Myrtle Beach Golf News & Updates

It was semifinal Tuesday on Big Break Myrtle Beach, and the episode delivered the expected drama as Anthony, Emily, Jimmy and Toph battled for a coveted spot in the show finale.

After the obligatory breakfast table talk, Emily opened a letter that informed players that their first swing of the day might be their most important.

We’ve reached semifinal Tuesday as Big Break Myrtle Beach nears its conclusion. Four gifted players – Anthony, Emily, Jimmy and Toph – remain but talent alone won’t be enough. Two contestants will go home this week. Who will have the nerve and good fortune to advance to next week’s finale? Tune in to Golf Channel Tuesday at 9 p.m. to find out. In the meantime, enjoy the episode 10 preview.

For me, November always brings back memories of Lion’s Paw Golf Links, a course of historic importance for at least two major reasons:

•    Lion’s Paw served as the catalyst for launching the solo career of Tim Cate, now one of the Grand Strand’s most prolific and celebrated course designers.
•    Lion’s Paw helped launch the wildly successful, 72-hole Ocean Ridge Plantation development along U.S. 17 near Sunset Beach.

Why November? Simple. It was a beautiful November day in 1991 when I played Lion’s Paw for the first time soon after it opened.

I don’t know if many golfers do this, but I always seem to remember the month when I played a golf course for the first time. Maybe it because a golf course often takes on different personalities depending on the time of the year. You remember the bright morning sun in the spring and the spectacular color of the leaves in the fall.

Lion’s Paw was an instant hit featuring an interesting mix of holes, including two distinctively different nines, superb playing conditions and sparking white bunkers (it was a Grand Strand pioneer in using bright white sand in bunkers). Oh yeah, despite the beauty, the course isn’t overly difficult. There are reachable par-5s and some very playable par-4s, too.

When you play Lion’s Paw, you may notice on the scorecard that Willard Byrd is the architect of record. That’s true, but Cate was on site throughout the project, and his work prompted Ocean Ridge developers to hire him for the remaining 54 holes, and also drew the attention of several other North Strand developers.

Cate’s other solo projects along the southern coast of North Carolina include The Thistle, where wind as well as water and sand serves as an obstacle.

No other golf architect has so many courses concentrated in one portion of the Grand Strand. If you want to play a Cate solo design near Myrtle Beach, you have to play in Brunswick County, N.C.

After completing Panther’s Run, the second Ocean Ridge layout, Cate designed The Thistle before returning to finish Tiger’s Eye and Leopard’s Chase.

Cate’s success at Panther’s Run led to bigger budgets and more lavish layouts at Tiger’s Eye, Leopard’s Chase and The Thistle, which each have received mention on lists of the Grand Strand’s top courses.

Cate showed his versatility at Lion’s Paw, carving beautiful holes through forest on the front nine then allowing wind and water to provide the major challenges on a largely open back side.

So what caught developers’ eyes at Lion’s Paw? There are a lot of great holes. But this trio of unique, watery par-3s really stands out:

-No. 3, 204 yards: The approach (178 yards from the white tees) is all carry over a lake and the thin boundary of sand that lines the water to a diagonally shaped green guarded in back and to the right by an “S” shaped bunker and three pot bunkers.

-No. 6, 225 yards (175 yards whites): Another great par-3 requiring mostly carry over water to an undulating, somewhat triangular green framed by mounding. A pair of spacious bunkers guard the front, but there’s bailout room to the left.

-No. 17, 185 yards (154 yards whites): Players hit down a peninsula to a green surrounded by a horseshoe-shaped body of water. A spacious bunker guards the front left. Cate left a little room off the edges of the putting surfaces to allow near-misses to stay dry. Strong breezes are often a tremendous factor on the tee shot.

John Brasier covered Grand Strand golf as golf writer and sports editor of The Sun News in Myrtle Beach. He also has written about Grand Strand golf for several national publications, including Golf Magazine, Golfweek and GolfWorld. A mid-handicapper with a history of luck on short holes, he’s made four holes-in-one, though much to his regret, none on the Grand Strand.

Two things were guaranteed to happen in episode 9 of Big Break Myrtle Beach. Most importantly, the semifinals were going to be set, and secondarily, we were going to find out whether Charlie would earn $10,000 by advancing to the semifinals without using the super immunity he earned in the opening episode.

