Golf’s Grand on the Strand

Myrtle Beach is a paradise for golfers where their every whim is catered for. Vic Robbie checks out why this area of South Carolina is often called the seaside capital of golf

AS we rode into town there were signs everywhere ‘Welcome, all you shaggers’ which might have been disconcerting for those unacquainted with the American dance that is almost as addictive as golf itself. We had arrived in the middle of the Shagging Festival that attracts more than 70,000 shaggers to the South Carolina town of Myrtle Beach.

But shag is not the main four-letter word here – golf rules in this town. You can’t get away from it. If ever there was a destination that caters to a golfer’s every whim it’s the Grand Strand, which stretches 70 miles from South Carolina into North Carolina with Myrtle Beach at its centre.

Drive anywhere and if you don’t pass a handful of golf courses you will certainly see giant billboards advertising them. There’s also fiendishly difficult crazy-golf parks and golf outlets on every block with perhaps the most impressive being America’s largest golf-shoe-only store with more than 30,000 pairs in stock.

You can eat in Greg Norman’s Australian Grille and many of the clubs we visited offered a tipple from the Greg Norman Estates.

Several gentlemen’s clubs offer free entry to any golfer handing over his scorecard, although some might be too embarrassed to share their exploits on the fairways with strangers. And one enterprising escort agency even advertises golfing companions to share your buggy for $150 a hour.

But although Myrtle Beach attracts many groups of golfers, it’s also a major holiday resort for all the family with more than 13 million people visiting annually.

With miles of white sand beaches, there’s no such thing as a golf widow in Myrtle Beach. Apart from shopping, you can visit amusement parks, racetracks, haunted houses, Ripley’s, the award-winning aquarium, an alligator park, oceanfront state parks and in the evenings take in Dolly Parton’s Dixie Stampede and the Carolina Opry.

And you’ll never go hungry as there are more than 1,650 restaurants with succulent seafood, shrimp, crab, fish, oysters and scallops on offer. Nightlife is abundant and Broadway At The Beach offers a choice of every bar and taste imaginable.

As for the golf, it is sensational. In this relatively flat landscape, adorned with sturdy oaks, huge pines and lush waterways, there are more than a hundred golf courses, and you would find it difficult to find a course that disappointed. Yet, surprisingly, it’s the intra-coastal waterway, which runs all the way from New York to Miami, that features in most of the courses rather than the Atlantic as the courses tend not to be built on the coast.

Myrtle Beach’s first course, now known as Pine Lakes, was laid down in 1927 and its grand old clubhouse is worth visiting even if you don’t play the tight tree-lined course. Tipping its hat to the game’s origins, the starters are all dressed in kilts and one starter was actually called Robert Bruce.

Golf’s biggest names, including Greg Norman, Jack Nicklaus, Pete Dye, Davis Love III, Arnold Palmer, Tom Fazio and Gary Player, have all designed courses on the Grand Strand.

Up at Ocean Ridge Plantation, just over the border in North Carolina, they added a new super course, the 7,500-yard Leopard’s Chase, to their collection of the splendid Tiger’s Eye, Panther’s Run and Lion’s Paw courses. Built at a cost of $15million, Leopard’s Chase provides a considerable challenge with its last four holes – 479, 248, 564 and 462 yards respectively – into the prevailing wind providing a monumental test. It was named as one of the ten best new public courses in America in 2007. And they also now have Jaguar’s Lair, which was formerly known as Angel’s Trace.

As with most American courses, they know how to care for their customers. Driving up to the clubhouse, your golf bag is taken away and placed in a buggy and when you leave you pick them up from the same spot with the clubs and shoes having been cleaned and polished.

The game in America wouldn’t be golf if there wasn’t an abundance of sand and water. Lakes, rivers, creeks and ponds are de riguer on most courses and bunkers here are not merely holes in the ground but vast Saharan stretches.

Whatever, the cost of golf is relatively inexpensive and accessible with 105 of the courses open to the public. It’s also possible to play some private courses and, again, you don’t need a second mortgage to tee off. Such is the case with one of the area’s relative newcomers, The Members Club at Grande Dunes, which was designed by former Open champion Nick Price. Grande Dunes also has the Resort Course, which is an enjoyable challenge, but the Members Club is what it says it is. You cannot play unless you are introduced by a member but if you are staying at the Marriott at Grande Dunes, Myrtlewood Villas, or the Marina Inn they can arrange a tee time for you.

