Caledonia/True Blue Golf Club

Travelogue

On Pawleys Island, just south of Myrtle Beach, the bustle of the Grand Strand gives way to the sylvan grandeur of weeping willows and knobby oaks dripping with Spanish moss. Turn west off Highway 17, down a narrow lane shaded by an arcade of trees, and you come to a pair of courses that many regard as the region’s finest one-two punch. Both are the work of Mike Strantz, an artist-cum-architect whose palette here was a rumpled swatch of terrain along the intercostal that once was home to indigo and rice plantations. Caledonia was Strantz’s first solo design, and the creativity that became his trademark comes through in the compelling bend of fairways and the large, wild greens, cleverly defended by creeks, ponds and expansive bunkers. Caledonia’s sibling layout, True Blue, boasts a striking clubhouse with an indigo-hued roof and 18 compelling holes that buck and roll through a lush landscape, framed by water hazards and rough-edged sandy wastes. The condos you retire to after your rounds are nothing fussy but they offer everything that you could ask for on a buddies’ getaway. The beds are big and comfy, the fridge has room for beers. To top it off, the golf is primo and the price is right.