<img decoding="async" alt="Legends Heathland" src="/media/images/Par_72_norm_legends_heathland_600x300.png" style="width: 600px;height: 300px" />
Story by Ian Guerin
MYRTLE BEACH, S.C. | A while back, most course designers found a norm that worked.
The Par-72 layout was a typically adopted soft policy, as it gave property owners an easy way to carve up their land equally from start to finish.
It also gave the designers they handed the keys to an easy blueprint to follow in order to keep things moving for the regular Joe and Jane who showed up to pay for greens fees.
That said, a few of Myrtle Beach area courses decided that 72 was much more of a guideline than a hard-and-fast rule. They found their own ways of shaving off a stroke or two from the standard design
<a href="https://www.mbn.com/courses/fazio-at-barefoot-resort">BAREFOOT RESORT &amp; GOLF, FAZIO COURSE</a>
Of the three Par 71s on this list, only one of them tinkered with the front nine. Most would expect the four-course property at Barefoot to offer some quirks, but this is about the closest thing to that. Designer Tom Fazio and his bunker-laded design went with a third front-nine Par 3, four Par 4s and the regular offering of two Par 5s.
<a href="https://www.mbn.com/courses/caledonia-golf-and-fish-club">CALEDONIA GOLF &amp; FISH CLUB</a>
With three Par 5s and five Par 3s throughout, Mike Strantz’s Caledonia layout chimes in at an overall 70. And does so with an unbalanced front and back in terms of distance, even though both are Par 35s. Up front, you’re greeted with a more manageable 2,925 yards from the regular tees. After the turn, the back nine is almost 200 yards longer.
<a href="https://www.mbn.com/courses/colonial-charters-golf-club1">COLONIAL CHARTERS GOLF CLUB</a>
The front nine at the Par-71 Colonial Charters is going to play straight up for those in a mental rhythm. And even though you know there’s at least one stroke eliminated from the norm, Colonial &#8211; re-opened in 2013 &#8211; did it in an unconventional way. It utilized an extra Par 3. Nos. 10, 14 and 17 are all short shots, meaning players here have five chances for a hole-in-once.
<a href="https://www.mbn.com/courses/the-legends-heathland">LEGENDS GOLF &amp; RESORT, HEATHLAND COURSE</a>
Like Colonial Charters, Heathland (pictured above) offers a Par-71 track. Unlike the predecessor, it went the more “traditional route” by trading a back-nine Par 5 for another Par 4. That means six of the final nine holes (seven of the last 10, if you count No. 9) are going to be of the more standard variety. What stands out even more is that all of those are within a 70-yard range of each other.
<a href="https://www.mbn.com/courses/oyster-bay-golf-links">OYSTER BAY GOLF LINKS<img decoding="async" alt="Oyster Bay" src="/media/images/OYST4.jpg" style="height: 190px;float: right;width: 380px" /></a>
Just across the North Carolina border in Calabash, Oyster Bay (pictured right) meshed its three Par 5s and five Par 3s splendidly in terms of overall distance. And more impressively, it did so from all four of the regular tee boxes. From the front to the back, none of the Gold, Blue, White or Red tees change more than 55 yards in total after players make the turn.
<a href="https://www.mbn.com/courses/pine-lakes-country-club">PINE LAKES COUNTRY CLUB</a>
The oldest course in all of Myrtle Beach is still packaged in a what that put shot selection at a premium over the raw power of today’s technology. As such, there are only two Par 5s at the Granddaddy. The Par-70 Pine Lakes’ two long holes (No. 5 and No. 10), then, are most players’ slim chances to help their overall scorecard.
Ian Guerin is a DJ and freelance writer based in Myrtle Beach. You can follow him on Twitter <a href="https://twitter.com/iguerin?lang=en" target="_blank" rel="noopener">@iguerin</a> and Facebook <a href="https://www.facebook.com/IanGuerinWriter/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">facebook.com/IanGuerinWriter/</a>

Six Myrtle Beach Golf Courses That Don’t Employ Par 72 Norm

Courses in this Article

Barefoot Resort - Fazio Course

Caledonia Golf and Fish Club

Colonial Charters Golf Club

Legends Resort - The Heathland Course

Oyster Bay Golf Links

Pine Lakes Country Club

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