Tag: Myrtle Beach

Where to play golf around Myrtle Beach: Golfweek’s Best public-access courses

Thanks to Golfweek’s Best rankings, we break out the top courses around Myrtle Beach.

Looking to play the best public-access courses at one of the most popular golf destinations in the U.S.? We’ve got you – and Myrtle Beach – covered. Using the Golfweek’s Best rankings of public-access courses in South Carolina, we are featuring the layouts within an hour’s drive of the Grand Strand.

For this exercise, we used Google Maps and punched in each course as of a Saturday morning to determine drive times, with Myrtle Beach International Airport as an achored starting point. Included with this list is a general map of where to find all these courses. Each one on the list below is represented with a number on the map – keep scrolling to see the numbers. The numbers represent the order in which the courses are ranked.

Included with each course is its position in South Carolina on the Golfweek’s Best public-access list. For any course that appears on our other popular rankings lists, those positions are included as well.

A little background: The hundreds of members of our course-ratings panel continually evaluate courses and rate them on 10 criteria on a points basis of 1 through 10. They also file a single, overall rating on each course. Those overall ratings are averaged to produce all our Golfweek’s Best course rankings.

The courses on this list allow public access in some fashion, be it standard daily green fees, through a resort, by staying at an affiliated hotel or purchasing a golf vacation package. If there’s a will, there’s a tee time – no membership required.

Myrtle beach map
(Google Earth and Golfweek)

Three golf courses in this North Carolina resort beach town have flipped ownership, hotel might be added

Ownership plans to invest millions in updates and improvements to the golf courses and facilities.

Sea Trail Investments LLC has acquired the Rees Jones, Willard Byrd, and Dan Maples golf courses and commercial property in Sea Trail, a resort in North Carolina that sits less than an hour from Myrtle Beach, completing a years-long effort to revitalize the development.

According to a news release, Robert Hill and Donald Bean, co-owners of Riptide Builders, and Parker Smith, owner of Golf Trek, are partners in Sea Trail Investments LLC.

Here are five things to know about the recent acquisition.

Sea Trail Investments also owns other properties in Sea Trail

Sea Trail Investments LLC is working to revitalize Sea Trail, developing new residential, commercial, and recreational properties within the community. In March, Sea Trail Investments acquired the Sea Trail Convention Center, which has been dormant for several years, a 15-acre adjacent tract of land, and the Village Activity Center.

With Riptide Builders leading the effort, Sea Trail Investments has made significant improvements to the community, including renovating the Sea Trail Convention Center with state-of-the-art upgrades. The convention center is scheduled to re-open in early December.

Sea Trail Investments has added a new partner

Upon the acquisition of the golf courses, Sea Trail Investments also added a new partner, Sandesh Sharda, and formed a new limited liability company, Sea Trail Golf Resort. Sharda recently purchased the Rivers Edge golf course in Shallotte and is in the process of acquiring The International Club of Myrtle Beach.

The partnership with Sharda encompasses the golf operations, convention center, the future hotel and resort amenity site, and the resort rental program.

New owners have a host of plans to revitalize the Sea Trail Convention Center in Sunset Beach.

Sea Trail Golf Resort in North Carolina was acquired by Sea Trail Investments LLC. (Wilmington StarNews file photo.)

Plans for the Sea Trail community include a hotel

The 150-room resort-style hotel will be located on the 15-acre tract of land adjacent to the convention center. Additional plans for the tract include a state-of-the-art driving range featuring top tracer technology, and a practice and entertainment facility.

East Coast Golf Management has been hired to manage the golf courses. According to the news release, the company, based in Murrells Inlet, South Carolina, will manage “all aspects of golf course operations, including food and beverage,” and will be instrumental in managing the convention center. The golf courses’ new owners have provided East Coast with the budget to hire additional personnel and purchase new equipment.

Golfweek’s Best: Top public and private courses in North Carolina

Golf courses will see significant upgrades

Sea Trail Golf Resort plans to invest millions in updates and improvements to the golf courses and facilities, including a complete renovation of the Jones Byrd Clubhouse. The clubhouse renovations are expected to be completed by March 2024.

