Myrtle Beach Golf News & Updates

When Barefoot Resort opened its fairways in 2000, media from across the nation descended on Myrtle Beach to see the first facility to open four, high-end daily fee courses at the same time. The architects at Barefoot – Pete Dye, Tom Fazio, Greg Norman and Davis Love III – were among the game’s most prominent names. Dye, Fazio and Norman were renowned for the quality of their architecture, while Love was still a bit an unknown as a designer. 

Surf Golf & Beach Club is on nearly every Myrtle Beach insider’s list of the area’s best golf courses. It’s also the elite golf course that golfers are least likely to have played, but they will have the opportunity to change that in 2011.

Crown Park rests on the western edge of the Myrtle Beach golf scene, nestled quietly amongst the pine trees that are so familiar to the area’s inland courses. This layout isn’t mentioned among the Grand Strand’s high profile courses, and one of its trademark characteristics is its serenity.

Want to know how to draw or fade the ball off the tee, on command?

Classic Swing Golf School’s Ted Frick teaches you how to work your driver.

More Video Golf Tips, Please!

Myrtle Beach’s premier golf tournament has been awarded South Carolina’s most prestigious tourism award.

South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley presented the Golf.com World Amateur Handicap Championship with the Governor’s Cup, the Palmetto State’s most coveted award on Wednesday, January 30.

“Winning the Governor’s Cup is a tremendous honor,” said Jeff Monday, the World Am’s tournament director. “Tourism is vital to South Carolina and

The Love Course at Barefoot Resort has been among the most popular layouts on the Myrtle Beach golf scene since its opening in 2000. A creative design and superior conditions have kept players flocking to a course that has consistently been ranked among the nation’s top 100 public layouts. Before you tee it up on Davis Love’s most highly regarded course, here are five things you need to know: 1. Bring your driver and be prepared to wallop it. The fairways on the Love Course

Davis Love III burst onto the golf course architecture scene with his design at Barefoot Resort & Golf, crafting a layout that has been ranked among the nation’s top 100 public courses by Golf Magazine and Golf Digest.

The Love Course has been hailed for its strength throughout, but certain holes stand above, creating the type of memories and challenges that make a course great. We consulted Barefoot’s head pro, Mike Ross, for his thoughts on the Love Course’s three best holes and he gladly provided us a list of the best of the best.

The Grand Strand is home to more than 1,000 restaurants, and one of its newer establishments, Nosh, has taken its place among the best. Located in Pawleys Island, Nosh, which touts itself as artful dining, offers a contemporary menu and a beautiful setting. Come along as Myrtle Beach Golf Buzz host Blair O’Neal explores the origins of the restaurant’s name and features a sea bass entrée that will leave you begging for more.

Beware of the Bear of a course along the North Strand: The Long Bay Club.Open for business in 1988, the Long Bay Club is a distinctive, albeit totally diverse style course designed by its architect, golf’s all-time major champion Jack Nicklaus, one of two Myrtle Beach golf courses to his credit. Nicklaus’ signature of favoring left-to-right shot making isn’t the focal part of this design. Instead, the Golden Bear and his design team force golfers to hurdle greenside bunkers,

One of America’s most attractive golfers pays a visit to one of the game’s most beautiful courses in this installment of Myrtle Beach Golf Buzz. Host Blair O’Neal plays Caledonia Golf & Fish Club, a consensus Top 100 public course. Come along as Blair enjoys sprawling live oak trees, a beautifully manicured layout, and the course’s stunning antebellum style clubhouse. If you’ve never played Caledonia, enjoy an inside look at one of Myrtle Beach and America’s best golf courses.

Myrtle Beach golf spokesman Dustin Johnson is expecting big things in 2013, and one tournament into the season, there is every reason to believe he is going to deliver. 

Johnson powered his way to a 4-shot victory at the PGA Tour’s season-opening Hyundai Tournament of Champions in Hawaii, finishing the 54-hole event at 16-under par.

