Myrtle Beach Golf News

Golf Channel’s Matt Ginella has traveled the world playing golf and last week he revealed his list of the game’s best 19th Holes. One of our favorites made the list! Watch as Matty G talks 19th Holes and golf travel on Morning Drive.

Unique names and serious golf. That’s how you can describe the golf courses at Ocean Ridge Plantation in Ocean Isle Beach.

There are four courses that are all nationally recognized and award winning, and one still on the way. A mere 20 minutes from downtown Myrtle Beach lays a golfing oasis fit for weekend getaways, long-distance travellers, or just local golfers looking for a spectacular setting.

With names like Tiger’s Eye, Panther’s Run, Lion’s Paw and Leopard’s Chase, golfers will not be disappointed by the grand promises that the big animal names provide.

The Big Cats, as they’re collectively called, feature challenging holes and beautiful landscapes. Immaculate conditioning are the norm, and each course takes advantage of the rolling Carolinian settings.

I was lucky enough to play Leopard’s Chase, named by Business North Carolina as the fifth-best course in the area. It’s easy to see why.

Although difficult, I found the course to be fair and receptive to all handicap levels in my foursome. The conditionings were perfect. If I were to build a golf course from scratch on the Grand Strand, Leopard’s Chase would certainly be a blueprint for success.

Leopard’s Chase is the newest and “most ferocious” Big Cat at Ocean Ridge, opening in 2007. The following year both GOLF Magazine and Golf Digest named it one of the Top 10 ‘Best New Public Courses in America’.

Rolling through 220 acres of natural coastal terrain, there are no shortage of scenic landscapes, wetlands, native grasses and southern palm trees to keep golfers distracted.

The highlights are in the holes where water plays a key role in both the design and challenge.
For example, the par-3 fourth has an island green, and the par-4 18th is, arguably, one of the best finishing holes I’ve ever played. An elevated green is guarded by an elegant man-made waterfall where 1,600 gallons of water (per minute!) rush down a wall of boulders – the same boulders featured at Tiger’s Eye. A bunker runs up the whole right side of the fairway, and a ‘beach bunker’ is on the left.

Certainly a challenge, but what an experience going hunting for Big Cats! As fine a foursome of courses you’ll find in the Myrtle Beach area.

Adam Stanley is a golf writer based out of Canada who's traveled around the world, but loves coming back to Myrtle Beach. His work has appeared in a number of national and regional publications. Follow him on Twitter @adam_stanley.

One Myrtle Beach’s most challenging and popular courses has earned one the area’s highest honors.

The Moorland Course at Legends Resort has been named Myrtle Beach Area Golf Course Owners Association Course of the Year.

The MBAGCOA evaluates Golf Course of the Year nominees on four criteria: exceptional quality of the golf course, exceptional quality of the ownership and management, outstanding contribution to the community, and significant contribution to the game. By virtue of winning the award, Moorland becomes a candidate for state and potentially national honors. A 4.5-star course, according to Golf Digest’s prestigious Best Places to Play Guide, Moorland has long been one of the area’s most popular and challenging designs. Architect P.B. Dye utilized waste bunkers, pot bunkers, water and significant elevation change to create a layout that is both visually stunning and enjoyable to play. Moorland has been ranked among America’s 50 toughest courses by Golf Digest and players have embraced the challenge.

[5 Things You Need to Know About Moorland]

Along with its sister courses at Legends Resort – Heathland and Parkland, Moorland is owned and operated by Arnold Palmer Golf Management and has been instrumental in raising money for local charities. Legends donated hundreds of rounds of golf valued at more than $30,000 that benefitted the likes of the Alzheimer’s Association, Habitat for Humanity and Toys for Tots, among many others.

[Check out the 3 Best Holes at Moorland]

Additionally, Moorland and Legends offers complimentary instructional clinics twice a week, allows kids to play for free, and is the host facility for the First Tee of Myrtle Beach and Golf Academy of America.

Moorland was named one of the “Top 5 New Courses in America” by Golf Digest upon its opening, beginning a stream of honors that still continues. Most recently, Moorland was No. 6 on Golfweek’s list of the “Best Courses You Can Play” in South Carolina, a ranking of the Palmetto state’s premier public courses.

Moorland succeeds the Dye Club as the MBAGCOA Course of the Year. The National Golf Course Owners Association implemented the award in 1996 and the MBAGCOA has since nominated courses from the Myrtle Beach area. Past recipients of the award include Dye Club (2013), Dunes Club (2012), Founders Club (2011), Sandpiper Bay (2010) Shaftesbury Glen (2009), Grande Dunes (2008), Wachesaw Plantation East (2007), Burning Ridge (2006), TPC of Myrtle Beach (2005), Indian Wells Golf Club (2004), World Tour Golf Links (2003), Wild Wing Plantation (2002), Blackmoor (2001), Tradition Golf Club (2000), Bay Tree Golf Plantation (1999), Arrowhead Country Club (1998) and Myrtle Beach National’s King’s North (1996). Five of the Myrtle Beach regional winners – Burning Ridge, TPC, Wild Wing, Tradition, Arrowhead and King’s North – also captured the state award. World Tour was named as the national “Golf Course of the Year.”

