<img decoding="async" alt="Myrtle Beach’s Windy Dual-Personality Golf Courses-Legends Heathland" src="/media/images/Windy_Courses_MBN_600x300.png" style="width: 600px;height: 300px" />
Story by Ian Guerin
MYRTLE BEACH, S.C. | We’ve all watched the British Open on Thursday and then seen a completely different course on Friday. 
Players donning Polos the first, and windbreakers the next. High, lofted drives before low irons meant to cut through the prevailing breezes. 
No one is going to mistake Myrtle Beach golf for that on the Isles. But amid all the courses in and around South Carolinas Grand Strand are three where wind can change your game from one day to the next. Simply, they were designed with Mother Nature in mind, and all utilizing different reasons. 
One is close to the Atlantic, another is just off the Intracoastal Waterway and the third is 10 miles inland. Yet, they all leave players wondering what what their deft layouts could be like in different conditions.
LEGENDS GOLF &amp; RESORT, HEATHLAND COURSE 
Maybe the closest thing Myrtle Beach has to British isles golf, the <a href="https://www.mbn.com/courses/the-legends-heathland">Heathland Course at Legends</a> (pictured above) is as wide open as wide open gets for these parts of the country. By the time you finish putting on No. 1, you will be able to see parts of six other holes. Although there is significant mounding, the lack of obstruction from trees provides crisp views of the surrounding land let you know exactly what is in store. And trust us when we tell you that Tom Doak laid out these 18 holes with that in mind. Even for the best players, the 6,800 yards or maximum distance here isn’t what Heathland is all about. And if you weren’t already noticing the difference that the open design and the effect of the weather, five streams between Nos. 12-16 will do the trick. On each of those holes, you’re forced to hit over slender by shot-varying water positioned in different spots around the fairways. If the wind conditions are favorable, great. But chances are, the open layout will prove otherwise.
GRANDE DUNES RESORT COURSE<img decoding="async" alt="Myrtle Beach’s Windy Dual-Personality Golf Courses-Grande Dunes Resort Club" src="/media/images/099A2738.jpg" style="width: 290px;height: 141px;float: right" /> 
Anyone who has ridden a boat up or down the Intracoastal Waterway can tell you how strong it can feel. That passage also provides for some of the diversity in weather that locals know all too well between Myrtle Beach city limits and the inland areas. But at <a href="https://www.mbn.com/courses/grande-dunes">Grande Dunes Resort Club</a>, that also means players get a feel for the blow drier effect on a good number of holes that border the Waterway &#8211; and those beyond.See, the wide fairways at Grande Dunes also adds to open-air effects for nearly all of the round and can create a swirl. Some of that is the breeze coming off the Atlantic combining with the Waterway. But even on the calmer days, the handful of holes next to the Intracoastal are sure to give you something extra to think about. That begins on No. 8, the lengthy par 3 that plays perpendicular to it, the swing through nine and 10 that plays parallel to the Waterway, and then again on No. 14 &#8211; the jaw-dropping cliff-hanger of a Par 3 that comes with as much of a visual distraction as it does by anything created by the weather.
PAWLEYS PLANTATION GOLF &amp; COUNTRY CLUB<img decoding="async" alt="Myrtle Beach’s Windy Dual-Personality Golf Courses-Pawleys Plantation Golf Club" src="/media/images/PP_13a.jpg" style="width: 290px;height: 141px;float: right" /> 
On the front nine, even the windiest of days are going to be mostly neutralized, thanks to the narrow alleys that Jack Nicklaus utilized when he designed his local gem in 1988. But get to the back side, and things are different, especially once you hit No. 12. It is here, and for the remainder of the round, that the breezes coming off the Atlantic into the marshlands of <a href="https://www.mbn.com/courses/pawleys-plantation">Pawleys Plantation</a> can turn shot selection upside down. It will be prevalent on the super-short Par 3 on No. 13, nicknamed the Shortest Par 5 on the Grand Strand (the 89-yarder and its peninsula green may, in fact, be the poster child for this story). It continues right on through the wide-open and quick-to-close fairway on the following hole, the alley doglegs on both No. 15 and 16 and then the perpendicular landing zone on the Par 3 17th. By the time you wrap up on No. 18, then, you’ll be wondering how different the course could be the next day

Myrtle Beach’s Windy Dual-Personality Golf Courses

Courses in this Article

Pawleys Plantation Golf & Country Club

Legends Resort - The Heathland Course

Grande Dunes - Resort Golf Club

Additional Myrtle Beach Golf News