The Plantation Course at Kapalua sets up perfectly for Johnson, allowing one of the longest hitters in the world to bomb his driver. Save for a

Golf Digest has unveiled its biennial list of America’s 100 Greatest Public Courses, and a trio of Grand Strand layouts earned a spot on the prestigious list, which was unveiled in the February 2013 issue of the magazine.

The Dunes Club (No. 52), Caledonia (No. 97) and TPC Myrtle Beach (No. 98) were all ranked among America’s greatest public courses.

A classic Robert Trent Jones, Sr. design, Dunes Club is the most revered Myrtle Beach golf course. The famed layout has hosted six Senior PGA Tour Championships, the finals of the PGA Tour’s Q-School, and the Women’s U.S. Open.

Playing along natural sand dunes just yards from the Atlantic Ocean, Dunes Club is an architectural and visual masterpiece. Holes 11-13, known as Alligator Alley, are arguably the best three-hole stretch on the Grand Strand, highlighted by “Waterloo,” the monster par 5 that plays around Lake Singleton.

Caledonia, which returned to the list, was Mike Strantz’s first solo design. The course is an appealing blend of art and architecture as Strantz carved a memorable design amidst a stunning lowcountry setting.

The 18th hole, a stout par 4 that requires a carry over water and finishes in the shadow of an antebellum style clubhouse, provides an unforgettable finish to a day at Caledonia.

TPC Myrtle Beach has long been one of the area’s most highly regarded layouts, earning 5 stars in Golf Digest’s prestigious “Best Places to Play” guide. The Tom Fazio design’s inclusion on the list pushes the number of Myrtle Beach golf courses that have earned top 100 recognition in the last six years to 13.

TPC is the home course of PGA Tour star Dustin Johnson and it provides a Tour-quality challenge to everyone that tees it up.  Elevated greens and tree-lined fairways conspire to create one of America’s strongest designs.  

Golf Digest’s team of raters evaluated golf courses on seven categories. Below are the criteria the magazine set for each category:

1. Shot Values: How well does the course pose risks and rewards and equally test length, accuracy and finesse?

2. Resistance to Scoring: How difficult, while still being fair, is the golf course for a scratch player from the back tees?



3. Design Variety: How varied are the golf course's holes in differing lengths, configurations, hazard placements, green shapes and green contours?



4. Memorability: How well do the design features (tees, fairways, greens, hazards, vegetation and terrain) provide individuality to each hole, yet a collective continuity to the entire 18?



5. Aesthetics: How well do the scenic values of the golf course (including landscaping, vegetation, water features and backdrops) add to the pleasure of a round?



6. Conditioning: How firm, fast and rolling were the fairways, and how firm yet receptive were the greens on the day you played the course?



7. Ambience: How well does the overall feel and atmosphere of the course reflect or uphold the traditional values of the game?

The Grand Strand is known round the world for the quality and quantity of its golf offerings, and the setting sun doesn’t have to be the end of your day. The area is also home to a collection of putt-putt golf courses that rival its championship layout offerings. In this installment of the Myrtle Beach Golf Buzz, host Blair O’Neal visits the best mini-golf courses the Grand Strand has to offer, including a course lauded as the best in the world.

True Blue Golf Plantation has been one of Myrtle Beach’s most talked about golf courses since its 1998 opening. Everything about the golf course is big – fairways, bunkers, greens, you name it – and the experience rises to the challenge of expectations.

Located in Pawleys Island, True Blue is one of Myrtle Beach’s best and most popular courses, but before you tackle this Mike Strantz monster, here are five things you need to know:

Stay Focused: There are

Travelin’ Joe Passov has played more than 1,400 golf courses in 50 states and 25 countries, so when Golf Magazine’s travel editor talks, smart people listen.

As part of a recent series on Travelin’ Joe’s three favorite golf travel gifts – available on Golf Magazine’s popular Front9 app  – Passov ranked Myrtle Beach second on his list of three favorite buddy trips.

The Grand Strand trailed only the much-acclaimed Bandon Dunes Resort on the