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<p><em>Story by Ian Guerin &amp; Chris King</em></p>
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<p>The glass-half-empty among us will bring up the courses Myrtle Beach has lost.</p>
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<p>The holes that have fallen by the wayside and the rounds that will never be played again.</p>
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<p>What the rest of us recognize is that sometimes we just need to focus on what’s been improved. Over the last five years, Myrtle Beach’s ever-buoyant golf scene has added some significant upgrades, and often to courses that were already stout.</p>
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<p>We turned to two of our resident experts, Ian Guerin and Chris King, to see which recent developments have only made this market better.</p>
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<figure class="alignright size-large is-resized"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="1024" height="768" src="https://admin.mbn.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/Grande-Dunes-10th-Fairway-Bunker-1024x768.jpeg" alt="" class="wp-image-10409" style="width:325px" srcset="https://admin.mbn.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/Grande-Dunes-10th-Fairway-Bunker-1024x768.jpeg 1024w, https://admin.mbn.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/Grande-Dunes-10th-Fairway-Bunker-300x225.jpeg 300w, https://admin.mbn.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/Grande-Dunes-10th-Fairway-Bunker-768x576.jpeg 768w, https://admin.mbn.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/Grande-Dunes-10th-Fairway-Bunker-1536x1152.jpeg 1536w, https://admin.mbn.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/Grande-Dunes-10th-Fairway-Bunker-2048x1536.jpeg 2048w" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></figure></div>

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<p><strong>Ian Guerin:</strong> Chris, when I think of the impacts that will reverberate for years, I have a hard time ignoring the putting surface changes that fired up in the middle and end of 2018 that were then mimicked in droves up and down the Grand Strand. A handful of tracks elected to make the move to Sunday Bermudagrass and never looked back. <a href="https://www.mbn.com/course/tradition-golf-club">Tradition Golf Club</a> and <a href="https://www.mbn.com/course/myrtlewood-golf-club-pinehills">Myrtlewood’s PineHills</a> course were among the first; they wouldn’t be the last. It changed the putting game for the thousands upon thousands who play here every year.</p>
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<p><strong>Chris King:</strong> Over the last 15 years, there has been a sea change (no bad pun intended) in green surfaces. While our friends from the northeast and midwest love bentgrass, the summer heat here causes too many sleepless night for golf course superintendents, so as soon as the ultradwarf strains of bermudagrass emerged, courses quickly transitioned with Sunday and TifEagle becoming the grass of choice for so many Myrtle Beach area courses. But it&#8217;s not just the surfaces that have changed. So many courses have worked to restore their greens to their original size and specifications, with Pawleys Plantation being the most recent example, as part of a larger renovation.</p>
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<figure class="alignright size-large is-resized"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="1024" height="768" src="https://admin.mbn.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/Pine-Lakes-Country-Club-1-1024x768.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-10410" style="width:325px" srcset="https://admin.mbn.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/Pine-Lakes-Country-Club-1-1024x768.jpg 1024w, https://admin.mbn.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/Pine-Lakes-Country-Club-1-300x225.jpg 300w, https://admin.mbn.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/Pine-Lakes-Country-Club-1-768x576.jpg 768w, https://admin.mbn.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/Pine-Lakes-Country-Club-1-1536x1152.jpg 1536w, https://admin.mbn.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/Pine-Lakes-Country-Club-1-2048x1536.jpg 2048w" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></figure></div>

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<p><strong>IG:</strong> Those greens expansions and grass conversions were very much split evenly between which was the icing and which was the cake. Those larger greens &#8211; especially at target-rich courses like <a href="https://www.mbn.com/course/pawleys-plantation">Pawleys Plantation </a>and maybe even <a href="https://www.mbn.com/course/pine-lakes-country-club">Pine Lakes Country Club</a> &#8211; leveled the playing field some. You don&#8217;t need to be a marksman on the approach&nbsp;to get yourself into putting territory in regulation. Sure, you might&nbsp;be 50 feet away still, but you&#8217;d almost always rather be putting than chipping with a loft wedge or something. Now, factor in the surface itself with the upgraded grass, and a lot more of us are in business.&nbsp;</p>
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<p><strong>CK:</strong> New greens always attract attention, but the work Troy Vincent and the Nicklaus Design team did at Pawleys Plantation was closer to full fledged renovation, and I love it. The elimination of those rambling bunkers there were omnipresent on so many holes is a boon for us mid to high handicappers. Now, don’t misinterpret, the course isn’t easy, but it’s more playable for the average player. If you are a low handicapper, the bunkers that vex players like you and I were never of much concern.&nbsp;</p>
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<figure class="alignright size-large is-resized"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="1024" height="768" src="https://admin.mbn.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/TPC-17th-Approach-022924-1024x768.jpeg" alt="" class="wp-image-10411" style="width:325px" srcset="https://admin.mbn.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/TPC-17th-Approach-022924-1024x768.jpeg 1024w, https://admin.mbn.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/TPC-17th-Approach-022924-300x225.jpeg 300w, https://admin.mbn.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/TPC-17th-Approach-022924-768x576.jpeg 768w, https://admin.mbn.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/TPC-17th-Approach-022924-1536x1152.jpeg 1536w, https://admin.mbn.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/TPC-17th-Approach-022924-2048x1536.jpeg 2048w" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></figure></div>

