Myrtle Beach Golf News and Reviews -

With a choice of more than 100 golf courses and 90,000 accommodations, the Myrtle Beach area is the perfect spot for a golf vacation. The mild Carolina climate allows residents and visitors alike to enjoy their favorite outdoor activities almost any time of the year. And after your rounds, if you have the time and energy, there are plenty of other activities to enjoy, including shopping, sight-seeing, amusements and attractions.

While the Internet has made it considerably easier to gather information about the Myrtle Beach area, it takes substantial time and effort to become an expert on all there is to see and do. That's why most visitors still rely on the experts at area package providers to help them arrange their golf vacations. Most area golf package providers maintain a staff of golf directors who are knowledgeable of the local courses and can assist you with your course and lodging selections based on ability, budget and location.

The concept of packaging golf with hotel accommodations was invented in Myrtle Beach more than 40 years ago. Since then, we have been steadily refining the process to provide golfers the ability to book an entire visit as easily and affordably as possible. The package providers and golf courses are networked together to allow the golf directors to quickly search and reserve tee times, up to a year in advance, at the very best rates available.

A great number of prestigious Myrtle Beach-area courses and package providers are members of Myrtle Beach Golf Holiday, a non-profit organization dedicated to promoting Myrtle Beach golf packages and assisting golfers around the world with planning their visit. It is working. Last year, more than one million golfers made Myrtle Beach their destination of choice, logging more than four million rounds of golf, and just as the area's golf and hotel landscapes have changed, so have the packages offered by Golf Holiday's members.

Today, Myrtle Beach golf has evolved from the traditional groups of four, eight or 12 guys coming to the beach for a few rounds. While that group still accounts for a large portion of the total rounds, couples, families, and groups of female golfers are increasingly common on the Myrtle Beach courses. Packages can be created to suit the needs of each group at some terrific values, often with reduced rates for golf early in the week (Sunday through Wednesday) or afternoon tee times.

Booking a package through a Myrtle Beach Golf Holiday member almost always results in preferred rates and tee times. Package providers and courses negotiate the very best rate for their guest at the time they desire to play. With a few less courses this year than last, the demand for available tee times is expected to increase significantly. A typical golf package includes lodging, breakfast, greens fees and a golf cart. If golf every day is not your cup of "tee," your package can be adjusted accordingly. Likewise for those rabid golfers who crave 36 holes a day.

With leisure time at a premium, more and more visitors are placing a higher value on a well-planned vacation. An increase in the local population and the changing landscape of the Myrtle Beach area has seen a reduction in the availability of tee times. The myriad of accolades rewarded to area golf courses has also caused an increased demand for tee times, reinforcing the benefit to utilizing the convenience and affordability of the golf package for your next Myrtle Beach golf getaway.

It's no secret that one of the most frequent complaints about golf is "slow play." Most agree, the average round should take no more than 4.5 hours. And if you are on vacation and have scheduled a 36-hole day, there is a good chance you may not make your second tee time if you get trapped behind some slow golfers. So, for the benefit of all, here are a few thoughts and suggestions that should help everyone get around the course just a little bit faster.

* Arrive at the course at least 30 minutes prior to your tee time to allow adequate time to check in and loosen up.
* Each golfer should take responsibility for not slowing down the group.
* Unless you're playing a formal match, forget the honor system. Whoever gets to the tee first should plug a tee in the ground and fire away.
* If unsure whether your ball is OB or may be lost, hit a provisional ball so that you won't have to return to the spot to replay the shot.
* If you are not driving the cart, get out and walk to your ball. Even if your ball is in front of another player, you can walk to your ball, get prepared and then move out of the way.
* If using a cart on a cart-path-only day, take more than one club with you when you walk from the cart to your ball.
* Use the time you spend getting to your ball to think about the next shot - the yardage, the club selection. When you reach your ball you'll need less time to figure out the shot.
* Begin reading the green and lining up putts as soon as you reach the green. Don't wait until it's your turn to putt to start the process.
* Never delay making a stroke because you're chatting with a playing partner. Put the conversation on hold, make your stroke, then pick up the conversation again.

Talk of heavy rough, pot bunkers and the British Open never fails to stir dreams of a trip to the land of Old Tom Morris to play golf’s most revered links courses. The uneven lies, funny bounces and overcast skies of the British Isles offer a setting for golf most American’s are as intrigued by as they are unfamiliar with.

While the Myrtle Beach area can’t reproduce the blustery British conditions (or the bland cuisine), the Grand Strand is home to a plethora of courses capable of quenching a Royal Birkdale inspired thirst for links golf.

As is the case with so much of the Myrtle Beach golf market, geography is the key to the area’s ability to produce links courses that play like their ancient predecessors. Centuries ago, links courses were founded on the sandy, undulating land along the Scottish coast, the type of real estate native to swaths of the Grand Strand.

The rolling dunes along the Carolinas coast and the winds off the nearby Atlantic Ocean give Myrtle Beach layouts an environmental advantage most American links courses are unable to match.

