We got a chance to get over to The Dunes Golf and Beach Club on Wednesday afternoon to play the back nine holes. I reassured myself that the Dunes Club is the #1 golf course in Myrtle Beach. From the clubhouse views of the ocean to the perfect year round TOUR like conditions, the Dunes Golf and Beach  Club is the most exclusive private club in the Myrtle Beach area. The Dunes has held many championships in the past including a 1962 Woman’s US Open Championship won by Murle Lindstrom and the Senior Tour Championship from 1994-1999. Sports Illustrated which also began in Myrtle Beach at Pine Lakes Country Club named the 13th hole aka Waterloo as one of the best par 5`s in the world. Play the Dunes and you are not only playing Myrtle Beach history but Myrtle Beach Golf History.

I got a chance to play Pine Lakes for the second time with the Christal House Golf Tournament. Only three short months after was invited to play thanks to Burrows and Chapin Golf Management and the staff of Pine Lakes. The golf course, which reopened with seashore paspalum grasses, has grew in nicely. From tee to green, the golf course was in excellent shape. A great fact about the newly renovated facility is that Pines Lakes Country Club in Myrtle Beach is the most eco-friendly golf course on the Grand Strand!

The golf course is has very little water that comes into play, however when it does rain, the drains feed all of the water to the ponds to reuse the same rain water to water the golf course as it did when it rained, causing its own recycling system. The sand used for the bunkers is the same sand that was used during construction of the waste bunker on hole # 3.

Pine Lakes is very diffcult Par 70 that reminds you of a Pinehurst Resort Course. Not to mention that Pine Lakes Country Club is not only the Home of the Myrtle Beach Golf Hall of Fame, it is also to Home of Sports Illustrated.

To learn more about Myrtle Beach golf, including golf course architects in Myrtle Beach, make sure you check out www.northmyrtlebeachgolf.com

You always see ratings for the top golf courses in the Myrtle Beach area, however, you never tend to see the worst courses for Myrtle Beach Golf. How would you vote a bad course in Myrtle Beach? Well when rating a golf course, I look for course condition, layout and views. Here is your list of the Top 5 Worst Golf Courses in Myrtle Beach:

1) Palmetto Greens Country Club- Recently renovated along with a new name change from Colonial Charters to Palmetto Greens, this Rick Robbins design is one he never should have put his name on! The two man made waterfalls cannot make up for the horrible conditions, incorrect yardages and golf course that looks like a bomb was dropped on the entire property.

2) Carolina Shores – This course in known for its 96 bunkers throughout the township of Carolina Shores. This Tom Jackson design is also known as one of the worst conditioned courses year after year in Myrtle Beach.

3) Cypress Bay- A very short golf course that has one of the most notable Par 3`s in Myrtle Beach, located along Hwy 17 in Little River. Cypress Bay was the first course in Myrtle Beach to have runway to land planes. Unfortunately for Cypress Bay, The City of Myrtle Beach built an International Airport.

4) Whispering Pines - All though the course boast ample amounts of tree, and no real estate on the entire property, the convenience and solitude is by no means worth the price. With its fairways blending in with the rough, and bunkers that double as putting greens, with the course being owned by the city of Myrtle Beach the future just like the conditions of the course very from day to day.

5) Brick Landing – Some of the best views for a Myrtle Beach golf course. The Brick is located directly on the Intracoastal Waterway. Never in good condition, recently purchased by course designer Dan Maples. The future of the course is uncertain, last word was going to be a real estate project with Marina.

However, there are plenty of other Myrtle Beach golf courses to choose from! And not enough vacation time to play them all.

In the list of great Myrtle Beach golf courses, there is one that always comes up. It is the Grande Dunes Resort Course. The Grande Dunes is a golf facility located between U.S. 17 and the Carolina Bays Parkway. While only seven years old, it has already left its mark as one of the best places to stay in the Mecca of Golf; Myrtle Beach.

This course comes highly regarded. It was named to the top 100 courses in America by Golf Digest in 2003 and was also named as one of the top 50 private courses to play in the country. Several PGA and LPGA pros have also found this to be an excellent course to play, including John Daly, winner of the 1991 PGA Championship and 1995 U.S. Open Championship.

Stretching for an astonishing 7,618 yards, it is the longest golf course on the Grand Strand. It is also one of those rare courses where every hole is an experience, with its 14th hole being the best. Not a simple par 3, the 14th hole runs 244 yards from the back tee and 158 from the white tee. Its tee box overlooks the water and only best golfers are able to beat the ravine and land on the two-tiered green without hitting the bunker.

Green fees for the course range between $95 and $170 depending on when you play.

The course was recently threatened by wildfire in May of 2009. Thankfully, golf course employees were able to respond quickly and minimal damage was experienced on the course.

If you visit the Grand Strand, this is the Myrtle Beach golf course to try.

Every month the Grand Strand Golf Directors Association is invited to an area Myrtle Beach Golf Course. Yesterday we were invited to Ocean Ridge Plantation, Home to The Big Cats: Lions Paw, Panthers Run, Tigers Eye and the new Leopards Chase Golf Club. We got a chance to play the Biggest, Meanest Big Cat at Ocean Ridge Plantation, Leopards Chase Golf Club.  Since opening in 2007, this par 72 championship layout was designed by golf course architect and land planner Tim Cate. Leopard’s Chase features 5 sets of tees to offer a challenge to all levels of golfers with the championship tees stretching to a formidable 7155 yards with a slope of 140 and a course rating of 74.3.