This is exclusive with a capital E from its Mediterranean-style clubhouse with its Italian leather armchairs and cashew nut and M&M dispensers (nice touch!) in the locker rooms to the putting green and practice ground with illuminated clocks because no one would be so vulgar as to remind you of your tee time.

Not that you are likely to be rushed, it’s probably one of the least played members’ courses in the world. At present the club has just 185 members which means only 35 rounds on average are played daily and 75 at the weekends, and on Mondays the course is given a rest day.

As they explained: “We don’t want our members and guests to be hassled around the golf course like cattle.”

With a club like this, attention to detail is very important. Even the practice tees are measured to the inch every morning so you can gauge your exact yardage.

Nick is known as the good guy of golf and the course somehow reflects that image. He has put the emphasis on the members’ enjoyment, wanting it to be fair and not artificially difficult. Yet the bent grass greens are fast, being ramped up to 12.5 for the club championship, and the run-off areas can be exasperating.

Wherever you play the standard of the courses is outstanding. A golfer could keep returning to Myrtle Beach for many years and play a different set of courses each visit without finding an inferior track.

Perhaps the most surprising thing is that so many courses coexist in such a relatively small area. But they do and it is good for golfers because courses are not overcrowded – even though more than four million rounds of golf are played annually on the Strand – and green fees are reasonable by European standards.

Spring tends to be the time for groups of men and women on golfing trips, with the summer being more for families who want to play when on vacation, while the autumn again attracts golfing groups. And the winter, well, that’s for anyone escaping the cold for a pleasant all-round 65 degrees.

Myrtle Beach Golf Holiday, the company promoting golf on the Grand Strand, chose four courses for us to play. It must have been difficult for them to select just four to represent their product and it was impossible for us to pick a favourite because each was a delight with different challenges.

Tiger’s Eye had the toughest greens of all – large and undulating – and it was down to the short stick to rescue the round. Tidewater, close to the intra-coastal with wetlands to be negotiated, demanded a thoughtful approach. The Resort Course at Grande Dunes was wide open and immaculate. We’d never seen so many greenkeepers at work on the course since we visited Valderrama in Spain. Thistle, with its Scottish affiliations, was the closest to a links course and its three nines boasted hard and fast greens.

Somehow we never quite made it to the beach, although our accommodation overlooked the Atlantic, but we certainly didn’t miss out on the sand and the water.

And, remember, bring plenty of balls.

ACCOMMODATION

There’s every type of accommodation with approximately 460 hotels and 60,000 rooms in the Myrtle Beach area.

We stayed at the Avista Resort, a condominium complex on the Atlantic Ocean. There are many accommodations like these and they provide good value for money. Basically, apartments with hotel services, even a one-bedroom is spacious with its own lounge, kitchen and balcony.

The friendly Avista with its indoor and outdoor pools and location on the beach in North Myrtle Beach is perfect for families or groups and was ideally placed for the golf courses we visited. (telephone

+1 843 249 2521; email This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it '>info@avistaresort.com; or visit www.avistaresort.com

FLIGHTS

Myrtle Beach International Airport, which is designated an alternative landing site for the space shuttle should Cape Canaveral be affected by bad weather.

For travellers from the UK there are no direct scheduled flights. We flew US Airways into Charlotte in North Carolina, where you are processed through immigration and customs, and the connecting flight is less than an hour to Myrtle Beach. Most major airlines fly into Charlotte, or you can fly to Atlanta and pick up a connecting flight.

CAR HIRE

Our hire car was provided by Hertz, the world’s largest car rental organisation. Operating from more than 7,400 locations, Hertz has a selection of vehicles to suit every need, including a range of luxury cars through its prestige collection. To make a reservation, log onto www.hertz.com or call +44 (0)8708 448844.

CLIMATE

Myrtle Beach’s climate is ideal for year-round golf. The spring and autumn are the two busiest golf seasons with the temperature ranging from 68 to 85 degrees.