For decades, the Myrtle Beach, SC area has described itself as the “Golf Destination of the World.” And with good reason, considering that annually, a million golfers play nearly four million rounds at Myrtle Beach’s 102 golf facilities.

However, while Myrtle Beach golf is certainly mighty when it comes to quantity, historically the Grand Strand hasn’t been so grand when it comes to quality… thus its longstanding label as a place where discount golfers go to play affordable golf, unlike the jet-setting clientele that flock to high-end daily-fee destinations such as Phoenix-Scottsdale and Palm Springs each year.

Like a fine bottle of wine, though, Myrtle Beach has matured over time. The destination once synonymous with blue-collar buddy trips is increasingly becoming a more sophisticated place—a place that offers a growing list of quality, upscale golf opportunities and a host of comparable hotels, restaurants and entertainment venues to match.

Case in point: The Grand Strand now claims 10 of America’s “100 Greatest Public Courses,” according to the May 2007 issue of Golf Digest. To put that into perspective, that’s more top-100 golf facilities than Florida and Arizona combined, and more top-ranked courses than any single state.

Moreover, in Golf Digest’s 2007-2008 “Places to Play” guide, the Grand Strand is now home to 47 courses with four-star status and 27 courses that have four-and-a-half-star ratings (TPC of Myrtle Beach is the Grand Strand’s only five-star recipient). According to Golf Digest, four stars means “Outstanding. Plan your next vacation around it,” and five stars means: “Golf at its absolute best. Pay any price to play at least once in your life.”

One of those priceless segments of the Grand Strand—a 60-mile stretch of beautiful beaches from Georgetown, SC to Brunswick County, NC—is the Waccamaw Golf Trail on the southern end. Located in the townships of Murrells Inlet, Litchfield and Pawleys Island, and positioned as a destination within a destination, many of the Waccamaw Trail courses are thoughtfully laid out on former 19th-century rice and indigo plantations with ancient moss-draped oaks and tidal rivers delightfully framing the fairways.
Pawleys Island and Litchfield developments, in particular, feature the area’s greatest concentration of high-end golf, accommodations and dining. Seemingly far-removed from the hustle and bustle of downtown Myrtle Beach, these communities are only 20 minutes away. One of the signature courses is Caledonia Golf & Fish Club on Pawleys Island. Designed by the late architect Mike Strantz, a former protégé of Tom Fazio, Caledonia is perennially ranked as one of the country’s top modern courses and features a vintage antebellum clubhouse, the remains of the old rice plantation’s fish and hunt club and 150-year-old oak trees.

Other outstanding courses along the Waccamaw Trail include: resort accommodations leader Litchfield Beach & Golf Resort; True Blue Plantation, another Strantz gem; Pawleys Plantation, one of the premier golf communities on the Carolina Coast anchored by a Jack Nicklaus layout; and TPC of Myrtle Beach, host site of the prestigious 2000 Senior Tour Championship.

One of the rare new courses to open on the Grand Strand this February was the Founders Club at Pawleys Island. Developed by the Classic Golf Group on the old Sea Gull Golf Club location, the new $7 million course was created by Thomas Walker, former lead designer for Gary Player Design. A Lowcountry-style clubhouse, which will overlook the 10th tee and 18th green, is part of the redevelopment.

Back in the heart of Myrtle Beach, another property reshaping the landscape is Grande Dunes, a luxurious 36-hole master-planned resort-style destination that features 2,200 acres of prime ocean to Intracoastal Waterway property. The Mediterranean-themed mixed-use project is being developed by Burroughs & Chapin Company, whose founders, Franklin Burroughs and Simeon Chapin, first established Myrtle Beach when they opened the Seaside Inn in 1901.

Now, Burroughs & Chapin has redefined the entire strip with its multi-billion dollar luxury development that features a Roger Rulewich resort course, a private Members Course co-designed by Nick Price and Craig Schreiner that features a separate 27,000-square-foot clubhouse, tennis and fitness facilities, an exquisite 25,000-square-foot Ocean Club, a 130-slip marina within the planned Marina Village and the magnificent new Marina Inn & Villa.

The multi-faceted community offers an array of residential options with golf and waterfront villas starting in the $300,000s and single-family homes priced from the $700,000s. Two Vista Del Mar residences, Grande Dunes’ premium oceanfront condominiums located next to the 25,000-square-foot Ocean Club, are currently available from $1.95 million to $2.1 million.

Another exciting undertaking by Burroughs & Chapin is the extensive multi-million dollar restoration of Pine Lakes Country Club, the granddaddy of Myrtle Beach golf courses that originally opened in 1927. Scheduled to reopen next March, Schreiner and Price are collaborating once again to restore this classic Robert White-designed layout to its original state (Pine Lakes is famous for being the place where Sports Illustrated was conceived in 1954).

At the northern end of the Grand Strand, golfers have equally compelling options with Tidewater Golf Club & Plantation, 72-hole Barefoot Resort and Golf (highlighted by Davis Love III, Pete Dye, Greg Norman and Fazio designs) and gimmicky 27-hole World Tour Golf Links. Just over the border in North Carolina, Sea Trail Golf Resort & Convention Center in Sunset Beach offers 54 holes of top-notch golf and one of the best beaches in the state. Just up the road is Brunswick Plantation with its 27 holes designed by Willard Byrd and Clyde Johnston.

From mom-and-pop operations to world-class 72-hole mega-resorts, Myrtle Beach arguably has the world’s greatest array of golf course offerings.

“From a golfer’s perspective, if you’re coming here for a golf vacation, Myrtle Beach is golfer’s paradise,” says Bill Golden, president of Myrtle Beach Golf Holiday, the co-op responsible for marketing 76 of the area’s golf facilities and 104 resort package providers. “You can find perhaps some comparable golf courses in other destinations, but we’ve got so many more of those courses, and we’ve got such a large variety of them. So the diversity on the golf side is tremendous and as a golfer that’s exactly what you’re looking for.
“Whether it’s an inland parkland-type golf course, a marsh-side links-style course or playing different designers, we’ve got all that and more… You can come here 20 times and not have the same golf vacation twice. And on top of that we’ve got all the additional things you can do on vacation, whether it be the beach, shopping or the great restaurants. The diversity that Myrtle Beach has to offer has never been as strong as it is now.”

Indeed, the area’s 13 million annual tourists have more than their fair share of traditional mass-market attractions such as NASCAR Speedpark, Broadway at the Beach, Barefoot Landing and Myrtle Waves. A new wave of investments is replacing kitsch with chic, like the Marriott Resort Grande Dunes designed in the same Italianate style as Grande Dunes Golf Club, the recently opened Ruth’s Chris steakhouse, the brand-new $400 million Hard Rock Theme Park and Market Common, the former air force base redeveloped into a downtown commercial area with high-end shops and restaurants such as P.F. Chang’s, Gordon Biersch, White House Black Market, Tommy Bahama and more.

“There are so many new opportunities and new offerings for travelers who come here,” adds Golden, whose destination now has eight airlines that fly non-stop to Myrtle Beach (from 18 cities overall). “I think for those who haven’t been here before, or haven’t been here in a few years, it’s changed dramatically. Now, that doesn’t mean Myrtle Beach has lost its traditional flavor and what Myrtle Beach is all about. It’s just that these things have been added to it.” To put it another way, it’s like the boyish beach has grown into a mature young man.