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<p><strong>IG:</strong> Even as far back as Nicklaus’s visit back in 2018, there were signs that the course was going to be softened up some via some of the waste bunkers. And while I don’t think we need to make courses easy, per se, folks like me and you don’t need to get our teeth kicked in, either. It was a big influence in the bunker upgrades at <a href="https://www.mbn.com/course/tournament-player-club">TPC of Myrtle Beach</a>, <a href="https://www.mbn.com/course/shaftesbury-glen">Shaftesbury Glen Golf &amp; Fish Club</a> and the <a href="https://www.mbn.com/course/grande-dunes">Grande Dunes Resort Course</a>. We’re all going to hit less-than-ideal shots here and there, but we should have every opportunity to play our way out of trouble, too.</p>
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<p><strong>CK:</strong> Following the 2022 renovation, the fairways at Grande Dunes are so wide even you couldn&#8217;t miss them, Ian!&nbsp; Speaking of <a href="https://www.mbn.com/course/grande-dunes">Grande Dunes</a>, the overhaul of the clubhouse shouldn&#8217;t be overlooked. There is little better than sitting on that back patio, the Intracoastal within view, reliving your round and the trip. Great as the golf is, there is an equally important social component to every trip, and you can tie it all together at Grande Dunes.</p>
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<p><strong>IG:</strong> That’s an excellent point. Not all the upgrades have affected your on-course playability. We also had major renovations to the clubhouses at places like <a href="https://www.mbn.com/course/aberdeen-country-club">Aberdeen</a> and <a href="https://www.mbn.com/course/arcadian-shores">Arcadian Shores</a> in the not-so-distant past. Back on the course, <a href="https://www.mbn.com/course/river-hills-golf-club">River Hills</a>, <a href="https://www.mbn.com/course/pine-lakes-country-club">Pine Lakes</a>, <a href="https://www.mbn.com/course/prestwick-country-club">Prestwick</a> and a whole bunch more have found their own specific ways to rejuvenate themselves. I’ll be honest; I struggle to keep up with all of them.</p>
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<figure class="alignright size-large is-resized"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="1024" height="768" src="https://admin.mbn.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/River-Hills-Flag-1024x768.jpeg" alt="" class="wp-image-10412" style="width:325px" srcset="https://admin.mbn.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/River-Hills-Flag-1024x768.jpeg 1024w, https://admin.mbn.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/River-Hills-Flag-300x225.jpeg 300w, https://admin.mbn.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/River-Hills-Flag-768x576.jpeg 768w, https://admin.mbn.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/River-Hills-Flag-1536x1152.jpeg 1536w, https://admin.mbn.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/River-Hills-Flag-2048x1536.jpeg 2048w" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></figure></div>

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<p><strong>CK:</strong> You might want to get a bigger notebook, because the list of courses doing renovation work will grow in 2024. A bunker project on Myrtlewood&#8217;s PineHills Course, and if the birdie that&#8217;s been talking in my ear is correct, there is a major renovation on the way for one of the area&#8217;s most popular layouts. Whether you are talking about Grande Dunes, Pawleys <em>(top photo)</em>, Aberdeen, Prestwick, Rivers Edge et al, the nature of the projects may vary, but the one common denominator is an improved golf experience for guys like you and me. That&#8217;s a win for all of us.</p>
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Experts Debate: Best Recent Myrtle Beach Course Upgrades

Courses in this Article

Grande Dunes - Resort Golf Club

Pawleys Plantation Golf & Country Club

River Hills Golf and Country Club

Shaftesbury Glen Golf and Fish Club

Pine Lakes Country Club

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