Myrtle Beach is a golfers’ smorgasbord, an expansive something-for-everyone spread. Aptly known as the Grand Strand, the destination spans some 60 coastal miles, from Pawleys Island, S.C., in the south across the border into North Carolina, with upward of 90 courses along the way.
Among architecture snobs, a common knock is that Myrtle Beach favors quantity over quality. But that critique distorts the picture on the ground. Though it’s true that the Grand Strand has some cookie-cutter courses, it’s also not hard to plan a trip around primo tracks by such prominent designers as Tom Doak, Mike Strantz, Pete Dye and Robert Trent Jones Sr., to name just a few.
What’s more, at a time of soaring green fees, when buddies’ trips are often budget busters, Myrtle Beach remains a relative bargain. Most golfers take advantage of stay-and-play packages that bundle tee times and accommodations into deals that cost much less than a la carte pricing. The bang for your buck is tough to beat.
How to pick and choose from the plenitude?
On a recent episode of Destination Golf, co-hosts Simon Holt and Josh Sens provided a Grand Strand overview, with tips on some of the best spots to play, stay and eat.
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What are the best golf courses in Myrtle Beach?
Heathland Course at Legends Resort
In 1990, long before he became a household name, Tom Doak took a page from the British Isles’ playbook with a wide and bouncy layout that lives up to its name in both look and feel. The Heathland Course is one of three 18-holers at Legends Resorts, along with the tree-lined Parkland Course and the Moorland Course, a P.B. Dye design.
True Blue Golf Club and Caledonia Golf & Fish Club
Perhaps best known for his trippy, cubist work at Tobacco Road, near Pinehurst, the late iconoclast Mike Strantz also left his imprint in Pawleys Island, at the south end of the Grand Strand. True Blue and Caledonia sit on neighboring parcels but cut very different profiles. The latter is shorter and in many places tighter, stitched through a moody landscape dotted by wetlands and lined with Spanish moss-draped oaks (insider tip: don’t pass on the complimentary fish chowder at the turn). True Blue, for its part, offers a more rustic aesthetic, with wide, rolling fairways and sandy wastes that blend naturally into the terrain.
Built in 1949 by Robert Trent Jones Sr., the Robert Trent Jones Sr. design was the second course to open in Myrtle Beach, after Pine Lakes Country Club, and its pedigree runs deep. Its resume as a tournament host includes the U.S. Women’s Open; the PGA Tour Champions’ Tour Championship; the U.S. Women’s Amateur Four-Ball; and, in 2024, the inaugural Myrtle Beach Classic on the PGA Tour. In keeping with its designer’s reputation, it is a brawny course with a slope rating from the tips of 76.1 and stout shot-making demands throughout, nowhere more than on the par-5 13th hole, which wraps around a lake and is aptly known as “Waterloo.”
Four championship layouts, each bearing the name and aesthetic leanings of the architect behind them: Norman, Dye, Fazio and Love. All can be bundled into on-property stay-and-play packages whose prices vary depending on the length of stay and time of year.
True to its name, this Ken Tomlinson design takes advantage of a distinctive setting, winding past saltwater marshes and through tall corridors of Carolina pines, with arresting views of the Intracoastal Waterway. For scenery and a shot-making demands, it is unsurpassed in North Myrtle Beach.
Where to stay in Myrtle Beach
Traditional golf resorts are rare in Myrtle Beach, though a handful of properties, including Barefoot Resort and the Grand Dunes Resort, fit the bill. Stay-and-play packages are the more common option, with deals that combine golf with lodging at either on-property condominiums or nearby hotels. Prices vary. But here’s a good barometer. At last check, a four-night, four-round peak-season stay at Barefoot Resort was fetching $1,100 per person, including range balls and breakfast off the clubhouse menu.
Where to eat in Myrtle Beach
Perrone’s Restaurant & Bar
A Pawleys Island hot spot for steak, local seafood and a range of seasonally inspired dishes, complemented by caviar service and craft cocktails
Collector’s Cafe
This inviting downtown haunt doubles as an art gallery, with framed works for sale on the walls and smartly executed Mediterranean-style cuisine on the menu.
Chive Blossom
French and Asian touches ornament a menu that includes inventive twists on Southern classics, including a fried green tomato Napoleon and fried chicken livers with celery root puree.
Aspen Grille
Steak and seafood shine and this downtown favorite, which emphasizes local ingredients in an atmosphere as welcoming as any restaurant in the region.
Frank’s Restaurant and Bar
A bustling bistro with a first-rate chop house menu and a big, beautiful mahogany bar.
Off-course activities in Myrtle Beach
Alternative golf
If you’ve got the extra energy, the area has options, including a Topgolf and a PopStroke. There’s also putt-putt. Lots of putt-putt. Not for nothing has the region earned the title of “Mini Golf Capital of the World,” what with its abundance of elaborately themed courses.
Alligator Adventure
The word “hazard” takes on a different meaning at this 15-acre self-guided zoo in North Myrtle Beach, where a wetland habitat serves as home to more 800 gators and scores of other species, including snakes, turtles, mountain lions, lemurs and lizards.
Deep sea and inshore fishing
Triggerfish. Flounder. Grouper. Redfish. Local fishing companies offer a range of guided outings, both on the ocean and the calmer waters of the Intracoastal Waterway.
When to go to Myrtle Beach
Myrtle Beach has year-round golf, but the peak seasons are spring and fall. Prices drop in summer, if you don’t mind the heat, and again in winter, if you don’t mind risking running up against foul weather.
How to get to Myrtle Beach
In recent years, buoyed in part by a pandemic-era golf boom, Myrtle Beach International Airport has been one of the fastest growing airports in the country. It is serviced by 10 airlines, with regular nonstop flights from such Northeast and Midwest hubs as Boston, Newark and Chicago. Despite its growth, it still offers the upsides of a smaller airport, with relatively unclogged security lines and easy access to rental cars.
