All across the Carolinas, along the coastal low country and in the rolling inland hills, golfers can play top-tier courses. North Carolina is home to Pinehurst Resort, the Rolls Royce of golf resorts that boasts a long history of championship tournaments. South Carolina’s Myrtle Beach has about 100 individual golf courses. Other Carolina courses boast quirky claims to fame, among them Farmstead Golf Links in Brunswick County, which plays across state lines and has a par 6 18th hole
Myrtle Beach, South Carolina
In 1967, Myrtle Beach had 10 golf courses. Today, there are nearly 100.
“No other destination can match Myrtle Beach, not only with its number of courses but its outstanding designs,” said Chris King, spokesman for Myrtle Beach Golf Holiday, the promotional organization for the area’s golf courses.
The Tidewater Golf Club, one of the area’s iconic layouts, recently underwent a significant, six-month renovation and reopened in fall 2014. The club installed new MiniVerde Bermuda greens, expanded every fairway on the course and removed some trees to allow more air to move and “make the fairways even more playable,” King said.
The Dunes Golf Club was the city’s second golf course; the first was built in 1927 at Pine Lakes Country Club and is today known as “The Granddaddy.” The Dunes hosted the PGA Professional National Championship in summer 2014 and was recently awarded the USGA Women’s Four-Ball Championship in 2016.
Legends Golf and Resort is a 54-hole facility with a Scottish-inspired clubhouse, and Caledonia Golf and Fish Club was once a plantation where today’s guests play “among hundreds of live oak trees and a couple alligators thrown in there,” King said.
At Grand Dunes Resort Course, golfers will play eight holes along the Intracoastal Waterway, and Barefoot Resort has four courses designed by some of golf’s biggest names, including Pete Dye.
www.myrtlebeachgolfholiday.com
Hilton Head, South Carolina
Southern Beaufort County, which includes Hilton Head Island and the mainland town of Bluffton, boasts more than 50 golf courses, including 28 public courses and about 24 private courses, said Cary Corbitt, vice president of sports and operations for Sea Pines Resort and president of the Lowcountry Golf Course Owner’s Association, which represents the 28 public courses.
Sea Pines has four courses, Palmetto Dunes Oceanfront Resort and the Port Royal Plantation each have three courses, and Shipyard Plantation has 27 holes.
Sea Pines’ Harbour Town Golf Links has been hosting the PGA’s RBC Heritage Tournament every April since 1969. The 36-hole Sea Pines Plantation Golf Club is home to the Ocean Course, the first golf course on the island, as well as the Pete Dye-designed Heron Point.
Sea Pines also has 17 miles of bike trails, 7 miles of beachfront and two marinas. At Harbour Town’s famous 18th hole, golfers are treated to views of the Calibogue Sound, the Harbour Town Marina and the candy-striped lighthouse, Corbitt said.
Each of Palmetto Dunes’ three course were designed by a different big-name golf architect — Robert Trent Jones, George Fazio and Arthur Hills — making the resort “truly a 54-hole golf facility,” said Michael Royer, business development manager. He said, “We are three championship golf courses, but it’s three distinct golf courses.”
Palmetto Dunes is keeping up with the times by adding USB ports to carts at the Hills Course to charge phones and listen to music and recently launched its proprietary golf app with electronic scorecards. In April, the resort got its first delivery of golf bikes, which have large tires to avoid damaging fairways, saddlebag compartments to carry clubs and balls, and minicoolers for refreshments.
