Myrtle Beach Golf News & Updates

Ted Frick, owner and director of instruction of Classic Swing Golf School, explains why it's best listen for success on the greens as opposed to looking for it.

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Any hunt for great golf along the Grand Strand will lead players to the home of Ocean Ridge Plantation’s most fearsome Big Cat – Leopard’s Chase. The newest of Ocean Ridge’s four felines, Leopard’s Chase has raced to the top of must-play lists faster than its namesake chasing prey across the savanna.

Leopard’s Chase opened to great acclaim in 2007, earning a spot on Golf Digest and Golf Magazine’s list of America’s best new courses, and vaulting into the consciousness of Myrtle Beach golfers. The Tim Cate design has proven worthy of the plaudits it received, providing an ideal combination of challenge and beauty.

Cate, who has worked almost exclusively along the coastal Carolinas, is one of the game’s most underappreciated architects and Leopard’s Chase is his signature design. He co-designed Ocean Ridge’s first course, Lion’s Paw, before creating Panther’s Run and Tiger’s Eye on his own.

Cate took elements from all three courses in creating Leopard’s Chase and the results were spectacular. He used locally harvested coquina boulders, abundant sand traps and environmentally sensitive areas to mold a course that is visually stunning without being deceptive.

Selecting a favorite hole at Leopard’s Chase is only slightly less difficult than naming your favorite color M&M. The choices are many and the differences in quality are non-existent. The fourth and fifth holes deliver consecutive island greens, providing an early glimpse of what makes the course special.

The green on the par 3 fourth hole is surrounded by water, a more “typical” island green. On the par 4 fifth, the green is enveloped by sand, leaving a bunker shot players don’t want to contend with. The front nine, which features three, par 3s, has water on every hole.

The back nine, with its three… 

When players think of good course management, they often think of decisions made on the tee box and in the fairway, but the choices you make around the green are just as vital. In this episode of the Myrtle Beach Golf Buzz, host Blair O’Neal partners with PGA professional Matt Veltman at Legends Resort to demonstrate a chipping tip with will save you strokes. Chipping from a tight lie is a nervy shot for the best of players, but watch as O’Neal demonstrates a tip that minimizes risk and increases your chances of getting up-and-down successfully.

PGA Tour pros flock to Myrtle Beach each year for the Hootie & the Blowfish Monday After the Masters Celebrity Pro-Am, but for most of them, it’s not their first trip to the Grand Strand.

We caught up with some of the world’s best golfers at this year’s Monday After the Masters, and they shared their Myrtle Beach golf stories.

Billy Horschel: I came numerous times as a kid for vacation. My brother lived in Charleston so we would drive up here for a few days. My

The General James Hackler Course at Coastal Carolina underwent more change in 2011 than any other Myrtle Beach golf course, and players are the unquestioned beneficiary.

It was time for the 43-year-old layout, which officially changes its name from Quail Creek on November 11, to get a makeover and the changes were more than cosmetic. If you haven’t been to the course since it’s October 1 reopening , be prepared for a new experience.

With that in mind, here are five things

Standing in the middle of the third fairway, the beauty and challenge of Shaftesbury Glen are crystallized in the demands of the approach shot. The green is elevated and a deep, finger bunker lurks.

What looked like a fairly easy hole on the tee box gets tougher with each step towards the green. The third hole is Shaftesbury Glen condensed into a 414-yard par 4. 

The Clyde Johnston design is open off the tee, giving players ample latitude, but the greens are typically elevated and protected by those expansive bunkers. Getting up-and-down from the sand makes for a challenging round, so a sharp iron game will be your key to success.

The 2009 Myrtle Beach golf course of the year, Shaftesbury Glen will look familiar to the game's architecture aficionados. One of the facility’s owners, Paul Himmelsbach, caddied at Winged Foot, an A.W. Tillinghast design, and he wanted the famed layout to be the inspiration for Shaftesbury.
 

RELATED: Shaftsbury Glen Photo Tour

Johnston delivered on Himmelsbach’s wish, crafting a design with reminders of the elevated greens and bunkers that define Winged Foot and the Bethpage Black Course, another Tillinghast design.

Shaftesbury, which opened its fairways on the Myrtle Beach golf scene in 2001, is a second shot course.