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Check out Pawleys Plantation in South Carolina after its Nicklaus Design renovation

Refreshed greens make this coastal South Carolina layout by Jack Nicklaus play like new.

Pawleys Plantation Golf & Country Club near Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, reopened this month after a renovation by Nicklaus Design. The layout on Pawleys Island near the Atlantic Ocean was originally designed by Jack Nicklaus and opened in 1988.

Over the decades, trees had grown to encroach on the resort course, and many of the greens had shrunk dramatically – both those conditions are common at many courses. Working with a plan laid out by Nicklaus during a 2018 visit, associate Troy Vincent set about a renovation that could improve conditions while making the course more playable.

Besides selective tree removal, the work included:

  • Each green was stripped and restored to its original size, then re-grassed with TifEagle Bermuda grass. The resizing efforts reclaimed nearly 40,000 square feet of putting surface across the course.
  • The collars of each green also were resurfaced with a variety of Bermuda grass that can withstand mutation and be mowed lower.
  • Sprawling fairway bunkers on 10 holes were replaced with smaller traps, native areas and expanded fairways.
  • The club is also undertaking a clubhouse renovation.

“We followed Jack’s ideas from 2018,” Vincent, who has worked alongside Jack Nicklaus for 15 years, said in a media release announcing the reopening. “It was our intention to make the course more playable, to give players more options, and we have carried that out. I think everyone will be happy.”

The club, which features six holes on the back nine along a tidal marsh, is owned by Founders Group International, which owns 21 courses around Myrtle Beach.

Check out several photos of the finished work below.

PGA Tour adds new event, the Myrtle Beach Classic, to its 2024 schedule

The host site of the Myrtle Beach Classic features one of the most extreme doglegs in tournament golf.

The PGA Tour announced Wednesday it will in 2024 launch a new full-field tournament, the Myrtle Beach Classic in South Carolina. An opposite-field event to be played the same week as one of the Tour’s designated events, the new tournament will be played at the Dunes Beach and Golf Club.

Visit Myrtle Beach will sponsor the new event and offer a purse of $3.9 million with 300 FedEx Cup points going to the winner. A four-year agreement was announced, but the dates of the event were not. The full 2024 Tour schedule is yet to be determined.

“We are thrilled to announce the debut of the Myrtle Beach Classic, an exciting new playing opportunity for our members in one of our country’s most recognized and visited destinations,” PGA Tour President Tyler Dennis said in a media release announcing the news. “With its incredible passion for golf, the Myrtle Beach community is a natural fit to bring this tournament to life. We look forward to partnering with Visit Myrtle Beach for a first-class tournament at a championship venue in Dunes Golf and Beach Club.”

The course at Dunes Golf and Beach Club was designed by Robert Trent Jones Sr., and nine holes (the back nine) opened in 1949. It was renovated by Jones’ son, Rees Jones, in 2013. It is ranked by Golfweek’s Best as the No. 4 public-access layout in the state, and it comes in at No. 143 on Golfweek’s Best list of all classic courses in the U.S. The course is best known for its brilliant, often elevated and tilted greens, many of which feature brisk runoffs in multiple directions, confounding players on approach shots.

The layout also features one of the most extreme examples of a dogleg in golf. The par-5 13th boomerangs around a lake, almost turning back on itself as it juts to the right. Jones Sr. called it one of his best examples of “heroic architecture,” and it will be interesting to see how Tour pros tackle the hole.

The club hosted the PGA Tour Champions’ season-ending Charles Schwab Cup Championship from 1994 to 1999, and it was the site of PGA Tour Q-School Finals in 1973, with Ben Crenshaw taking the medalist spot. Among other top-tier events and national championships, it also hosted the 1962 U.S. Women’s Open, won by Murle Lindstrom.

The Tour noted that the Myrtle Beach Classic will be one of its two stops in the Palmetto State in 2024, along with the RBC Heritage at Harbour Town Golf Links, an event that made its debut in 1969.

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Photos: Grande Dunes Resort Course in Myrtle Beach to reopen with fresh, expanded greens and better bunkers

A four-month project restored the greens and improved the bunkers at Grande Dunes Resort Course in Myrtle Beach.