The five remaining contestants went to the sixth hole on the Love Course at Barefoot Resort for the opening immunity challenge. There were four hitting locations on the hole – a 100-foot putt, a downhill chip, a chip over a retaining wall, and a 100-yard shot. The players closest to the hole on the first three locations advanced to the fourth were the winner would secure immunity and a trip to the semifinals.

Emily, Jimmy and Toph advanced to the 100-yard shot in the battle for immunity.

Emily, who has played exceedingly well the last two weeks, put her ball to 4’2” to earn her trip to the semifinals.

The second immunity provided three locations – a 7-foot putt, 160 yards from the pin, and 230 yards out. The four remaining players Anthony, Charlie, Jimmy and Toph played the hole out from each of the three locations. Lowest score earned immunity, highest went straight to elimination.

Anthony and Charlie both made their putts on the opening location while Jimmy and Toph missed, turning the challenge into a pair of two-person matches. Anthony and Charlie battled for immunity while Toph and Jimmy sought to avoid going straight to elimination. Both “matches” came down to the final location.

From 230 yards out, Anthony and Charlie were both…

Only two episodes remain before the season finale, and the final four will be determined in this week’s drama-filled episode. Will Charlie hold on to the Super Immunity he won in the first episode and collect $10,000? Will the brash Anthony continue to advance? Those are but a few of the questions that will be answered Tuesday night at 9 p.m. on Golf Channel. Enjoy a preview of the ninth episode of Big Break Myrtle Beach.

The list of honors for Caledonia and True Blue, two of America’s top 100 public courses, just got a little longer.
 

Bart Romano, the head professional at True Blue, was named The Carolinas PGA Section 2014 Merchandiser of the Year in the Resort Course Category.

Caledonia’s head pro, Marc Guertin, was named CPGA Merchandiser of the Year in the Public Course Category as well.
 

“We are grateful that The Carolinas PGA Section has recognized Bart and Marc as Merchandisers of the Year in their respective categories,” said Bob Seganti, PGA Director of Golf Operations at Caledonia and True Blue. “I know that both men appreciate their vendor relationships, fellow staff members and most importantly the customers who support the brands. To have their efforts recognized by the Carolinas PGA is a nice way to start the Holiday season.”
 

By virtue of winning the Carolinas Section awards, Romano and Guertin will be nominated for national Merchandiser of the Year honors.
 

The awards are another in a steady stream for Caledonia and True Blue, both Mike Strantz designs. Golf Magazine ranked Caledonia 27th and True Blue 77th on its prestigious list of the Top 100 You Can Play, a ranking of the nation’s best public courses that was released in September 2014.
 

Golfweek also ranked Caledonia the 24th best resort course in America in its recently released Ultimate Guide to Golf Course Living and Great Escapes.
 

Routed along a stunning piece of property, Caledonia is equal parts art and architecture. Strantz carved a masterpiece between soaring live oak trees draped in Spanish moss and alligator-filled, lowcountry water that used to feed a thriving rice plantation.
 

Everything about True Blue, a 7,126-yard monster, is big, including the fairways, greens and waste bunkers.
 

Golf Magazine said of True Blue, “Hole to hole, the variety is astounding. The course is mostly open, with beauty and menace mingling with lakes, marshland and plenty of scrub-filled natural sandy areas … Rarely has golf architecture had a shaper as artful as Strantz. The full measure of his formidable skill is on display at True Blue.”

Big Break Myrtle Beach returned to Barefoot Resort and with just six players remaining, everyone’s margin for error is razor thin, something that’s not lost on the contestants.

The first immunity challenge, which took place at the Dye Course, required players to hit the ball through what amounted to a Big Break frame approximately 35 yards from the pin.

I think it’s safe to say that my 2014 season has come to a close. A tour caddie that is supposed to be retired, I still worked ten tournaments this year. That may be a little more than I planned or wanted to do, but I have to admit, I enjoyed every one of them.

From getting kicked out of The Masters (something I'm actually quite proud of) to being part of winning the silver medal with Matt Fitzpatrick at the US Open to working for my old boss, Johan Edfors, in far flung Azerbaijan, to working this week at the only PGA event in Mexico, all of them have been great. The problem with retiring from 30 plus years of being a tour caddie is all your friends are on tour and you end up never getting to see any of them. These few weeks back out gave me the opportunity to catch up with all my mates.

Wouldn't have missed that for anything.

The week in Mexico was particularly enjoyable for me as I always enjoy doing the unusual events, and I think a PGA Tour event being held in Mexico falls into that category.

