Want challenges when you go to the number one golf destination in the US. Give these six a try. The US Golf Association (USGA) ranked these six as the top five hardest in the Myrtle Beach area. There is a three way tie for fourth all at the same venue, the Legends Resort.
1. Pawleys Plantation (139/72) – $64 - Golf’s greatest champion, Jack Nicklaus, also designed Myrtle Beach’s most difficult course for average players. The only thing greater than the challenge is the beauty at Pawleys Plantation. The back nine plays around a saltwater marsh that creates some of Myrtle Beach’s most memorable holes, including the devilish par 3, 13th.
2. Dunes Golf & Beach Club (135/70.6) – $129 -The area’s best layout is also one of its toughest. The Robert Trent Jones Sr. masterpiece offers wide fairways but cavernous bunkers and diabolical greens complexes keep players on their toes throughout an unforgettable round.
T. 3 Diamond Back Golf Club (133/71.2) – $46 -You expected a course named Diamondback that has the average golfer playing from the Rattlesnake tees to be easy? The layout is long at 6,390 yards and tight, but with recently installed greens, it should be in good shape and the design is solid. Golfers looking for a good test and a value price can do a lot worse.
T. 3 Founders Club (133/71.2) – $46 - Nestled among the lowcountry beauty of Pawleys Island is Founders Club, a layout that features elevated fairways and waste bunkers that frame nearly every hole. Stay out of the sand and Founders Club will play softer than the slope rating suggests, but if the driver isn’t cooperating, buckle up.
T. 3 Heathland, Parkland, Moorland at Legends Resort (all three have a slope rating of 133) – $64 - the trio of courses at Legends, improbably, have the same rating, but they arrived at the number in different ways. Moorland was once hailed as one of America’s 50 hardest courses by Golf Digest, but the P.B. Dye design has enormous fairways and greens, similar to Heathland, a links style-design crafted by a young Tom Doak. While the USGA deems the three to be equally difficult, locals lean toward the tree-lined Parkland as the most demanding of the trio.
Pick you poison when you go to the beach. Challenges for all levels of golfers. Have fun and y'all come on down.