Few courses offer the links style authenticity of the Heathland layout at Legends Resort, located in the heart of Myrtle Beach. From the clubhouse modeled after a Scottish castle to the 77 pot bunkers, some nearly deep enough to bury a basketball hoop, parts of Heathland appears as if they could have been lifted from across the Atlantic.

Bereft of trees that come into play, the level of difficulty at Heathland, a Tom Doak design, is often dependent on the strength of the ocean wind. The course features generous fairways, giving players latitude off the tee, but shots that stray to far are punished with a trip to the pampas grass and scrub vegetation that makes recovery difficult.

No shot at Heathland is more important than the approach, due to the size of the course’s greens. The 17th green at Heathland is 54 yards wide and 37 yards deep, making it, like many links courses, easier to measure putts in yards as opposed to feet.

What differentiates a links course like Heathland from the parkland layouts so familiar to American golfers is the creativity it rewards.

“(Links golf is) definitely more imaginative, more inventive,” Jeremy Cormack, first assistant pro at Legends, said. “That’s the great thing about a links course, you have options. You can take one club and hit four different shots. You can hit it high, you can hit it low, you can it soft, bump and run.”

A trip to Myrtle Beach provides more options than even the most creative players, and Heather Glen is among the best links style courses. The Little River layout has long been regarded as among the area’s best. Clyde Johnston, who worked with Willard Byrd to design the original 18 before crafting the third nine on his own, built a Scottish style layout on a piece of land that features dramatic elevation changes and stunning natural beauty.

With pot bunkers dotting the landscape and a 19th century British styled clubhouse, Heather Glen, named the No. 1 New Course in America by Golf Digest when it opened in 1987, provides more than a hint of golf in the “Old Country.”

The north end of the Grand Strand is a hot spot for links style course, and one of the best is Thistle Golf Club. Located in Sunset Beach, N.C., Thistle has long been a favorite of golf critics, earning 4.5 stars in Golf Digest’s prestigious “Best Places To Play Guide,” but has maintained a relatively low profile.

Don’t be fooled. A Tim Cate design, Thistle, a 27-hole facility, is home to rolling fairways, stacked sod bunkers and an authentic Scottish pub. Thistle takes its name from an ancient Scottish golf society and does it proud with wind-swept fairways surrounded by heather grass and an abundance of wild flowers.

Located near the heart of Myrtle Beach is Wicked Stick Golf Links, John Daly’s only signature course. The clubhouse display case is a shrine to Daly’s dramatic 1995 British Open win at St. Andrew’s, and the course, designed in collaboration with Johnston, pays homage to Daly’s grip-it-and-rip-it brand of golf and the links golf that delivered his greatest triumph.

Wicked Stick’s open fairways invite golfers to bomb the driver, and the undulating fairways and always formidable wind give it a genuine feel.

If you are looking to take a links golf trip to Myrtle Beach, keep Prestwick Country Club, located in the central part of the Grand Strand in mind. The North Strand features an abundance of courses that incorporate facets of links style golf in their design, including the West Course at Pearl Golf Links, Farmstead Golf Links, and Heather Glen’s sister courses, Glen Dornoch and Shaftesbury Glen, among others.

If the sunshine and a good time are more practical than a trans-Atlantic flight and questionable weather, Myrtle Beach can offer you a “link” to some of golf most hallowed layouts.

The beaches are packed, sunscreen and flotation devices are the most popular items at Wal-Mart, and the family is ready for the annual trip to Myrtle Beach. In years past, the golf bag was about as likely to be part of a summer beach trip as the lawn mower

But times have changed and so have packing habits. Desirable tee times, the widespread acceptance of free golf for juniors and exceptional value have conspired to turn many family vacations into partial golf trips.

The coastal breeze Myrtle Beach is fortunate enough to be on the receiving end of makes all but the hottest of days suitable for 18 holes in GolfTown, USA, another considerable (although underreported) factor in luring golfers away from sandy beaches and into sand traps.

“The family and I came down,” said Cincinnati, Ohio native David Hosier between shots at Arrowhead Country Club. “I play to get away. I love playing down here in the heat. There is no loosening up, you hit the first tee and it keeps you going all day.”

Hosier, who planned to play four times during his trip, teed it up early, allowing him to get back to the family by lunch, a common practice for men unable to drive within a pitching wedge of America’s best courses without playing.

The rise in popularity of summer golf speaks partly to the changing vacation dynamics, and it is partly by design. Myrtle Beach’s Summer Family Golf Tournaments, weekly “captain’s choice” events that appeal to players of all skill levels have boosted play and raised awareness of summer golf.

The Summer Family events are one of the few that don’t have a target audience – everyone is welcome to play. Husbands and wives, parents and children, low handicappers and beginners fill out the tee sheet at the Summer Family Tournaments, adding to the event’s charm.

