Story by Ian Guerin
<img decoding="async" alt="" src="/media/images/GWBEST_2015.jpg" style="width: 300px;height: 169px;margin: 6px;float: right" />Golfweek’s release of its state-by-state 2015 Best Courses You Can Play includesd the most renowned golf clubs South Carolina has to offer.
Predictably, there is the Ocean Course at Kiawah Island atop the chart, with Hilton Head’s Harbour Town Golf Links directly behind it. A Myrtle Beach-area course &#8211; Caledonia Golf and Fish Club &#8211; chimesd in at No. 3.
But that is by no means the end of the local courses Golfweek honors as its top 15 in the Palmetto State.
Among the 12 Grand Strand tracks in the rankings are three Prime Times Ssignature Courses. King’s North at Myrtle Beach National, Grande Dunes Resort Club and Pine Lakes Country Club have forced their way among some of the big boys of golf with strong conditions, stellar reputations for growth and a bit of attitude.
<a href="https://search.guestdesk.com/reservations/mbn/golf/19106" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><img decoding="async" alt="" src="/media/images/Golfweek_Button.jpg" style="width: 250px;height: 100px;margin: 6px;float: right" /></a>King’s North at Myrtle Beach National (No. 8)
Even longtime Grand Strand golfers have trouble remembering what King’s North was like prior to a 1995 redesign.
It makes sense.
In the last two decades, the centerpiece of Myrtle Beach National Golf Club’s’s 54-hole complex has continued to inspire awe for those who have dropped in for a single round or others who play it as much as possible. Of course, there’s the world-famous No. 6, known affectionately as “The Gambler.”
But you must use that Kenny Rogers’ monikered hole as one of the in-roads to the course, not the end-all, be-all.
The other 17 holes of the 7,017-yarder include aspects such as significant doglegs, island greens, waste bunkers and many of the trees that helped give the Carolina Forest section of Myrtle Beach its name so long ago.
Simply, the King’s North design is about as diverse as they come, and it’s made plenty of memories in the process.
Grande Dunes Resort Club (No. 11)
That helicopter feeling running through your head isn’t imagined.
The Grande Dunes Resort Club has a way of lifting you up, courtesy of an elevated playing surface set atop the bluffs overlooking the Intracoastal Waterway.
That comes to a head at Nos. 9 and 10. Each of these par 4s utilizes a steep drop off the left side of the fairway where plenty of hooks have trickled into that aforementioned expansive body of water.
Tricky bunker placement (No. 6, for instance), divided fairways (No. 13) and natural grasses (uh, everywhere) gives players plenty to think about on this Roger Rulewich Group design that can play as long as 7,578 yards for the ultra-daring.
The course, originally opened in 2001, used the summer of 2012 to install  Champion Ultradwarf greens. The impact propelled the already renowned course &#8211; it was honored as the National Golf Course of the Year by the National Golf Course Owners Association in 2009 &#8211; up the must-play lists of many full-time residents and visitors alike, and helped secure its status as co-host of the 2014 PGA Professional National Championship.
Pine Lakes Country Club (No. 13)
Infusing history and the present is just sort of what Pine Lakes Country Club does.
And it does it so well.
Originally opened in 1927 &#8211; a decade before Myrtle Beach first incorporated and nearly 35 years before the golf boon of the 1960s added the sport to the area’s identity &#8211; Pine Lakes is home to its share of stories. The discussions that led to the creation of Sports Illustrated were held here. The recently refurbished clubhouse (more on that in a moment) is also home to the Myrtle Beach Golf Hall of Fame.
Getting back to what made the course so special all those years ago has proved to be a bold move that has been universally applauded. In 2009, a major renovation project reclaimed much of the original design.
It re-opened as a par-70, 6,675-yard course with slightly wider fairways and a  completely new turf, front-to-back Seadwarf Paspalum. The immaculate conditions got people talking about Pine Lakes again. It has restored value both locally and nationally.
After 88 years and counting, “The Granddaddy” has certainly earned it.
Ian Guerin is a DJ and freelance writer living in Myrtle Beach, S.C. His golf game ebbs and flows like the Atlantic, and he once did the worm after breaking 90 at a top-100 course. You can follow him on Twitter @iguerin.

How Three Prime Times Designs Earned Their Place Among South Carolina’s Best Golf Courses

Courses in this Article

Pine Lakes Country Club

King's North at Myrtle Beach National

Grande Dunes - Resort Golf Club

Additional Myrtle Beach Golf News