Myrtle Beach Golf News

In the not-so-distant past chicken wings were a blue collar bar food, a delicacy that lacked broad appeal. But chicken (or buffalo) wings have emerged from the culinary shadows.

Wings are now everywhere (even Dominos Pizza offers them!) and can be coated in almost any sauce imaginable. Long a Myrtle Beach golf favorite, wings are a popular post-round treat, and we are here to help you find the Grand Strand’s best.

You shouldn't step up to the tee box until you've had the most important meal of the day, and golfers in the Myrtle Beach area are in luck. You can get breakfast any time during a Myrtle Beach golf trip, and the prices are insane. Some offer golfer specials – pancakes, eggs, bacon and sausage and toast for as low as $2.99, or about the cost of an Egg McSomething. Here are our top five picks for places to start your day: 1) Magnolia's at 26th: This place is popular for its

The Grand Strand is chocked full of restaurants and some of the best are Italian. If you are looking for a good meal from the Old Country, we surveyed a group of hard-eating locals and have produced a list of the area’s five best Italian restaurants. If pasta, homemade marinara and scampi are atop your wish list, here are five restaurants that will send you home happy: 1. Rossi’s – Quite simply the best. Superior food, service and atmosphere. The meal starts with

Japanese restaurants that feature chefs that are equal parts entertainer and cook have exploded in popularity, and a Myrtle Beach golf trip offers plenty of options. (Admit it, everyone enjoys catching shrimp in their mouth and watching onion volcanoes erupt!) The Grand Strand has more than 20 Japanese restaurants – some are the traditional steakhouses, others more of the fast food variety – but we are here to help you find the best. If you want to eat good Japanese food on your

One price.

All-you-can-eat seafood. 

It’s a dream come true for many of Myrtle Beach’s land-locked golf visitors.

The most significant story to hit Myrtle Beach this year involved the game’s most popular reality show.

Big Break, Golf Channel’s longest running and most popular original series, made its long-awaited appearance in Myrtle Beach in 2014. The show, which featured 12 aspiring young professionals – six men and six women – competing for their Big Break, drew outstanding ratings and produced its share of drama.

We have long touted Myrtle Beach as golf’s best destination, but a 2014 survey of USA Today and 10Best Readers was nonetheless gratifying.

America’s most widely read newspaper and 10Best.com surveyed readers for a month, asking them to vote on what they believed to be the best golf destination. Readers choose between the likes Myrtle Beach, Kiawah, Pinehurst, Pebble Beach, and the Grand Strand won in a romp.

It was an emphatic statement from the game’s most important ratings panel – golfers. When golfers ranked their favorite destinations based on quality of golf, value and experience, Myrtle Beach easily outdistanced the competition.

It was a tremendous honor for the area and one no one takes for granted. Myrtle Beach golf courses, package providers and accommodations properties have always have always strived to provide the best possible experience to the millions of people who have visit the area.

That commitment is unwavering, regardless of where we finished in the USA Today poll, but it was heartening to stand comfortably atop the vote.

Thank you for your support, and what we promise in return is a continued commitment to the quality of experience we offer you, the traveling golfer.

I missed my tee time with Raymond Floyd, chased the PGA Tour legend down on the first green and double-hit a chip shot in front of a few dozen people.

Those are some of my memories from my first round at Arrowhead Country Club, designed by noted South Carolina architect Tom Jackson with signature input from Floyd.

But almost 20 years later, I have beautiful memories of the challenging course, a water-filled, 27-hole layout along the Intracoastal Waterway only a few minutes from the heart of Myrtle Beach. I’ve had the good fortune to play it several times since my scrambling introduction in November 1994.

Here’s how my round began: I raced out of my car, ran up to the first tee, hurriedly knocked a drive into the left rough then leaped out of my golf cart to hit three more ugly shots before reaching the green to join my playing partner, Floyd, who didn’t seem at all amused.

Let me explain. As sports editor of The Sun News, Myrtle Beach’s daily newspaper, I had the good fortune to receive an invitation from Arrowhead ownership to join Floyd for golf on the Lakes nine at the grand opening. Arrowhead, which opened with 18 holes, opened a third nine soon after.

Nice perk, right? Of course. And the timing was perfect for Arrowhead and Floyd, who was in town for the Senior Tour Championship at The Dunes Golf and Beach Club, which would begin the next day.

It wasn’t so good for me, who was pretty much working around the clock, putting together the newspaper’s fat, special section on the tournament and planning additional 32-pagers after each of the four rounds. I got called into a meeting at the office just when I had planned to leave with a little time to spare for my round at Arrowhead.

Fortunately, I settled down from there and made seven pars to go along with an embarrassing T.C. Chen moment at a par-3 (either No. 5 or No. 8) when I double-hit a chip and made a second double-bogey. OK, I do remember hitting one well-struck draw off the tee on a dogleg left. I shot 40. Pretty good for a sports writer, to paraphrase Floyd, as I hustled back to my car to go back to work.