Share YOUR own review of The Moorland Course at Legends Resort by clicking and then scrolling to the bottom of the page!

The Wizard provides golfers a taste of northern Scotland, as the land is mostly clear, save for mounds, gorse and a few low lying trees. Wind is one of the layout’s primary defenses and newly installed, sod-faced pot bunkers add to the Wizard’s authenticity. So what else do you need to know about this Dan Maples design before teeing it up? We offer five nuggets that will help prepare you for a round at the Wizard.

Watch as Allen Terrell, director of coaching at Dustin Johnson Golf School, explains the importance of good posture and shows you how to achieve it.

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

View More Golf Tips!

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!

America’s most popular golf show is coming to the game’s most popular destination.

Golf Channel’s Big Break franchise has selected Myrtle Beach to host the 22nd edition of the series, which will begin airing on Tuesday, October 7 at 9 p.m.

Prestwick Country Club golf course head pro Jay Smith doesn’t delude players that flock to the course Pete and P.B. Dye collaborated to design.

The challenge is substantial.

With its rolling fairways, pot bunkers and undulating greens, Prestwick tests every part of a player’s game. No two holes are the same and every club in the bag will come into play at some point.

Knee-knocking approaches, treacherous putts and delicate chip shots come with the scorecard at Prestwick.

In short, it’s the type of layout golfers love to play.
The beauty of Prestwick lies in the fairness of challenge. During a round players face difficult holes, but the Dye brothers offer plenty of opportunities to score on a course sculpted to include the types of stunning visuals their name allows golfers to conjure up.

An approximately 18-acre lake separates the 9th and 18th holes, and the dirt removed to create the lake was put to good use. A berm was constructed around the course, providing the layout with privacy and framing many of its holes.

The rolling fairways, mounds and swales alongside the greens encourage creativity. There isn’t a right way to play Prestwick. Players looking at the same shot may see completely different ways to get the ball to the green, a hallmark of good design work.

There isn’t as much sand at Prestwick as…

The PGA Professional National Championship teed off this morning at the Dunes Club and Grande Dunes here in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. The nation's best golf destination is proud to be hosting the best PGA Pros in the nation. Enjoy a quick snapshot of the action from ealry this afternoon at Grande Dunes.

Click to view Photos

There are many qualities that define a great golf course, but one element architects have no control over is one of the most important – quality of land.

Property is an architect’s canvas, and a good piece is often the difference between good and great. Tidewater Golf Club is fortunate to reside on a premium piece of land and took every advantage of nature’s gift.

One of the best Myrtle Beach golf courses since its 1990 opening, Tidewater provides an unmatched combination of challenge and stunning, natural beauty.

The layout plays along the Intracoastal Waterway and Cherry Grove Inlet, in addition to offering views of the Atlantic Ocean, scenery that elevates architect Ken Tomlinson’s outstanding design.

Tidewater, routinely ranked among America’s top 100 public courses, is the rarest of all residential courses. The layout was constructed on a 600-acre property and the best land was reserved for the golf course.

On a layout with as many beautiful holes as Derek Jeter has had supermodel girlfriends, there are a few that manage to standout amongst a distinguished crowd.

The two most photographed holes are…

The August issue of Golf Digest, in a segment titled The Grid, outlined five buddy trip destinations that offer golfers multiple options. The destinations evaluated – Myrtle Beach, Las Vegas, Phoenix, Pinehurst and San Diego – are among the nation’s best. While the Golf Digest article drew no conclusions, merely reciting facts about each area proved to be a powerful reinforcement of Myrtle Beach’s status as the nation’s most popular golf

In this life as a caddie you never can tell where you’re going to end up next. One minute you’re working a tournament on the coast of South Carolina and the next you’re on a small island off the west coast of Africa.

After a very successful week at the Heritage, where my 19-year-old boss, Matt Fitzpatrick, the current US Amateur champ finished top 25, I found myself with time on my hands. In my state of semi-retirement from caddying I suddenly realized my services would not be needed for the six weeks prior to the US Open.

Plenty of time to get back to my adopted home of the United Kingdom and spend a few lazy weeks at Pete Cowen’s golf academy. Pete Cowen is probably the most renowned golf coach in the world and his academy is where I hang my hat during my weeks off. I was planning on at least four weeks of some relaxing time, hitting balls and sitting in on Pete Cowen’s lessons, or so I thought.

I flew to London and had a visit with another friend from my full-time tour days. I had a great couple of days before hopping on the bus and making my way up to Sheffield where the academy is. I had just walked through the door and said hello to Pete Cowen when my phone rang.

