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By Joe Derus –NorthMyrtleBeachOnline.com
 Longs, SC May 1, 2008--Just a short drive from route 17 in North Myrtle Beach on route 9 heading west you’ll come to Colonial Charters development and the entrance to Palmetto Greens Golf & Country Club. Its official address is 301 Charter Drive Longs SC (843-399-4653).
Our arrangements to play Palmetto Greens were through courtesy of Myrtle Beach Golf Directors.
Palmetto Greens is a brand spanking new course in the North Myrtle Beach area. It opened to the public on April 14th.
Well…it’s not quite “spanking new” – it is a redesign of the Colonial Charters Golf Course. While not complete just yet, its potential is off the charts. The people at Palmetto Green told us they are aware that fine tuning still needs to be done, and they have very definite plans to upgrade this course to a premium one.
First of all five waterfalls are nearly complete and a couple we saw are very impressive. What’s unique about them is they do not come into view until your second shot.
The fairways right now are in good condition and will be seeded in early spring with gn1 Bermuda grass.
Even though most of the greens are new, they are in very good condition right now, and will not need a lot of work to make them outstanding. The cart paths are not finished, and yardage markers need to be installed on the fairways. Our goal was to evaluate the “layout”. It’s with these thoughts in mind we “preview” this course.
This course has some memorable features on its layout.
 The first hole, a 500 yard par five is quite intimidating because a large lake runs parallel the left side of the fairway all the way to the green. We all used our first hole mulligan on this one.
Number 2 gives you a visual break in that it looks easy, just a straight away par four with no real challenge.
Number three wakes you up again with the second par 5 in three holes.
What I like about this course and will bring me back again is the constant surprise of the layout. It is unpredictable thus memorable.
For instance, when was the last time you played par threes back to back?
You will on this course; number 9 and number 10 are par threes.
Also lots of water comes into play as most of the par 3s are over water. Some adjustment needs to be made to the tee boxes as it relates to distance. The woman in our group felt a bit patronized when she had a 65 yard par three to negotiate.
I cannot forget to mention my personal favorite hole - number 7, a 278 yard par four that is awful tempting to drive the green. Yeah!
It is over water but not all the way. Your group will have the discussion …OK who is going to go for it - straight over the water or around to the left? You must decide if the risk is worth the reward. Its holes like this that will make this course fun to play.
 For me I could play this course three days in a row and not get bored.
Be careful on number 11. If you aim for the tree in the middle of fairway and if you hit it nice and straight look, your second shot is blocked.
The back nine played easier for us and has some of the more dramatic looking holes complete with waterfalls on 15.
The only flaw in the layout we noticed was the green on number 11, a par four, is about 20-30 yards away from the un-protected tee box on number 12. Keep your head up before you keep your head down when teeing off 12.  Re-routing the cart path to the right side of the tee box would greatly help solve this problem.
We expect this course to be in great shape as it will have a 90 day supply of water to keep it looking good throughout the year.
Palmetto Green will shut down on or about May 18th to groom the course, asphalt the cart paths, add the amenities for re-opening later in the fall of 08.
You can play it now, minus the amenities and details but the inherent, unusual layout, will make you want to come back in the fall and experience this course when it will be “brand spanking new”
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