It was also quite nice because I was working for a new player for me. In this caddying world, we tend to end up in certain “stables.” Taking me as an example, I've worked for 22 different Swedes in my career. You do a good job on the bag for one of them and the next thing you know you've gone through the whole stable of them.

I've also bagged for quite a few Spaniards, and this week I got an opportunity to work for a big name player, Gonzalo Fernández-Castaño (you have to admit, that's a big name!). How I ended up on the bag was sort of interesting as well.

After working for Matt Fitzpatrick at the French Open, Matt's management group decided since I wasn't caddying fulltime anymore they needed to get someone else on that bag, and I went back to looping for Johan Edfors.

A few weeks went by when I got a call from Matt saying he wasn't getting on so well with his new caddie and would I come out and work for him at the Dutch Open. This was great news for me as the Dutch Open is one of my favorite weeks on tour. The tournament was being held at Kennemer Golf Course, which is arguably one of the best courses on continental Europe. It's a Harry Colt designed layout and if you ever get a chance to play it, don't pass it up.

Well, as it turned out Matt and I had the locker right next to Gonzalo. One afternoon I got back to the locker in time to hear Gonzalo's caddie telling him that he really didn't fancy flying all the way from China to Mexico and then flying all the way back to Japan. I gave his caddie a little nudge in the ribs and told him I would be more than happy to do that week for him.

We had a laugh and nothing more was said about it. But three weeks later I got an email from Gonzalo asking me if I was available to bag for him the week of the Mayakoba? Great, I was back in the Spanish stable!

I've actually done this tournament twice before when it was just a Web.com event. As coincidence would have it, I also worked that week for a Spanish player, Alejandro Canizares, who's the son of the legendary Spanish golfer, Jose Canizares. In a lazy sort of way, it is always nice to come…

It’s Thanksgiving week and we are our counting blessings as we await the eighth episode of Big Break Myrtle Beach. There are only six contestants remaining, and Charlie, the favorite in our eyes, still holds the super immunity he earned in episode one. Will Jimmy, who hasn’t earned immunity since week two, get sent home or will he rise to the challenge yet again? The mercurial Anthony promises a fireworks show, so there should be no shortage of drama. Enjoy a preview of episode eight.

Are you planning a few practice shots through window ruins at Barefoot Resort’s Love Course? If you’ve been watching Big Break Myrtle Beach on Golf Channel, I bet you are. My guess is the marshals will be somewhat forgiving if they see you do it.

It’s particularly fun to play a course – and hit a shot – that you’ve seen the pros tackle. On the Grand Strand, The Dunes Golf and Beach Club (Senior Tour Championship), TPC of Myrtle Beach (Senior Tour Championship) and Wachesaw East (four LPGA Tour events) quickly come to mind.

A road trip was taken, a clear favorite emerged, and the cruelty of the game of golf was reaffirmed on the seventh episode of Big Break Myrtle Beach.

First the road trip: after playing at Barefoot Resort & Golf the first half of the season, Big Break moved to Pawleys Plantation, one of the most scenic and challenging courses along the Grand Strand.

Big Break Myrtle Beach changes venues for episode seven, taking the show to one of the area’s most scenic courses, the Jack Nicklaus designed Pawleys Plantation. With the number of contestants dwindling, the stakes and pressure are rising. Check out the sneak peek below and tune in to Golf Channel Tuesday night at 9 p.m. to see how the players fare on Pawleys Plantation, one of the area’s most scenic and challenging courses!

Former PGA Tour Player Hugh Royer III, who is the director of instruction at South Carolina Golf Center, shows you how to hit one of golf’s most valuable and vexing shots – the knockdown into the wind. Royer’s tip – hint setup dictates success – will have you relishing the opportunity to play in the wind.

These Myrtle Beach golf schools can turn your
golf vacation into a game-changer!

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Lower your handicap, fine-tune your advanced skills, or build a solid foundation for a golf game that will serve you for a lifetime. Wouldn't that just be the perfect Myrtle Beach souvenir? Check it out! And, don't forget, you can get these tips by email too!

The Intracoastal Waterway provides a stunning backdrop for a round of golf, and seven Myrtle Beach courses play along the man-made body of water that runs from Maine to Miami. Enjoy a look at some of the prettiest courses on the East Coast.

Great shots and a squandered opportunity defined the sixth episode of Big Break Myrtle Beach.

Just eight players remained and the first part of the immunity challenge took place on one of Myrtle Beach’s most popular holes, the fourth on Barefoot Resort’s Love Course.