With some 100 golf courses arrayed across more than 60 miles of Carolina coastline, there are a number of Grand Strand layouts that enjoy some spectacular scenery. Here are four notable ones:
Pawleys Plantation Golf & Country Club
This Jack Nicklaus Signature course — one of two in the greater Myrtle Beach area — tests players with tree-lined fairways, small greens and water hazards that come into play on a dozen holes. On the back nine, the course bursts out into the marshes that separate Pawleys Island proper from the mainland. This creates some long-range marsh views on holes 13, 14, 16 and 17 in particular, with the first and last of these holes representing two of the Grand Strand’s most memorable par threes.
Pawleys Plantation Golf & Country Club
Tidewater Golf Club
About an hour north of Pawleys Plantation, Tidewater’s Ken Tomlinson-designed course boasts similarly spectacular views. At Tidewater, however, the marsh comes into play on both nines: at holes three, four, eight and nine, as well as on 12, 13, 16, 17 and 18. Big bodies of water border both sides of the Tidewater property; sometimes it’s the Intracoastal Waterway in view, and sometimes it’s Cherry Grove Inlet and Cherry Grove Beach beyond.
Tidewater Golf Club
Dunes Golf & Beach Club
Myrtle Beach’s most famous single course is not just a stern strategic test (which architect Robert Trent Jones Sr. saw to when he laid out the course in the late 1940s), but an aesthetic delight as well. The best views emerge once the player reaches the par-3 ninth hole and glimpses the Atlantic Ocean (the only such opportunity on the Grand Strand). Holes 10 through 13 are no slouch, either, playing along and around marsh and lake.
Dunes Golf & Beach Club
Grande Dunes Resort Club
While the Atlantic Ocean is Myrtle Beach’s main defining body of water from a purely geographical perspective, the most important big water hazard to Grand Strand local and visiting golfers is the Intracoastal Waterway. At Grande Dunes Resort Club, an impressive Roger Rulewich design, a full half-dozen holes look out on the Waterway, with the par-3 14th confronting it most directly. Any miss to the right of the green on this long one-shotter risks tumbling down a bluff and into the I.W.
Grand Dunes Resort Club
Caledonia Golf & Fish Club
One of the more well-known courses along the southern stretch of the Grand Strand, Caledonia Golf & Fish Club is annually ranked for its quality of play by raters from the likes Golf Digest, Golf Magazine and Golfweek. But up there with the course’s quality of play is the quality scenery experienced across all 18 holes. Built on an old rice plantation, you’re immediately immersed in quintessential Carolina Lowcountry when you enter the course through rows of twisted live oaks with hanging Spanish moss and come up to the Old South-style clubhouse. Play through a scenic round and you end back at the clubhouse as a beautiful Lowcountry marsh wraps around the 18th green and clubhouse.
Caledonia Golf & Fish Club
Willbrook Plantation
Designer Dan Maples often referred to Willbrook Plantation as one of his ‘best’ courses ever designed. Like Caledonia, Willbrook is carved from the site of two old Carolina plantations and offers a blend of tranquil golf and nature made even more stunning by the Champion Bermuda greens. Winding through a centuries-old oak forest, Willbrook plays into the Lowcountry setting with many natural challenges like wetlands, waterways and the forest itself. And spring is the perfect time to play as you tee off from the first hole providing marsh views and azaleas in bloom.
Willbrook Plantation
Rivers Edge Golf Club
The course name itself should indicate the scenery you should expect as you play Rivers Edge. With a design crafted by the legend himself, Arnold Palmer, you know you’re in for a treat as you play on this pristine property built along the bluffs and banks of the Shallotte River. Six holes especially provide breathtaking views as they overlook the river from high on the bluffs. The natural changes in elevation combined with the diverse terrain provided by the river and accompanying marshes are sure to provide a unique round.
Rivers Edge
Carolina National
Nature is in the name at Carolina National, with three unique nine-hole layouts designed by Fred Couples and named after native waterfowl – Egret, Heron, and Ibis. Golfers can play any 18-hole combination of the three courses designed in a Lowcountry terrain that features wetlands and maritime forests alike. Plus, with a design that is suited for all skill levels, you can play nine or all 27 and you won’t be disappointed.
Carolina National
Myrtlewood Palmetto
The Palmetto course at Myrtlewood Golf Club may be located in the heart of Myrtle Beach, but it is one of the club’s two championship layouts that provides multiple scenic views as it stretches through pine forests and then along the Intracoastal Waterway. Gently sloping fairways and a spread of water hazards, waterway included, has made this course a popular choice for over twenty years. The course provides a scenic escape from the hustle and bustle of the beach, but close enough for a quick round getaway from your beachfront resort.
Myrtlewood Palmetto
Heritage Club
Like many of the South Strand courses, Heritage Club in Pawleys Island is built on an old rice plantation providing a natural landscape surrounded by ancient oak trees, pine forests, and beautifully blooming magnolias. A scattering of water hazards that include fresh-water lakes and salt-marsh swamps provide as much of a challenge as they provide beautiful landscape views. And the scenery and tranquility don’t end after a round on the challenging Par 71 course as many golfers choose to take in the views of the Waccamaw River and unwind after their round on the porch of the Southern-style Colonial Clubhouse.
Heritage Club
These and other delightfully scenic courses can be booked right here with us at MyrtleBeachGolf.com. Come visit them soon!