That’s about all I remember from a frantic, though enjoyable, day.

Playing with a harried sports writer the day before the tournament didn’t appear to have any negative impact on Floyd’s game – he won the season-ending tournament, outlasting Jim Albus in a five-hole playoff. Floyd was patient playing with me and patient in the playoff.

Anyway, below are three holes – one on each nine – you won’t forget after a round at Arrowhead. One last tip: try to get to the course with enough time to register in the pro shop and walk leisurely to the first tee.

No. 3 Lakes, 556 yards, par-5: This is a par-5 where 5 is a great score. A thin lagoon extends down the entire left side just off the fairway then crosses in front of the green. Big hitters can go for the green over the water, but there’s little margin for error. Taking the safer, three-shot route, which finishes with a tricky approach to the left over the water, isn’t easy, either.

No. 4 Cypress: 355 yards, par-4: A fun, short hole that requires two tests of nerves. The short tee shot must be hit accurately to the left of two pot bunkers and a small river that branches off the nearby Intracoastal Waterway to set up an approach – framed by a view of the Waterway – back over the water to a small, undulating green surrounded by four bunkers.

No. 5 Waterway, 387 yards, par-4: The Waterway stretches down the entire left side of the hole, one of only a handful of holes on the Grand Strand that feature the Waterway as a hazard. Bunkers on the left and right frame a generous fairway. The diagonally shaped green is protected by four bunkers, three In front and one behind.

Now that the final putt has dropped on Big Break Myrtle Beach, we can look back on the 11-episode season that produced outstanding golf, questionable decisions, heartbreak and good TV.

Here are our very unofficial post-show awards!

A season that began with the possibility of a life-changing opportunity for 12 aspiring professional golfers was reduced to a pair, Jimmy and Toph, who seemed to have developed as genuine a friendship as a reality show will allow.

That dynamic made the show’s traditional opening at the breakfast table all the more awkward as they prepared to compete for the opportunity to win Big Break Myrtle Beach, and the more than $100,000 in cash and prizes that awaited the winner.

Classic Swing Golf School’s Ted Frick explains how the fundamentals of throwing a punch can help improve your swing in a tip that highlights the importance of the right arm in generating power in your golf swing.

After nearly three months of great golf, stunning eliminations and, of course, heartbreak, we’ve reached the finale of Big Break Myrtle Beach. Jimmy and Toph have survived multiple elimination challenges, but only one will claim the mantle of Big Break Myrtle Beach champion and earn the bounty that awaits the winner. While you are awaiting the finale, which will air Tuesday night at 9 p.m. on Golf Channel, enjoy a quick primer! Extra: Jimmy vs. Toph By The Numbers

Jimmy vs. Toph.

It’s winner take all on the finale of Big Break Myrtle Beach.

Here is a look at the championship match by the numbers:

How good is Wild Wing’s Avocet golf course? Two decades after the grand opening, I still have the poster given out at the party featuring player/architect Larry Nelson and a photo of the course hanging on a wall at home.

OK, there are several better reasons – I also have a poster of Moe, Larry and Curly preparing to hit the links and another of four dogs playing poker – to recognize Avocet.

For starters, Avocet survived while its three Wild Wing siblings, each deserving of reputations as among the Strand’s best manicured layouts, were replaced by a housing development.

Has it really been more than 20 years since Nelson, only six years removed from winning his second PGA Championship (he also won the 1983 U.S. Open), was on-site for the grand opening? 
 
Yes, Avocet has stood the test of time.

Third to open behind Wood Stork and Hummingbird, Avocet immediately became the players’ favorite at the upscale Wild Wing complex, and remained so after completion of Falcon.

Designed by Jeff Brauer, the interesting Avocet layout tests golfers with a good mix of holes finishing on smooth miniverde putting surfaces. Hazards and challenges include creeks, lagoons, pot bunkers, grass bunkers, greenside swales, alternate landing areas and tiered putting surfaces.

Alone on the former 72-hole development, Avocet may fly under the radar for many visiting golfers, but it’s an enjoyable challenge for players of all levels.

A few holes (distances from the back tees) to remember from a round at Avocet:

• The 462-yard sixth may be as difficult as any par-4 hole on the Grand Strand. A lagoon stretches along the entire left side of the hole, which finishes with a three-tiered green. Trees along the right off the tee and a huge bunker short and right of the green make bailout shots risky, too. The vast double green is shared by No. 17.
• The 362-yard ninth is one of the most fun at the beach. Players can aim either right or left (for those of us directionally challenged, hit it straight and take advantage of poor execution) of a grassy strip with a handful of pot bunkers to two fairway landing areas. There are no bunkers to challenge the remaining short approach, but a “Valley of Sin” dip on the front left of the green makes par difficult from that area.
• The 227-yard 12th is one of the most unique par-3s you’ll ever play. Guarded by a vast front bunker, the best option is to go long – maybe too long – with a wood. Taking that tactic, players can use a grassy bank as a backboard to ricochet shots backward onto the green.

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.

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.