Myrtle Beach Golf News & Updates

The third class of inductees into the Myrtle Beach Golf Hall of Fame included two men who count the founding of the Dunes Club, the Surf Club and the Golf.com World Amateur Handicap Championship to their credit, making their inclusion an easy one. 

The impeccably credentialed 2011 inductees were Charles “Charlie” W. Byers, one of the Grand Strand's most visionary golf course developers, and Paul Himmelsbach, one of Myrtle Beach's most creative marketers and golf

After the busy spring season, Myrtle Beach golf courses use the summer months to freshen up, undertaking projects to insure prime conditions for players.

Six Myrtle Beach golf courses are in the midst of more significant work, namely the installation of new greens.

The courses installing new putting surfaces are: Avocet at Wild Wing Plantation, the Fazio and Norman courses at Barefoot Resort, Hackler Couse at Coastal Carolina University (Formerly Quail Creek), River Club and the West

Leopard’s Chase is one of Myrtle Beach’s newest golf courses, and it has wasted little time staking its place among the area’s most acclaimed layouts.

Leopard’s Chase, a Tim Cate design, was ranked among America’s Top 10 new courses upon its 2007 opening by Golf Digest and Golf Magazine, so outstanding holes are many. But we asked Bill Long, the director of marketing at Ocean Ridge Plantation, to name the course’s three best holes.

An astute observer

Gene Hamm designed Beachwood Golf Club in 1968 with the traveling golfer in mind, delivering a layout that was long on playability and devoid of trickery. Forty-three years later, one of the Grand Strand’s pioneering courses continues to deliver on its original promise.

Fun, affordable, friendly and convenient are the words used most often to describe Beachwood and it’s a time honored recipe for success.

Beachwood’s popularity starts with a course that is designed to challenge but certainly not overwhelm. The layout is 6,844 yards from the tips and has subsequent tees at 6,347, 5,695 and 4,947 yards, long enough for all while offering everyone a chance to score.

The layout is as open as any course along the Grand Strand, giving players room to spray the ball off the tee. The fairways are lined by trees but not the heavy pine forests some layouts are carved from. Drives that are off the fairway will likely find a clear path to recovery and possibly the green.

Beachwood is a good course to have in a golf package and it’s a great layout to have first in the rotation. Because of the course’s playability, it gives players time to adjust to the heavier air (typically balls don’t travel as far at sea level as they do at higher elevations) and start their trip on a positive note.

While Beachwood is among

Beachwood Golf Club is one of the founding fathers of North Strand golf. Opened in 1968, it was North Myrtle Beach’s second layout and helped pave the way for an area that now boasts more than 36 courses. 

Beachwood Golf Club is one of the Grand Strand’s Golden Oldies. The Gene Hamm design opened its fairways in 1968 and helped pave the way for golf on the North Strand.

The original design has stood the test time, pleasing golfers and playing as Hamm intended. The layout has maintained its architectural integrity, and we asked director of golf Kevin Lawson to tell us the venerable facility’s three best holes.

The gregarious Lawson agreed, so here are Beachwood’s three

One by one people made their way to the stage where a four-foot steel beam from the World Trade Center’s North Tower was displayed. Some had tears in their eyes, others had smiles on their faces, while others studied the oxidized and wounded hunk of metal that once called Ground Zero home. Regardless of expression, everyone paid their respects to a memorial – that manages to reflect the raw nature of the attacks and emotions that remain – honoring those who lost their lives in the

What the list of Myrtle Beach golf courses designed by Tom Fazio lacks in length it more than makes up for with quality.

Fazio has designed two of America’s top 12 public courses – Shadow Creek and Karsten Creek – and his Myrtle Beach golf courses are comparable to the best of his work.  Enjoy a look at the Myrtle Beach golf courses designed by Tom Fazio.

TPC of Myrtle Beach: Fazio’s first Myrtle Beach golf course opened to rave reviews in 1999 and has only

Military veterans from 33 states flocked to Myrtle Beach for the 12th annual Veterans Golf Classic, and after three sun-splashed days, the Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) and Army emerged as the big winners in an event that is as much about camaraderie as it is competition.

The 54-hole tournament features four flights – Eisenhower, Franks, MacArthur and Nimitz – and the field is comprised of two-man teams, at least one of which must be an active service member or a military

Black Bear Golf Club has a memorable name and a layout that has been pleasing North Strand players for years. There is nary a house to be found on the course, which features 23 finger lakes and ponds, and it provides a peaceful round of golf.

With that in mind, we asked head pro Patrick Wilkinson to take us inside Black Bear’s three best holes.

No. 8, 352-yard, par 4 – A short dogleg right, there is a substantial risk-reward component to No. 8. Players can cut as much of the

Black Bear Golf Club is one of four Tom Jackson designs along the Grand Strand, and, located on Route 9, it’s an ideal layout to play on the way in or out of the area. The course opened in 1989 and is full of character (though a small part of it blew away with the top of the facility’s famous covered bridge in a hurricane!), but here is what you need to know before heading to a staple of the North Strand golf scene.

1. Something in a Name – A trip to Myrtle Beach conjures up

Sandpiper Bay Golf Club and two-time U.S. Open Champion Curtis Strange are doing their part to grow the game of golf.Strange, a member of the World Golf Hall of Fame, will be hosting a pair of free clinics at Sandpiper Bay, the reigning Myrtle Beach Area Golf Course Owner’s Association Course of the Year, on Saturday, May 21. A junior clinic will be held from 10 a.m. to noon, and Strange will talk to participants about the sport and provide swing tips to help them build their game. The

Nestled between Myrtle Beach International Airport and King’s Highway, Whispering Pines Golf Course has been hiding in plain sight. Thanks to new road construction and renovation work, Whispering Pines is ready to emerge from the shadows. The Myrtle Beach area’s fourth oldest golf course, practically everyone who has been to the area has driven past Whispering Pines, too often without notice. But Harrelson Boulevard, part of Myrtle Beach’s continuing infrastructure

Whispering Pines Golf Course, Myrtle Beach’s municipal layout, has long been a local’s favorite.  

Whispering Pines Golf Course, the area’s fourth oldest, has been serving players in the heart of Myrtle Beach since 1962. The layout has undergone significant renovations in recent years, enhancing its playability and conditions.

With the course’s refurbishment nearly complete, we took a trip to the venerable layout and ask long time head pro Alan Chasteen to name the three best holes at Whispering Pines. Here were his answers:

No. 2, 158-yard, Par 3: The course’s