Myrtle Beach Golf News & Updates

Despite having big-name architects and an outstanding layout, Prestwick Country Club has a relatively low profile, but that’s only a problem for golfers that have yet to discover the Pete and P.B. Dye design. 

As with any Dye design, in this case the work of Pete and P.B., beauty is in the eye of the beholder. At Prestwick Country Club, the Dye brothers crafted an excellent, if underrated, course.

Prestwick Country Club enjoys the hallmarks of every Dye course, but we asked head pro Jay Smith, who loves a good challenge,  to sort through the railroad ties, pot bunkers and undulating fairways to tell us the course’s three best holes. 

Here were Smith’s best:
 

No.

Myrtle Beach is where America goes to golf, but with instructors like Brad Redding, it could just as easily be known as where America learns to play golf.

Golf Magazine just released its biennial ranking of America’s Top 100 Teachers and Redding, the owner and director of instruction at Grande Dunes Golf Academy, was again a member of the prestigious list. He has been ranked among America’s Top 100 Teachers since 2001.

Redding’s Grande Dunes Golf Academy students

Everyone’s favorite golf tournament is here and it’s been 25 years since Jack Nicklaus’ unforgettable charge to his record sixth green jacket. So what better time to look at the Jack Nicklaus golf courses in Myrtle Beach?

The Golden Bear isn’t a prolific as fellow Masters champion Arnold Palmer when it comes to Myrtle Beach golf course designs, but he has a pair of popular layouts to his credit.
 

Long Bay Club – If a round of golf is analogous to a

In the mid-1980s Myrtle Beach was still an emerging golf destination and the idea of the South Strand had yet to take hold. When River Club opened in 1985, it was the second golf course in Pawleys Island but it immediately embodied the characteristics now associated with the area. The soaring live oak trees draped in Spanish moss, lowcountry beauty and abundance of charm brought River Club to the forefront of the Myrtle Beach golf market. Within three years, three more courses opened in

The beauty of River Club lies in its consistent excellence. Hole after hole the South Strand layout provides players with a different and enjoyable challenge. We assigned head pro Christa Bodensteiner the difficult task of giving us River Club’s three best holes and after careful thought, she delivered. No. 9, 413-yard, par 4: A long dogleg right, No. 9 doesn’t leave a lot of room for error but it decides a lot of nine-hole matches. Off the tee there is  a bunker on

Ted Frick of the Classic Swing Golf School shows you how to hit a lob shot from a side-hill lie.

Hint: drive the ball into the hill to make it go up.

More Video Golf Tips, Please!

On the second day of the Can-Am Junior Team Matches, the American team earned 157 ½ of 288 possible points to defeat the Canadian squad 233 ½ to 198 ½ to earn the 2011 title of Can Am Champions.Sunday’s format featured singles match play with the South Carolina junior golfers facing off against junior golfers from the Canadian Province of Ontario.  Eighteen points were available per match – one per each hole.  In the event of a tie, each team gets

Pearl Golf Links helped lay the foundation for the North Strand’s explosive growth during the height of the Myrtle Beach golf boom. Dan Maples designed a pair of scenic layouts along the banks of the Calabash River and a host of multi-course facilities followed suit in Brunswick County, N.C.

Here are five things you need to know about the West Course at Pearl Golf Links:

1. Bring Your Driver: The fairways are generous and it’s a links-style layout so there is room for the

Classic Swing Golf School’s Ted Frick provides a lesson on how to improve your play around the green with the bump-and-run shot.

More Video Golf Tips, Please!

As spring dawns, various top 100 course rankings hit newsstands and Golfweek, like its peers, has recognized several Myrtle Beach golf courses as being among the best.

In its annual Golfweek’s Best issue, the weekly magazine honored seven Myrtle Beach area courses in its Best in State rankings, led by Caledonia Golf & Fish Club which was, again, ranked among America’s Top 100 modern courses.

A fixture in the rankings, Caledonia was No. 100 on this year’s list

The West Course at Pearl Golf Links, completed in 1989, has a links-style feel complemented by a series of golf holes that play along the Calabash River. The West Course at Pearl Golf Links earned 4.5 stars in Golf Digest’s prestigious “Best Places to Play” guide and has a reputation for playability, making it popular amongst all level of Myrtle Beach golfers. This also makes it a very popular addition to golf packages when choosing which golf courses to play. With that

There are only a handful of architects that can compete with the list of Clyde Johnston golf courses in Myrtle Beach. The acclaimed architect has designed two of the last four Myrtle Beach Area Golf Course Owners Association Courses of the Year (Wachesaw Plantation East and Shaftesbury Glen) and yet he flies under the radar with the average player.

Johnston’s name doesn’t benefit from the wattage that golf greats like Nicklaus, Palmer and Norman enjoy, but his work in the area

The approach shot on the fourth hole of the Cypress nine at Arrowhead Country Club offers everything players want in a destination golf course. There is beauty in the Intracoastal Waterway flowing in the background, challenge in carrying the ball over a lake fronting the green, and opportunity to score on a 355-yard, par 4.

It’s the type of hole golfers remember on a course that embodies much of what helped Myrtle Beach grow into the game’s most popular destination. Arrowhead Country Club doesn’t receive the acclaim of some of the area’s high profile layouts, but players know what awaits them upon arrival: 27 holes, outstanding conditions, a playable design, and good value.
 

The Grand Strand’s only Raymond Floyd design, Arrowhead Country Club is home to the Cypress, Lakes and Waterway nines. While some 27-hole facilities prefer to tout the differences in their  nine-hole layouts, at Arrowhead there are far more similarities amongst the tracks and that’s not an accident.

If there is a significant point of differentiation between the nines it’s the…