It was my old boss Johan Edfors. He had heard I was back in Europe and wanted to know if I wanted to caddie for him in the Madeira Island open. Why not? Five minutes later I had a flight booked to Madeira out of Manchester and I was walking out the door on my way to the train station.

So much for my lazy time at the academy.

Well, as they say, “that’s life on tour.”

At 6 a.m. the next morning I was flying to a beautiful Portuguese island situated off the coast of Morocco. Madeira is a magnificent verdant mountain protruding out of the Atlantic Ocean and the golf course is right at the top of it.

This was to prove disastrous in more ways then one. The golf course is built on a near impossible piece of land as there isn’t a flat spot on the entire island, but the world famous Robert Trent Jones designed as good a track as one could hope for. But there was nothing Robert could do about the weather because come Sunday morning the tournament had only managed to get one round completed. Clouds were clinging unrelentingly to the top of the mountain and you couldn’t see as far as you could throw a golf ball, let alone drive one.

This situation wasn't exactly breaking the hearts of the caddie fraternity as the Sierra Du Santo Golf Club is one of the hardest courses in the whole world to walk. Definitely not caddie friendly. The ninth hole is universally referred to as cardiac hill by any of the loopers who have had the misfortune of having their boss choose to compete in this event. Little did we know that by days end it was going to more then just a saying.

Johan and I and our 3 ball were on the fifteenth green when the siren sounded signifying a stoppage in play. A couple minutes later a tour official arrived saying that one of the caddies had gone down on ninth hole and play was suspended until they could sort things out.

From space age technology to adjustable drivers, it has never been easier to get a set of clubs fitted to your swing.

Despite the convenience and relatively modest price, fewer than 30 percent of players go through a custom club fitting.

“The thought among average golfers is, I really don't need to do that,” Mark Timms, founder of Cool Clubs, one of America's 100 Best Clubfitters told Golf Digest. “But the reality is, the benefit for high-handicappers is more than for scratch players.

“I can probably drop a 20-handicapper five shots through a proper fitting.”

If you are among the 70 percent of people who don’t have custom fit clubs, you might want to set aside a little time on your next Myrtle Beach golf trip to get your sticks fine tuned. Golf Digest recently ranked America’s 100 Best Clubfitters and Myrtle Beach is home to pair of them.

Leading the way are Martin’s PGA Tour Superstores. The Superstores – one located in Myrtle, the other in North Myrtle – use state of the art technology and an expertly trained staff to make sure your clubs are tailored to perform based on your swing.

The Steve Dresser Golf Academy also earned a spot on the coveted list. Based at True Blue, the Dresser Academy takes players outside and has a certified technician perform an evaluation. Using launch monitors, loft and lie machines, and lie boards, in addition to other cutting edge equipment, Dresser is able to expertly fit players.

A custom club fitting might pay for itself if it helps you clean your buddies out on your next beach golf vacation!

It took 35 years of caddying on tour to learn what was really important was being able to get from one tournament to the next. Sometimes I felt that carrying the bag, doing the yardages, pulling a good club, keeping the player dry in the rain, and enduring the wrath of some insatiable golf pro was the easy part.

Just getting to the next tournament was what we really seemed to get paid for. After finishing a tournament there was always a mad rush to the airport to get to the next event or back home. But now that I'm caddying for Matt Fitzpatrick, the current US amateur champion, my schedule is slightly less frantic.

After a very successful week at the Sea Pines Heritage Classic, where Matt, at 19 years of age, not only made the cut comfortably but had two bogey free rounds on the weekend on his way to a top 25 finish, I found myself in the most unusual situation of having time to burn.

Matt took the bag off me after signing his card and I did something I had only done a handful of times in all my years of caddying and that was to go back to my hotel for a Sunday evening. I took a very leisurely stroll up the street to a local sports bar and actually watched the highlights of the golf on TV. I know this might be hard to believe, but more times then I care to admit, whoever I was working for and myself would be running off the 18th green, jumping straight into the back of a taxi to make the mad dash to the airport without knowing who had won the tournament. Sad but true, but that's life on tour.

I had a nice sleep-in on Monday morning, hopped in my beat up old Cadillac and with the world as my oyster, headed back to Myrtle Beach. All those beautiful courses in such close proximity, at the perfect time of year, were to much to resist.

I booked into a motel a block off the beach and made a beeline to the range. I hit a bucket of balls and then spent the rest of the afternoon on the chipping green. What defines me as a true golf nut is the amount of time I can spend on a chipping green. For me, this is hours and hours of pure enjoyment.

The only remarkable thing about it is that I never seem to get much better. And even more remarkably, this never seems to put me off. Well, I guess that's all part of the madness of this game we call golf.

Ask 10 people what the best hole at Tidewater Golf Club is and you might get 10 different answers.
There is an argument to be made for holes 3,4, 8, 9, 12,13, 14, 16, 17 and 18, among others.

It’s like someone asking which child you love the most.

There is no right answer.