Grande Dunes Resort Course in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, will reopen Sept. 15 with restored greens, refreshed bunkers and an overhauled clubhouse.

Architect John A. Harvey and his team began the project in May on the course originally designed by Roger Rulewich and opened in 2001.

Much of the work focused on the greens, which were returned to their original dimensions – nearly 40,000 square feet of putting surface was reclaimed in all. The greens were sprigged with fresh TifEagle Bermuda grass. Harvey’s team also cored out the floors of the bunkers and installed Capillary Concrete bunker liners, which improves drainage.

The clubhouse will feature a new restaurant, expanded outdoor seating and a larger pro shop.

“We are delighted with the progress in all three phases of the Grande Dunes renovation,” said Founders Group International president Steve Mays in a media release. FGI owns 21 courses in Myrtle Beach.

“We allowed four months for the completion of the project, ensuring the course will be in spectacular condition from the moment we welcome players back,” Mays said. “As we enter the homestretch and you see the grass growing on the greens and the work being done on the bunkers, it only heightens our anticipation. I can’t wait to play the course again, and hopefully the golfers who flock to the area this fall feel the same way.”

Check out the photos of Grande Dunes below, as seen as the restoration wraps up and the new putting surfaces grow in.

Watch: Girl, 11, frightened from surf by approaching shark

An 11-year-old girl playing in the South Carolina surf last weekend responded as any kid might after seeing the dorsal fin of a shark approaching from just feet away.

An 11-year-old girl playing in the South Carolina surf last weekend responded as any kid might after seeing the dorsal fin of a shark approaching from just feet away.

Sara Oister stood and ran with her bodyboard toward the shore, and her mother said it might be some time before Sara is brave enough to return to the water at Myrtle Beach.

“Welp, not sure we’re gonna get her back into the ocean,” Nicole Oister wrote on Facebook. “You can see whatever it is coming from the left towards her and she spots it and runs.”

The fin appears 10 seconds into the 14-second clip, and vanishes beneath incoming whitewater created by a small wave. The shark, if it was in fact a shark, can also be seen behind Sara as she runs toward the beach.

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Nicole Oister told ABC 6: “I was taking video of her and all of a sudden she starts running out of the water. She said she saw a fin coming up out of the water towards her … I looked back on the video to see if I had captured it [and] I did.”

Added Sara: “Even though I know we’re in their habitat, I didn’t think I was going into that day thinking I was going to be right next to a shark.”

The fin looks to belong to a small shark, which would have been searching for small prey items and not young girls on bodyboards.

George Burgess, the director emeritus of the Florida Program for Shark Research, told ABC 6 that an apparent increase in shark sightings is not surprising.

“What we are seeing, of course, is an increased population of humans that are in the water every year,” Burgess said. “So the density of humans in the waters is higher than ever. We’re engaging in aquatic activities that put us at risk.”

–Image courtesy of Nicole Oister

Is that really a shark in talons of giant bird? Experts chime in

Video footage showing a large raptor soaring over Myrtle Beach clutching what looks like a shark in its talons has the Internet abuzz.

Striking video footage showing a large raptor soaring over Myrtle Beach, S.C., clutching what looks like a shark in its talons, has the Internet abuzz.

“Sharknado Now Real Life as a Bird Carries a Shark in a New Viral Video,” screamed one headline this week. “Bird plucks an alarmed shark from the ocean,” declared another.

The footage was captured by Tennessee resident Ashley White, with an iPhone from the 17th floor of an apartment building.

It went viral after being tweeted by Tracking Sharks on June 30, under the headline, “Anyone know what type of bird this is and is it holding a shark?” (Video posted above.)

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As of Friday morning, the video had been viewed more than 17 million times.

But social media audiences aren’t always naive. Broad consensus was that the bird was an osprey. They prey almost exclusively on fish and are commonly seen flying with fish in their talons, head-first, as is the case in White’s video.

But while some were convinced the osprey had caught a shark, many noticed the V-shape of the tail and guessed that it might have been a mackerel.

