David’s 5 Scariest Holes in Myrtle Beach Golf

It’s Halloween Week, and what better way for us to deal with the Grand Strand golf scene’s random ghosts and goblins than to identify those Myrtle Beach golf holes that, at first thought or first sight, send shivers down our spine?

We asked one of PlayGolfMyrtleBeach.com’s most avid golfers, David Williams, his quick thoughts on the five holes in “The Golf Capital of the World” that scare him the most. He’s played a majority of the courses along our 60-mile stretch of golfing paradise, and when prompted to choose his top five spooky ones he didn’t hesitate.

Here are David’s choices, in no particular order:

True Blue, No. 3 (Par 3, 190 yards from the tips). Island greens are challenging enough. This one? It looks wide off the tee at first, but it’s really a narrow strip extending diagonally from back left to front right. “Narrow, with nothing but water around it,” David notes, “and a beach bunker wrapping it from the front and around the right side for good measure.” He adds that clearing the water is only part of the equation here; you need to clear the green’s downslope in the front, too. Otherwise, David says, “your ball’s taking a trip to the beach.”

TPC Myrtle Beach, No. 9 (Par 4, 472 yards). A true monster of a hole, this long par 4 often plays into the wind, with an uphill approach to an elevated green. Make sure you eat your Wheaties the morning you play; you may need the extra energy to get home in two on this hole. “If ever a par feels like a birdie,” adds David, “it’s right here.”

Heritage Club, No. 13 (Par 3, 228 yards). From the back tees, this is a full water carry. Anything right is wet, and wayward shots to the left risk finding one of a frightening cluster of bunkers  – which, as David says, “is an automatic bogey in its own right.”

The Dye Course at Barefoot Resort, No. 18 (Par 4, 471 yards). This is a potentially back-breaking par 4 that, in true Pete Dye fashion, wraps around a lake for the entirety of the hole. Depending on pin placement and your vantage point from the fairway or rough on your approach, David notes that “the flagstick often looks like it’s flying right in the middle of the lake.”

Arrowhead Country Club, No. 3 Cypress (Par 3, 205 yards). Yet another long par 3 with an ominous canal running diagonally across. Says David, “The wind direction on any given day can not only wreak havoc on your shot, but make you think twice or three times over on club selection.”