One Myrtle Beach golf course has completed a summer renovation project and has reopened, while a few others on the Grand Strand are nearing completion and restablishing reopoening dates.
The city-owned Whispering Pines Golf Club reopened Monday following extensive renovations, while projects at the King’s North Course at Myrtle Beach National Golf Club, Maples Course at Sea Trail Golf Resort, and the MacKay nine holes at Thistle Golf Club will soon be completed.
Whispering Pines’ project included all aspects of the property.
Greens are now Sunday ultradwarf Bermudagrass, while tees and fairways are Bimini Bermuda, which is a strand that is newer to the area and is being grown at a turf farm in Camden. Bimini is considered drought tolerant and durable, perhaps more than 419 Bermuda, which is on most Strand fairways.
Some tees in shaded areas were regrassed with zoysia grass, which needs less sunlight to grow.
Fairways were leveled and smoothed with a bulldozer prior to sprigging on the the nearly 6,800-yard, par-72 layout that was largely designed by the Texas design firm of Finger, Dye and Spann. Nine holes of the course initially opened in 1962 before the firm’s work in 1986.
This summer, bunkers were redone with new drainage and sand that is also used at Augusta National Golf Club, said Chip Smith, managing partner of Atlantic Golf Management, which operates the course through a lease agreement with the city.
The parking lot was repaved, and the clubhouse received new carpeting, an interior paint job, and new outdoor patio furniture.
The renovations were done in three phases that began in the winter and included rebuilding the pumphouse building, replacing the irrigation pump, repairing irrigation lines and replacing all irrigation heads with improved technology.
The entire summer project was completed for $1.5 million, as it was largely done in-house and Smith used his connections in the industry to secure affordable purchases.
“We weren’t planning on carpet or paint or the outdoor furniture. We were able to secure some tremendous savings in our budget so we had money left to do a few extra things,” Smith said. “We checked around with other people doing projects across the eastern seaboard and we think we did about a $7.5 million renovation for $1.5 million. We stretched that dollar out pretty good. We got a lot of work done.”
A new sign being installed in the next month or so at the course entrance on Harrelson Blvd. across from the Myrtle Beach International Airport entrance and exit will welcome travelers to “The Golf Capital of the World.”
“It’s a good welcoming statement to people flying in,” Smith said.
Whispering Pines’ cart paths were redone a couple years ago.
The course reopened as scheduled on Sept. 1 despite challenges from an abnormal amount of rainfall in July.
“Our biggest worry going into the summer was having enough water. It takes a lot of water to sprig and get it growing, but that never came true with all the rain we had this summer,” Smith said. “We had some standing water with the 20-plus inches of rain we had not go away for quite a while, so there were some low areas we chose to go back and sod.”
Smith said a lot of employees have been receiving compliments on the finished product in the couple days since the reopening.
He said the course has averaged a couple hundred players per day this week, and played 56,000 rounds this past fiscal year that ended June 30 despite being closed for a month at the beginning of the renovation project. The course only sends players off the first tee year-round.
“The prime times to me are from 10 to noon, that’s when people want to play, and when you double tee you don’t have that,” Smith said.
Rates have gone up only slightly since the reopening, Smith said. Local rates are up $3 to $45 and some outside rates will increase $5-$10 depending on the time of year. “We think we’ve got a pretty good formula so we don’t want to mess with it too much,” Smith said.
Sea Trail Maples Course
The Maples Course at the 54-hole Sea Trail Golf Resort in Sunset Beach, N.C., is expected to reopen to the public on or before Oct. 1 with a vastly different look.
Fairways have been expanded from a total of 14 acres to 40 acres, all rough has been removed aside from the edges of water banks, all cart paths have been removed, and natural areas have been created that will allow cart travel in many places.
“Once we got into [the renovations] we were like ‘Why don’t we just get rid of the cart paths. We don’t need them,’ ” said Mike Buccerone, president of East Coast Golf Management, which operates the Maples, Jones and Byrd courses at Sea Trail. “If you have to be on the cart path on the Maples, you might as well not be open because that golf course drains so well.”
The Maples renovation includes new TifEagle Bermuda Greens with Tahoma 31 grass collars, which includes both the Maples and Jones-Byrd practice greens, tees have been redone, and irrigation has been improved.
