If Pinehurst
is a mint julep being sipped in fresh cotton on a shady verandah,
Myrtle Beach
is a beer quaffed in a tee shirt in a tavern. Myrtle Beach is the epicenter of The Grand
Strand, a 60-mile bustling coastline that stretches from
Sunset Beach,
NC
south to Georgetown,
SC
Here in South Carolina Low Country, the living is high.
Due to phenomenally successful marketing pioneered by local visionaries in the 1960's, the Strand is
America's Strip Mall of Golf. The Strand's 110 public-access courses, whose fees range from $40 to over
$100, combined with its many other attractions, make Myrtle Beach the most popular golf destination in
the US. Myrtle Beach receives some 13 million visitors a year of which 1 million are golfers. The area
records 4 million rounds a year.
Myrtle Beach, indeed, proved that if you build it, they will come. And come they do in droves. By the
car- and planeload, they come from New York and points north, the Midwest, and even the Far West,
especially during the peak seasons of fall (September-November) and spring (March-May).
The mean age of Myrtle Beach's golfing market is younger than other travel destinations. A high proportion
of Strand visitors include 30- and 40-something male groups, which bond on Hooters flights out of Newark
and BWI airports before hitting the links. Myrtle Beach is also a big hit with families whose requirement
for golf is a little more leisured. With kids in tow, moms and dads won't have to worry about entertaining
them. Myrtle Beach is one big neon-signed entertainment parlor.
It wasn't always so. Before 1950, Myrtle Beach was a coastal backwater of quiet streets, moss draped oaks,
a few restaurants and businesses, guest houses and just two golf courses. The first of these was opened in
1927. Called Ocean Forest Country Club, it was connected to the old hotel by the same name. The hotel is
gone but the classically designed course, renamed
Pine Lakes
and nicknamed "The Granddaddy," remains and is one of the best on the Strand. Scotsman Robert White,
a friend of Donald Ross and the first president of the PGA of America, designed the course which
served by a staff dressed in tartan kilts.
In 1954, Time Magazine's Henry Luce brought a group of colleagues down to play the course and discuss the
launch of a new sport magazine. Those meetings gave birth to a great new publishing venture, Sports Illustrated.
In 1948, the Dunes Club
course, designed by Robert Trent Jones, was completed along the salt marshes just
north of the center of town. The site of the course was on land owned by Myrtle Beach Farms, a company that
owned thousands of oceanfront acres used for farming. Eager to promote area growth, the company, now
Burroughs & Chapin, offered generous land incentives to newcomers who would agree to build their homes
within a year.
The Dunes Club is one of THE best courses on the southern swing and the site for many tournaments over
the years, including several Senior Tour championships and the 1962 Women's US Open. It was founded by
lawyer and real estate baron George "Buster" Bryan. "I played the course right after it opened," says
long-time resident and 2-Star Air Force General James Hackler (now retired), "and I thought I had died
and gone to heaven. The marsh, the ocean view were fantastic."
Hackler teamed with Bryan to build the Caravelle motel on the ocean on 70th Avenue in the early 1960s.
(It is now a popular high rise accommodation). Hackler had once gone to Pinehurst on a package plan
with a group and was intrigued by the promotional effect of stay-and-play packages which were not yet
in vogue on the Strand.
In 1964, the two were in a partnership that built two courses on the north end, Robber's Roost (now gone)
and Possum Trot,
which they packaged with the Caravelle and a few other motels. "Our plan took off like
wildfire and fueled the need for more courses," he says, adding that the Caravelle nearly doubled in size
to accommodate the demand.
In 1967, Bryan, local advertising executive Cecil Brandon and hotel owner Clay Britain (now chairman of
Myrtle Beach National, a company that owns 10 Strand courses) took their idea to the small group of course
and motel operators and a collective marketing effort was launched with an initial budget of $43,000.