“We’ve had quite a few good times,” said Michael Martin, a Chesapeake, Va., resident who has played in Family Tournaments with his two sons and his wife over the years. “It’s a good format and very cheap - juniors don’t cost anything. It’s a tournament but it’s not really a pressure situation if you take it in the spirit it’s meant to be. It’s about getting out here and having fun.”

It also helps that some of Myrtle Beach’s best course are part of the Summer Family Fun rotation, including King’s North and True Blue, two of America's 100 Greatest Public Courses, according to Golf Digest. The Dye Course at Barefoot Resort, Arrowhead Country Club, Farmstead Golf Links and the Grand Strand’s newest course, Founder’s Club are also part of the 2008 lineup.

The Myrtle Beach area has also made a concerted effort to reach young golfers through its “Juniors Play Free” program. The Grand Strand has 41 courses, including some of the nation’s best, that allow junior golfers (kids 16 and under) to play for free throughout the year. Several other facilities permit Juniors to play for free during the summer and at deeply discounted prices the rest of the year.

Juniors play for free with a paying adult, which means a trip to the course is in lock step with a family vacation.

“Oh it’s huge. I think it’s great,” Scott Taylor, director of marketing for Signature Golf Group, a management company that includes Wicked Stick, Rivers Edge and Indigo Creek said. “It also promotes the game of golf which the PGA of America is very active about doing. Let’s get people more active and involved for later generations.”

The program is laying the foundation for future generations of golfers, while making summer in Myrtle Beach a thriving golf season as well.

Every trip to Myrtle Beach’s Grand Strand is a good one. But with 100 golf courses and more than 1,000 bars and restaurants, the options for a good time can appear overwhelming. Armed with a little bit of knowledge, your next trip can be as easy to book as it will be fun.

Here are six things you should know and/or do before booking your Myrtle Beach golf trip.

No. 1 Familiarize Yourself With The Myrtle Beach Area
This is especially important for new visitors. What many people refer to as Myrtle Beach is really a 60-mile stretch of coastline that runs from Georgetown, S.C., to Brunswick County, North Carolina. The Grand Strand has three distinct sections – the North, Central and South Strands and each has its own unique characteristics.

It’s vital to distinguish between the areas before booking because it provides you, at a minimum, with a baseline understanding of where things are, which leads us to …

No. 2 Golf Directors Are An Asset
The golf directors you work with to book a package are often just like you. They have a passion for the game, so much so that many of them relocated to Myrtle Beach to work in the industry.

Use the golf directors as a resource. Ask questions, tell them about your likes and dislikes. Golf directors are professionals, so take advantage of their expertise, it will pay dividends on your trip. They can even assist you in making dinner reservations or recommendations.

“We may not be great salesmen and we may not be slick, but if you want to talk about any golf course we can,” said Carson Courage, owner of MyrtleBeachGolfDirectors.com, a packaging company. “We can relate to whether (a course) fits for your group.”

No. 3 Utilize The Resources At Your Disposal
The Myrtle Beach Golf Holiday website provides a comprehensive listing of area courses and package providers. The website offers a Quick Quotes component that makes pricing easy, golf course videos and easy-to-find links for every Myrtle Beach course and hotel of consequence. Doing your homework has never been easier (or more enjoyable), now it’s up to you.

No. 4 Know Your Group
Coordinating a trip for multiple people isn’t easy, but have an idea about the likes, dislikes and ability of the people you are traveling with. If five of your eight golfers are more likely to have a $100 bar tab than break 100 on the course, you don’t want to play a course with a slope of 147.

If you are traveling with a group of hardcore golfers that want to play 36 holes and have nice dinner before retiring for the evening, your accommodations and level of golf will be different than the group that wants to close down Liberty Tap Room. Know what your group wants in advance and you will get more compliments for your work on the backend.

No. 5 Number Of Golfers In Your Group Doesn’t Matter
Group leaders occasionally obsess over having a multiple of four golfers in their group, because some accommodations base prices on four golfers per room. Don’t get hung up on a number. Most golf packagers are willing to accommodate any number of golfers, from one to more than 100. If you have seven people that want to make a trip, start making calls. Myrtle Beach has built its reputation as the world’s most popular golf destination by accommodating golfers.

No. 6 Don’t Overlook Air Service
Nationally travels costs have risen considerably over the past couple of years, but Myrtle Beach is fortunate to have low cost direct air service in several markets. Myrtle Beach Direct Air, a charter service operated by Jet Blue, offers direct air service, beginning at $99, to Pittsburgh, Pa., Columbus, Ohio, Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, Pa, Plattsburgh, N.Y. and Newark, N.J. Myrtle Beach also has direct flight service from Orlando, Washington, D.C. and Chicago, among other places.

With many air carriers now charging passengers for baggage, it is often more practical (and safer) to pre-ship your clubs or even rent a set. The days of renting a starter set of Northwestern’s at the clubhouse have gone the way of the newspaper. Most golf courses offer high-end club rental.