courses in the area were burned. Barefoot Resort had fire very close to a couple of fairways and lost some wooden bridges over some wetlands, but reopened within two days. Barefoot Resort Accommodations and Barefoot Landing shopping complex were unaffected, but the Barefoot residential area lost dozens of homes to the fire.

The Grande Dunes resort had a close call, but suffered no fire damage.

Waterway Hills Golf Club, which is adjacent to the Grande Dunes Members Course, incurred no damage. So as the Intracoastal Waterway was closed to boat traffic from U.S. 501 to Little River, golfers were traversing the Waterway in gondolas to play the 27-hole layout.

Though golfers at courses on S.C. 905 near Conway, and courses along S.C. 9 in North Myrtle Beach, Longs and Loris, were playing through some smoke and falling ashes, the fire did little to slow the area's peak golf season.

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