From tee to green the golf course was in excellent shape with very fast L-93 bent grass greens. Fairways are Tif Sport Bermuda grass that are lined with waste bunkers, mounds, scenic landscapes, with native grasses and preserved wetlands. The front nine holes feature the par 4 fifth hole, with its “island” green and large waste bunker that stretches 90 yards into the fairway making the front nine holes one of only three golf courses in Myrtle Beach that feature three Par 3`s on the same nine. The other two are Barefoot Resort Fazio Course and The Thistle Golf Club, another Tim Cate design.

The back nine holes makes Leopards Chase Golf Club the only golf course in Myrtle Beach area that has three Par 5`s on the same nine. The par four 18th hole which moves slightly leftward to an elevated green guarded by a man-made waterfall. Sixteen hundred gallons of water per minute cascade down a wall of coquina boulders. Yesterday this beast was DEAD INTO THE WIND!

Overall Leopards Chase is one of the Top 10 Golf Courses in Myrtle Beach. Why is it Top 10? I like to rate courses on condition, layout and views. This Big Cat course has all three. I repeat the GOLF COURSE WAS IN EXCELLENT SHAPE, so a standing ovation goes to Golf Course Superintendent Brian Hicks. The layout was similar to other Tim Cate designs; Long, Up hill and into the wind was the theme for every shot. The views and elevation changes throughout the 220 acres of  Leopards Chase Golf Club are great. This golf course will challenge the best golfers and the longest hitters, I GUARANTEE IT!

You can book Leopards Chase with your Myrtle Beach golf package.

The Barefoot Resort -Love Course in North Myrtle Beach reopens today after the April Wildfires that destroyed over 70 homes, with damage to trees, plants and access bridges. The Davis Love III design which opened in 2000, was voted #1 in its “Top 50 Courses in Myrtle Beach”. Measuring 7047 yards and a Par 72 from the Championship tees, the Barefoot Resort – Love Course is similar to the Donald Ross famed Pinehurst #2 with forgiving fairways, large crowned greens set through a classic, low country setting make the course one of the best Myrtle Beach Golf Courses you can play.
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Myrtle Beach is possibly the best place to golf in all of North America. At this one location, there are dozens of great golf courses to play, many of which have been designed by legends of the game. To play in Myrtle Beach is to play in the mecca of golf. It is a pilgrimage every golf lover should make at some point in their lives. To play a game of golf at some courses in Myrtle Beach is to play in golf heaven.

It was not always this way for Myrtle Beach. In fact, it wasn’t until 1927 when the first golf course in Myrtle Beach opened that the entire region took a different turn and became the one-stop shop for the golf enthusiast. Myrtle Beach has grown from that first golf course and become the golf capital of the world. In all, there are 120 golf courses, where 4.2 million rounds of golf were played last year, an increase of 500,000 over 2007 alone!

What was the golf course that started it all? It was the Pine Lakes Country Club, the oldest course in Myrtle Beach. In the 1920s, several businessmen got together to begin building an upscale beach tourist destination called Arcady. This would eventually become known as the Pine Lakes Country Club and Ocean Forest Hotel when it opened in 1927. This golf course has seen many great players, including the legendary Sam Snead, regarded as possibly the greatest golfer who has ever lived. Even the high profile families of the Vanderbilts and Rockerfellers have played there, as has Gene Sarazen, who has a plaque dedicated to him on the 10th hole.

The club has a strong Scottish tradition, and you can even get a lesson in the history of the club from a starter in a kilt, who will tell you everything you want to know before you tee off. For its history and its legend, this course has become a favorite of golfers in Myrtle Beach, even 81 years after it opened.

Built upon natural dunes, and using freshwater lakes and rolling fairways, legendary architect Robert White, who also was the first president of the PGA, created a course that has been played by generations of golfers, all of whom were left in awe of this course.

While it has gone through many renovations, the Granddaddy of Myrtle Beach golf continues to be the golf course every golfer must play at least once in their lives.

An update on the status of the Barefoot courses:

The Norman Course and Dye Course will continue to be open for business as usual without damage from the fire. The Love Course will be closed to package play until May 31^st and tentatively schedules to open for business on Monday June 1^st barring any complications. The Fazio Course will not be available for package play for an undetermined amount of time. Updates on the Fazio will be made available on a bi-weekly basis as we receive more information on the state of the reconstruction of the infrastructure and surrounding areas.

They also had to make changes to the maintenance schedule.

Aeration will begin with the:

The Dye Course Closed –                     May 25^th PM, 26^th, 27^th PM (morning double tee available 25^th & 27^th)
The Norman Course Closed-                June 1^st, June 2^nd, June 3^rd

Did you know that you can play Amen Corner in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina without having to travel to Augusta, GA? The World Tour Golf links in Myrtle Beach is a 27-hole facility which features not only great golf holes from the best courses in the world like St Andrews, Sawgrass and the Augusta National very own, Amen Corner.

With over 2000 Azalea Bushes planted, its the closest that some golfers will ever get to the Masters. World Tour Golf Links was named Myrtle Beach Golf Course of The Year in 2003 and won National Golf Course of the Year in 2004.  Out of the 27 holes that inspired the World Tour in Myrtle Beach, 16 holes are so exclusive that the average golfer will never be able to play them. Do not forget to book the World Tour on your next Myrtle Beach golf package and play Amens Corner right here in the Golf Capital of the World.