Myrtle Beach Golf Scene

You don't need a passport to experience a wee bit of Scotland. Built with a Scottish feel and bearing the name of a 19th-century Scottish golf society, the sensational new Thistle Golf Club offers golf in its purest form, with wind-swept fairways, roling hillsides covered in heather and wild flowers, and superb bentgrass greens.

You can travel the length and breadth of the Grand Strand to enjoy the work of Rees Jones, Willard Byrd and Dan Maples. But the only place you can appreciate these three great architects together is by walking outside your front door at the Sea Trail Resort and Conference Center, just north of Myrtle Beach in tranquil Sunset Beach, NC.

Can the past and the present foretell the future? Litchfield Country Club is the “original” Pawley’s Island layout. The highly acclaimed Caledonia Golf & Fish Club and its honored sister True Blue came along a generation later. Separately, they would not seem to have a lot in common.

The Myrtle Beach area's number one summer attraction is the beach. Shopping and dining are popular pastimes, and the family amusement parks and water parks rank pretty high. But don't overlook the growing popularity of summer golf. Last summer, betwen June and August, nearly a million rounds of golf were recorded on Myrtle Beach area courses.

With so many golf courses now calling Myrtle Beach home, you can even venture off the beaten track to find a great golf experience. Find the right track, and you might even find a pair of courses.

Nestled in beautiful farmland hugging the Northand South Carolina border is a pair of sister golf courses created by famed architect Willard Byrd, which offer distinctively different, yet equally memorable golf experiences.

Summers at the Beach are filled with fun activities, but they are no longer limited to the beach and amusement parks. More and more families are making golf an integral part of their summer vacation, and why not. Summer time is a terrific time to exprience some of the greatest golf in the world at some incredibly attractive prices.

You might think Tim Cate would be bored by now. Following on the success of his co-design of Lion’s Paw with Willard Byrd, then solo creations Panther’s Run and Tiger’s Eye, which were increasingly honored by golf critics, what could he possibly do for another encore? Like any great musical talent of our generation, Cate’s hits just keep on coming. There’s no cat-nap at Ocean Ridge Plantation for him.

After measuring the quality of the golf course, the quality of management, contributions to the community and to the growth of the game, the Myrtle Beach Area Golf Course Owners Association (MBAGCOA) bestowed its coveted Golf Course of the Year award for 2004 to Indian Wells Golf Club. It’s an award that came the old-fashioned way, through the dedicated commitment of ownership and staff to create the best golf experience possible.

Bringing together a special combination of challenging design, wonderful scenery, impeccable conditions and friendly service, Arrowhead Country Club has enjoyed a Decade of Distinction in the heart of Myrtle Beach’s Grand Strand.

The only Raymon Floyd Signature course in Myrtle Beach, Arrowhead offers 27 holes of breathtaking golf along the beautiful shores of the Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway.

Their names have always been marketing gold—Lion’s Paw, Panther’s Run, Tiger’s Eye, Leopard’s Chase. But telling Ocean Ridge Plantation’s “Big Cats” apart has always been a challenge, as has differentiating the golf “experience” at Ocean Ridge from the others at the top of the Myrtle Beach golf hierarchy.