Golfing at one of Myrtle Beach’s most historic courses? Pros say watch out for these holes
Myrtle Beach, SC. is home to dozens of golf courses that are favorites of many players.
Every course has its signature holes, too, designed to befuddle a golfer and leave you with a lasting memory of the contours of the fairway, hazards and green that hurt your score.
The Grand Strand is also home to some historic golf courses, as some are close to a century old.
The oldest courses in the Myrtle Beach, SC area are:
Pine Lakes Country Club at 5603 Granddaddy Drive.
Dunes Golf and Beach Club at 9000 North Ocean Blvd.
Surf Golf & Beach Club at 1701 Springland Lane in North Myrtle Beach.
Whispering Pines at 900 Harrelson Blvd.
Myrtlewood’s PineHills Course at 1500 48th Avenue North.
Given their status in Myrtle Beach, here are some holes you need to know about before you play them. Especially if you don’t want to lose the new golf balls you bought at the pro shop for this special occasion.
Situated near the beach, Pine Lakes emphasizes touch and finesse instead of overwhelming drives.
“(Pine Lakes) is 100 percent a second shot, approach shot golf course,” Pine Lakes Country Club General Manager Jimmy Biggs said. “You have wind because we’re so close to the surf here. That brings a whole new dynamic to the golf course.”
For Biggs, the signature course at Pine Lakes views Myrtle Beach’s oceanfront skyline.
Hole 14 is a long par four with a maximum distance of 438 yards. A downhill fairway dotted with polite trees on each side, you’ll run into trouble as you approach the green. A small body of water cuts the fairway in two leaving players with several options for avoiding penalty strokes.
Laying up is the conservative choice, as staying dry will probably sink any faint chance you had of making birdie. You could try to work around the water, as a small plot of fairway stretches around the left of the hazard, but poor execution could cost you if you don’t trust your iron game.
Playing it aggressively and try to hit for the green is also a choice, but one of Pine Lakes 24 traps sits next to it as a reminder of the strokes you’ll add to your scorecard if you miss to the left.
“Business 17 is only about 50 yards from the 14th green. So you can hear the cars driving by, but you can (also) literally hear the ocean from the green,” Biggs said.
He added that number three— a 463-yard par four— was the number one handicapped hole, but 14 was still the hardest in his opinion.
Meanwhile, the second oldest golf course in Myrtle Beach offers three holes in a row that will cause problems that you can blame for your bad round. The Dunes Golf and Beach Club’s most notable holes are 11, 12 and 13, and each will provide their challenges.
Referred to as “Alligator Alley,” according to Dunes Head Golf Professional Dennis Nicholl, 11 is a par four, 12 is a par three and 13 is a par five. Eleven takes the shape of a peninsula before doglegging to the right, while missing short on 12 guarantees dropping a ball into the water Nicholl said.
Thirteen presents the most yardage, as the 640-yard hole wraps around a lake, and gives groups the opportunity to prove who can hit the ball the furthest.
“Your second shot has to cut across the corner of the lake, and then it’s a big horseshoe hole,” Nicholl said in an August interview. “Your final shot into the green (goes onto a) double-tiered green.”
All three holes will show their strengths in 2024 when the course hosts Myrtle Beach’s first PGA tournament event.
Meanwhile, the greens will be newcomers’ toughest challenges at the Surf Club, the area’s third-oldest golf course. The course’s signature holes share similarities but are different.
Both holes six and 18 are par threes with water protecting the green, but each requires different tactics to achieve success, according to Surf Club PGA Head Golf Professional Dan Cordaro.
“(With six) if you have it up on the top shelf, you can you have to either play a draw or a fade to landed on there you have to lay on the top shelf,” Cordaro said. “You have quite a backdrop to land it on and roll the ball back.”
The 18th green also has a back-to-front green layout, but Cordaro added the strategy to play it is different.
“You typically want to play a cut; you want to try and land it as soft as possible,” he said. “Especially most people are hitting a longer iron or a hybrid, or even a three wood hits the green.”
One signature hole at Myrtle Beach’s four oldest golf courses also has water hazards golfers need to worry about.
Whispering Pines provides several challenging shorter holes, including holes two and three, but it’s a par five that is probably one of its most complex, according to Play Golf Myrtle Beach.
A video on the website of hole three shows a 458-yard par five hole that’s first challenge is keeping your ball on the fairway, as trees engulf the hole. Sand traps sit on the right side of the fairway, and as the course curves to the left, water presents players with the choice of laying up or going for the green, according to a video of the hole on Whispering Pines’ website.
The aggressive-minded players will have to deal with a lone tree standing in their way if they choose this route.
The fifth oldest course in Myrtle Beach offers three holes that could trip golfers up. The PineHills Course at Myrtlewood challenges players the most on holes three, 10 and 17.
Three is dangerous because it leaves little room for error. On the right, there’s water, and on the left, there’s trees, Myrtlewood Head Golf Professional and General Manager Dustin Powers said.
Powers recommends either being accurate with your driver or laying back with your tee shot.
Hole 10 gives players an immediate challenge, as the landing area off the drive has a bunker. Avoid that, and the long par four’s green provides problems too, as the conclusion slopes down into the fairway, Powers said.
Hole 17 is a par three but gives players an elevation change to worry about Powers added.
You’re up on a little knoll or hill, and you’re getting to hit down to a green over water,” he said. “That’s about a mid-iron. You feel like you can attack it, but it’s also dangerous at the same time.”
