Litchfield Country Club Named Myrtle Beach Golf Course of the Year
Fifty years and more than 1.5 million golfers later, Litchfield Country Club has been named the Myrtle Beach Area Golf Course Owners Association Course of the Year, a richly deserved honor for a layout that continues to be one of the area’s most popular.
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, Litchfield is a candidate for state and potentially national honors.
While the South Strand has grown up around Litchfield, the Willard Byrd design has more than stood the test of time, delivering an experience that highlights the area’s lowcountry beauty and the virtues of classic golf course architecture.
“It’s a huge honor,” Christa Bodensteiner, Litchfield’s long-time head pro, said. “We are very excited about it. We have maintained the integrity of the golf course and clubhouse, and it’s still as good or better than it was 50 years ago when that first round was played.
Litchfield Country Club has always earned high marks as a shot-maker’s course that requires keen course management and challenges players to use every club in his or her bag.
Litchfield is owned and operated by Founders Group International, and Bodensteiner has been the head pro since 2001, providing the continuity and a long-standing commitment to customer service that golfers appreciate.
Litchfield succeeds the River Oaks as the MBAGCOA Course of the Year. The National Golf Course Owners Association implemented the award in 1996.
Past Myrtle Beach golf courses that won this award include River Oaks Golf Plantation (2015), Moorland Course at Legends Course (2014), 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.”