“You aren’t going to get in much trouble off the tee,” Ryan McCarty, Shaftesbury’s director of operations, said. “There aren’t many forced carries either, but you will need placement off the tee.”

A well placed drive will… 

Jamie Supanich won Myrtle Beach Golf Holiday’s Celebrity for a Day contest, which included a trip to Myrtle Beach and a round of golf with PGA Tour star Dustin Johnson at the 2013 Hootie & the Blowfish Monday After the Masters Celebrity Pro-Am.

Here is what Supanich and his wife, Janell, had to say about winning the once-in-a-lifetime trip.

Supanich: Probably about a month ago, I was on Twitter and I found a link to play with Dustin Johnson, so I thought what the heck, and

Carolina National, the Grand Strand’s only Fred Couples designed golf course, will have greens as smooth as its architect’s swing for years to come.

The 27-hole facility will begin a greens renovation project on June 5, installing Champion bermudagrass. The project will be completed nine holes at a time, allowing Carolina National to have 18 holes open throughout the process.

The Egret nine will be the first to get new greens, followed by the Heron. Work will begin on the


The 14th annual Veterans Golf Classic, one of the most popular events on the Myrtle Beach golf calendar, attracted 450 veterans from 33 states (including Alaska!) and again delivered on its promise of a good time.

Played on 12 Myrtle Beach golf courses, two-man teams competed in one of four flights based on handicap. But for many players, a pair of different team competitions highlighted the event.

Members of the Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) and American Legion compete each year

Strolling into the courtyard, a gas grill, giant cooler and granite-topped bar are as inviting as the stunning views of Murrells Inlet available on the roof of the Inlet Sports Lodge.

The newest accommodations property on the Myrtle Beach golf scene, Inlet Sports Lodge has carved out a unique place in the market. It was built with the idea that it would feel like a retreat for friends and family, as opposed to the towering hotels that dot the coastline.

Arcadian Shores is a traditional golf course design. A variety of doglegs, well guarded bunkers and tree-lined fairways make it one of Myrtle Beach’s most enjoyable and well designed tracks.

We asked head pro Jason Mitchell to give us the three best holes at the Rees Jones design.

No. 2, 201-yard, par 3 – Arcadian’s most challenging par 3 is also its most scenic. The tee shot (178 yards from the blue tees and 148 from the whites) requires a carry over water that runs

Thistle Golf Club is an oasis for players who value pace of play and clear fairways.

With 12-minute tee times and 27 holes, Thistle guarantees the opportunity to play a brisk (but never rushed) round of golf.

Inspired by the original Thistle Golf Club, circa 1815 in Leith, Scotland, the North Strand facility honors its Scottish roots. Architect Tim Cate delivered an outstanding design, using mounds to frame generous fairways and deep bunkers to protect large undulating greens.

The layout provides a links style feel, particularly the par 3 fifth hole on the Stewart 9, which looks as if it was relocated from across the pond, without overreaching.

“Maybe I’m a little prejudiced because of where I am,” Weldon said. “But I’ve had the privilege of taking a number of groups to Scotland, so I know those courses. We have a couple spots out here where I feel like I’m in Scotland.”

Mostly devoid of the elevated greens so common in contemporary parkland architecture, Thistle, home of the Cameron, MacKay and Stewart nines, rewards creativity. Greens are accessible via the bump-and-run and when the wind off the nearby Atlantic Ocean swirls, sometimes it’s the preferable play.

There is ample water on the course, though most of it comes into play only on the most wayward of shots.

A familiar face will be returning to the 30th annual Golf.com World Amateur Handicap Championship.

Golf Channel star Charlie Rymer will be appearing for two nights at the World’s Largest 19th Hole. Rymer is the second Golf Channel personality to commit to the event, joining Brandel Chamblee.

A former host of the Big Break and Road Trip: Myrtle Beach, Rymer is one of Golf Channel’s most prominent personalities, serving as a co-host of the network’s popular Morning Drive

You may as well go ahead and write in an extra stroke when you see your ball land in the ominous fairway bunkers, right? WRONG!

In this video golf lesson, Ted Frick, owner of Classic Swing Golf School, shows you just how to get out of that pesky pit of dispair.

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