7 of the Trickiest Doglegs in Myrtle Beach Golf

Straight holes are for practice rounds. If you really want to test your game — and maybe your patience — Myrtle Beach’s doglegs are where things get interesting. A good dogleg doesn’t just ask you to hit it far, it asks you to think, and these holes have a way of punishing golfers who try to shortcut the strategy. Here are the doglegs around the Grand Strand that locals still talk about long after the round is over.

River Club, No. 18. A memorable par-5 closer where water shadows you the entire way down. It’s a dogleg left with a pond tucked right into the corner of the bend, so even golfers playing away from the water get an intimidating look from the tee. Long hitters can reach it in two, but anything short of the green can find a watery grave — this is a hole that punishes greed just as much as it rewards it.

Tidewater Golf Club, No. 18. A 410-yard dogleg left that might be the toughest finishing hole on the Strand. Marsh runs the entire right side and cuts across the fairway, so anything pushed is gone, and the approach doesn’t get any friendlier once you’re safely in the fairway.

Long Bay Club, No. 4. Jack Nicklaus doesn’t build easy holes, and this 419-yard dogleg left proves it. The landing area is less than 40 yards wide, so you need both power and precision just to find the short grass — never mind what’s left for your approach.

Blackmoor Golf Club, No. 8. This risk-reward dogleg right is the signature hole at Blackmoor, and it hands you a decision right off the tee: play it safe at 370 yards around the bend, or try to cut the corner and get home in 270. Sounds tempting until you see the corridor — a tree-lined alley less than 30 yards wide, over rough the whole way. Miss it, and the trees will happily swallow your ball and your round’s momentum along with it.

Rivers Edge Golf Club, No. 9 (“Arnie’s Revenge”). Just a short drive across the state line into Shallotte, NC, and Arnold Palmer’s signature hole is worth the trip on its own. It’s a massive, uphill dogleg par 5 that plays 540-ish yards to the narrowest green opening on the entire course, with the Shallotte River marsh squeezing in on the second shot for anyone tempted to go for it in two. Walk away with par and consider the hole won — that’s not a joke, that’s the local wisdom.

Caledonia Golf & Fish Club, No. 13. Caledonia is known for several “gettable” holes, which makes this one feel like a betrayal. It’s a 90-degree dogleg left with a green that’s almost entirely ringed by sand, plus a deep bunker waiting to swallow anything short. On a course built around good vibes, this is where good vibes get tested.

Dunes Golf & Beach Club, No. 13 (“Waterloo”). The most famous dogleg in Myrtle Beach, hands down. This par 5 is a 90-degree dogleg right that wraps entirely around Lake Singleton, and the lake is very much in play the whole way — off the tee, on the layup, and again on the approach if you get greedy. It takes three genuinely good shots to get home in regulation, which is rare for a par 5. Robert Trent Jones Sr. built a hole here that’s tortured golfers — and made legends of a few — for decades.

What Makes a Dogleg So Tough?

It’s rarely just the bend. The toughest doglegs around Myrtle Beach usually stack multiple challenges: a tight, angled landing area that punishes anything but the ideal shot shape; water or marsh that swallows anything pulled or pushed; and a green complex that only opens up from the “correct” spot in the fairway. Cut the corner and you’re rewarded — but miss, and the hole makes you pay for the attempt. That risk-reward tension is exactly what makes these holes so memorable (and occasionally, so heartbreaking).