Each month, we will present a snapshot of course reviews left by recent visitors to the nearly 100 golf courses in the Myrtle Beach area. We will blurb a few courses each month in the
style of the excellent ZAGAT Survey, which is a definitive guide to restaurants in big cities that weaves visitor-submitted reviews and its own prose to form a one-paragraph review. ZAGAT has also expanded to golf in recent years, in fact, and they offer excellent introductions to hundreds of public-access courses across the country.
This series pulls review snippets from Myrtle Beach Golf Insider and other online reviews sites. We’ll give you two each from the South, Central and North sections of the Grand Strand.
SOUTH
Willbrook Plantation Golf Club: Recent visitors find it “always a pleasure” to play Willbrook, a 1986 Dan Maples design “with lots of tree-lined holes” that nonetheless have “generous” landing areas off the tee. Favorite holes include the par-5 finisher, which “wraps around a lake to a peninsula type green.” The vibe at the course is a pleasing one of “Old South charm.”
Heritage Club: Like Willbrook, Heritage was designed by Dan Maples and opened in 1986, with assistance from course developer Larry Young and, later on, Mike Strantz. The “very pleasant” staff receive considerable praise for “helpful” advice on playing the “excellent” course, where “true enjoyment comes from being able to work the ball” around the course’s winding fairways. “Beautiful scenery” in the form of centuries-old live oaks and plantation ruins add to the experience of playing the “challenging, but fair” course.
CENTRAL
Grande Dunes Resort Club: “The entire day was first-rate,” claim pleased players at the area’s only Roger Rulewich design. “Our group was welcomed and treated as important customers,” claim a group that “simply can’t wait to repeat the experience.” As for the course, “scenic views” and “superb” course conditions combine with numerous holes along the Intracoastal Waterway to form an “upper-end” Myrtle Beach golfing experience.
Myrtle Beach National Golf Club – West Course: “Best course on the [Grand] Strand for the money,” claim adoring fans of the Arnold Palmer/Francis Duane-designed West Course at Myrtle Beach National, which has been going strong since its 1970s opening. “The average golfer has a chance to score well,” owing to the course’s “forgiving” fairways and “good conditions” year- round. Female visitors declare the course “woman-friendly,” and the staff “attentive.”
NORTH
Barefoot Resort – Dye Club: Visitors rave about the “great condition” in which the Dye Club is kept, including the “perfect greens,” which are firm and fast. The layout itself is classic Pete Dye—“tough but fair”—with pot bunkers and bold mounds in abundance. Visitors who played after rain remarked that the course “drained well…no restrictions on carts.” A “great” staff and “memorable experience” complete the picture of the Dye Club as one of the top courses in Myrtle Beach.
Crow Creek Golf Club: Rick Robbins, a design protégé of Jack Nicklaus, designed Crow Creek, located just over the North Carolina border in Calabash, to blend the classic golf course look with a more modern sensibility. Recent visitors have picked up on this and praised the course as “a very fair test of golf,” due to “more of a traditional open layout”. With bentgrass greens and Bermuda fairways, the “fun and challenging” Crow Creek is “always in great shape,” with particular mention of “courtesy from the staff.”
(posted 2/13/14)