For The Win Outdoors asked Chris Lowe, director of the Shark Lab at California State University – Long Beach, and he responded: “It looks like a mackerel to me, too. I kept saying ‘holy mackerel,’ but apparently nobody got it.”

Michael Domeier, president and executive director of the Marine Conservation Science Institute, was more blunt: “Definitely not a shark.”

Since Tracking Sharks’ original post, followers have been tweeting videos of ospreys clutching large fish in their talons. It’s what they do; they’ll sit for hours consuming their meals from a high perch.

One of the videos, shared Thursday by Dylan Mellor and attached to the original video (posted above), shows a close up of what looks like the same bird with the same fish on a short post lower to the ground.

“I spent like 45 minutes filming him,” Mellor wrote. “He flew off at one point and I jogged half a mile down the beach to find him and film him again.”

–Images courtesy of Ashley White

Entries open for Golfweek Coaches Challenge, Myrtle Beach Collegiate

Golfweek will host two new events in Myrtle Beach in June, the Golfweek Coaches Challenge and the Golfweek Myrtle Beach Collegiate.

College golf went prematurely dark on March 12, the day the NCAA announced it was canceling postseason events across all spring sports in light of the coronavirus. Golfweek is partnering with PlayGolfMyrtleBeach.com to put two playing opportunities for individuals in the college golf community back on the calendar, and both will be held in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.

The Golfweek Myrtle Beach Collegiate will debut at the Barefoot Dye course June 24-26, and the Golfweek Myrtle Beach Coaches Challenge will go off at the same venue on the same weekend. The latter event provides a place to play for coaches itching to get back on the golf course just as much as their players are.

Myrtle Beach, a mecca of golf, has continued to see rounds played throughout the coronavirus, but with safety precautions in place.

“We’ve been fortunate that the golf courses have been able to stay open in this area under the precautionary measures that have been asked of us. So the golf itself has been able to be played, just in a different sense,” said tournament director Scott Tomasello of PlayGolfMyrtleBeach.com. “It leads us into this thought that if we’re able to host people, let’s do it in every way that we can, which is where this idea started.”

College golf comes to Myrtle Beach annually in March for the Coastal Carolina-hosted General Hackler Championship, an event that PlayGolfMyrtleBeach.com helps organize. TPC Myrtle Beach also hosted an NCAA men’s regional in 2019. The Golfweek Program Challenge, which features men’s and women’s teams from the same university, is played each fall at True Blue and Caledonia.

The Barefoot Dye course has hosted mini-tour events in the past, so “we know it has some teeth,” as Tomasello said. Extensive waste bunker areas will help in the social-distancing effort. There’s less need for rakes. Play will also go off with styrofoam inserts in the cups and players potentially doing their own live-scoring input. It’s a no-frills event that satisfies collegians’ desire to get back out there and ready for the upcoming college golf season.

The event for coaches, meanwhile, offers a little something different. Head coaches may team up with their assistant coach or a coach from another school. The event will be divided into men’s, women’s and mixed divisions, and potentially further divided within divisions based on entries. Teams will play a scramble format for the front nine of the first round, Pinehurst alternate shot on the back nine and then will play 18 holes of best ball in the second and final round.

Registration for the 54-hole Golfweek Myrtle Beach Collegiate can be found at this link. Coaches interested in registering for their event can do so at this link.

4-star WR JJ Jones includes Georgia football in top-five

Saturday, 2021 4-star receiver JJ Jones took to Twitter to announce his list of top-5 schools and Georgia football made the cut.

Saturday, 2021 4-star wide receiver JJ Jones announced his top-5 schools on Twitter.

North Carolina, Tennessee, South Carolina, Mississippi State and Georgia made the cut for the Myrtle Beach High School prospect.

247Sports has Jones ranked as the No. 2 player in South Carolina and No. 49 receiver overall in the 2021 recruiting class.

Per the composite rankings, he is ranked as the nation’s No. 414 overall player.

In 2019, as a junior, Jones caught 45 passes for 707 yards and 15 touchdowns while being named to the All-Region team and 3rd-team All State.

Right now, 247 has South Carolina as the favorite to land the home-state prospect.

Jones holds 35 scholarship offers from across the country.