Natural areas with sand and ornamental grasses that are being added over time run along many fairways and into many existing bunkers, so all sand on the course will play as waste areas, in which players can ground their clubs. “It adds a lot of character,” Buccerone said. “It’s going to be really nice. It’s a big upgrade.”
A soft opening for members and the community is tentatively planned for Sept. 19 with the course fully reopen on or before Oct. 1.
Fairways and tees will be overseeded this winter on all three courses, and greens will be overseeded on the Jones Course.
The Byrd Course was renovated last summer, and the Jones is scheduled to be renovated next summer.
“We’re very pleased with how the greens have grown in, and the Byrd greens are awesome as well,” Buccerone said.
Course renovations are just part of an overhaul of the Sea Trail resort.
An entire new fleet of 200 Club Car golf carts is on the way that will feature Visage GPS & Bluetooth technology with food & beverage ordering capabilities, and new beverage carts have been purchased.
In addition, over the past couple years two new restaurants have opened, a outside bar has been added, the Sea Trail Convention Center has been renovated, an activities center has been renovated, and rental condos have been built for stay-and-play packages.
The Maples clubhouse will not reopen. Members will be able to check in for play at the Maples Course, while outside guests will check in at the primary Jones-Byrd clubhouse and be shuttled in new luxury mini-buses to the Maples.
King’s North Course
The King’s North Course is expected to reopen on Oct. 6 with the completion of a full renovation and partial rebuild over two summers.
The back nine has been closed since May 26 for extensive renovation, and the front nine, which was renovated last summer, has been closed since mid-July, so the entire course will be in pristine condition upon reopening.
To match what was done on the front nine, the back nine has received more open areas and waste areas, bunkers have become more visible and dramatic, a number of the 41 bunkers on the par-4 18th hole have been eliminated, and the greens have been expanded and changed from Champion ultradwarf Bermudagrass to TifEagle ultradwarf Bermuda.
A waste area has been added around the 10th tee, and other changes have been made.
The renovation has been overseen by former Arnold Palmer Design Company lead architect Brandon Johnson, who oversaw the front nine project last summer.
Course operator Founders Group International hoped to reopen King’s North in early September but work was hampered by the rainfall this summer.
“Staying on schedule this summer has been the toughest challenge we have faced with any of our recent renovations,” FGI president Steve Mays said. “July alone brought more rain than we typically see in a season and it has put pressure on our renovation timelines. Thanks to the leadership and hard work of [our staff] we’ve managed to keep the project moving forward and still capture Brandon’s vision despite the setbacks Mother Nature has thrown at us.”
Thistle MacKay nine
The MacKay nine at the 27-hole Thistle Golf Club is scheduled to reopen on Sept 25.
The greens have been redone and expanded and remain TifEagle, which has been on them since 2014-15, when a changeover from the original bentgrass was done on all 27 holes.
The collars of the greens include a 5-foot buffer of TifTuf Bermuda between the fairway and green that is designed to impede encroachment of a different variety of Bermuda in the fairway.
Three bridges on the MacKay fifth and seventh holes were rebuilt, and the tee box on the sixth hole was rebuilt with the filling in of a depression that separated tee boxes to create one large tee box that holds three tees.
A waterfall was added between the clubhouse and bag drop at Thistle, which hosted the championship round of the Play Golf Myrtle Beach World Amateur Championship on Aug. 29.
Last year, an open-air bar near the driving range and clubhouse featuring televisions and speakers for music and entertainment was built. It’s designed to be utilized as a quick stop at the turn or a place to congregate and be a headquarters for tournaments.
The MacKay nine closed on June 2 and course operators hoped to reopen in early September.
“With all tha rain we got [this summer], too much rain and too many cloudy days slowed the growth down,” Thistle head pro Brian Eckley said.
The greens on all 27 holes are being redone over three summers. The Cameron nine holes were redone last year, and the Stewart nine is scheduled for next summer on the Tim Cate design that opened in 1999-2000 and is at least 6,800 yards in all 18-hole combinations.
Prestwick Country Club
A few other courses have completed smaller projects this summer, including Prestwick Country Club, which closed for a couple weeks in July to improve the 17th and 10th holes.
The project on the 531-yard, par-5 17th hole included raising the fairway to improve drainage in the second-shot landing and third-shot approach area near a creek that runs along the left side of the fairway and fronts the hole’s green.
On the 10th, a small bunker to the front left of the 10th green that would collect water after heavy rain was eliminated and grassed over.