That was the start of Myrtle Beach Golf Holiday (MBGH) and the boom in Myrtle Beach golf that accelerated
in the 1990s when a new course opened virtually every month. MBGH has evolved into a highly sophisticated
marketing management association of 93 golf courses, 64 accommodations, four golf schools and three real
estate groups with an annual marketing budget exceeding $7 million.
The association markets Myrtle Beach primarily through events that include Golfapalooza in April featuring
equipment manufacturers, the National Police Golf Championship, the Veterans Golf Classic and the PGA Tour
Superstore World Amateur Handicap Championship.
The World Am is held in late August and annually attracts some 4000 men and women golfers from all 50 states
and 23 foreign countries. Flighted by handicap, participants compete over 4 days in a medal play format on a
total of 70 golf courses.
In a long list of exceptional Myrtle Beach courses, some that stand out include
Tidewater
in the Little River Neck section of North Myrtle Beach;
Arcadian Shores
and the Surf Club,
two excellent traditional layouts; and the newer
Grande Dunes
featuring dramatic holes along the Intercostal Waterway. Just north of Grande Dunes also
off Route 17 is sensational Barefoot Landing, a mammoth resort and residential/commercial community with four
courses designed by Davis Love, Greg Norman, Tom Fazio and Pete Dye.
Indigo, cotton and rice plantations once dominated the landscape of the Carolina Low Country. Some of the more
prominent golf clubs built on former plantations include
Pawleys Island Plantation,
a terrific Jack Nicklaus signature design; Dan Maples'
Heritage Club; and its
sister course, Caledonia,
arguably the most popular track on the Strand. Close by on the south end is
Tradition,
a less heralded Ron Garl design that merits high praise.
In North Carolina, courses of note include Arnold Palmer's
River's Edge;
Tiger's Eye;
Long Bay, another Nicklaus
product; Meadowlands,
a secret gem; and
Farmstead,
an outstanding traditional style layout featuring a nearly
700-yard finishing hole that starts in South Carolina and ends in North Carolina.
West of Myrtle Beach along major highway 501 are The Legends with three distinctive layouts, Myrtle Beach
National with three courses led by a stunning Arnold Palmer creation, and Wild Wing with four largely open
courses featuring wide fairways, marshes and plenty of wind.
After the last putt is dropped, the dilemma for Strand visitors is what to do among a myriad of options.
Myrtle Beach has every amusement and diversion imaginable. One can start with Ripley's Believe or Not Museum,
the Aquarium, or Alligator Adventure. Roller coasters, miniature golf or driving simulated Formula One race
cars on two "NASCAR" speedways. Then there are the horse shows and rodeos at the Dixie Stampede and the
motorcycle races. Baseball fans can check out the stadium near the beach, home of the Myrtle Beach Pelicans,
an Atlanta Braves Class A farm team.
For water-related activities, there are cruises and deep-sea fishing. The Gulf Stream is only 50 miles out
and the fish, including sword fish and tarpon, are biting. Bathing couldn't be better on some of the best
beaches on the East Coast. Off the beach, water slides, including a few a quarter of a mile long, which draw
kids are a great hit with the kids.
For the landlubbers, there are tours of southern mansions, parks, and beautiful gardens, including the
spectacular 9,000-acre Brookgreen Gardens between Murrels Inlet and Pawleys Island on the south end.
For shopping, dining, and nightlife, Broadway at the Beach is the place to be. Not on the beach, this
350-acre multi-purpose mall has 15 restaurants including themed venues like Hollywood Cafe, the Palace
Theater offering live musical revues, sports bars and dozens of specialty shops. On the north end, the
sprawling complex of Barefoot Landing includes fine restaurants; the Alabama Theater featuring off-Broadway
productions and musical revues; a wildlife sanctuary around a 23-acre lake, and The House of Blues, offering
casual dining and some of the best Blues acts you'll find anywhere. 
Myrtle Beach Golf Articles
