Given our interest in playing only upscale courses on this trip we will not be playing here again.  

On to Barefoot - Love tommorow.

Just want to add my two cents after coming here for years, the message board is an invaluable source of information over the years.

After playing the south end of the strand on our past trip we decided to head north towards the Calabash area. Our Airbnb was in Cherry Grove and each course was no more then a 20 min drive.

Afternoon round at THISTLE. Course was in good shape and was packed upon arrival. They really did a good job with the clubhouse and it was a notable step above the other courses we played. Really could have hung out another hour two after the round. There was 6 in our group, so they broke us up 3 and 3. We played in 4 hours flat. Very solid and fair track.

GLEN DORNOCH was up next and they were not kidding about the three finishing holes. Unfortunately we started on the back nine first, so the wow factor was definitely not the same on the front nine. I think #16 (although crazy difficult) might be my favorite hole in Myrtle. You just don’t see the elevation from the tee box looking down to the intercoastal. You def need your A game to score well here. 

Finally we played THE PEARL. I forget which 9’s we played but the entire group felt that the greens were the best here compared to the other courses we played. Very affordable solid track with an interesting mix of holes. Could be a bit of an under the radar course that does not get a lot of noise, but definitely consider it if you are in the area.

Rate: Golf Now Hot Deal $115

Tees: Overseeded and in good shape

Fairways: Evenly overseeded and great shape. Stripes always a nice bonus  

Rough: Not overseeded wall to wall so rough was a bit more thin 

Bunkers: Plentiful! With riveted faces. Good shape.

Greens: Mackay side has had its greens redone more recently so they are firmer and a bit quicker  

Gators: One BIG boy, one decent, two smaller ones  

POP: We were the first out on the afternoon wave so we played in a bit over 3 hours  

Cart Paths: No issues

Rate: GolfNow Hot Deal $145

Tees: Mostly good. Not sure what can be done but any tee box that is always shaded are in HORRIBLE shape  

Fairways: Overseed took well. Pretty even consistency. They are a bit shaggy and balls simply don’t roll out on them. 

Rough: They don’t overseed wall to wall so the rough was pretty thin 

Bunkers: excellent 

Greens: Pretty good. A few spots here and there. The greens are pretty slow but with the undulations on most of them, if they played too quick you would be looking at 5.5 hour rounds  

Gators: “Big Boy” wasn’t on property today but we did see a baby, a midsize, and one 13-14 footer.

POP: 4.5 hours. Had a twosome couple walking in front of us. 

Cart Paths: Perfect

Has been almost 10 years since I played Heritage Club. It was ok. The back 9 is much better than the front. Other than one par 3 (13) the other par 3s are pretty meh. 12-14 is the best stretch by far and 18 is a good finish. 

Conditions were good not great. The $150 paid felt a bit much and that was a Hot Deal.  Paying the going spring rate of $190+ just isn’t worth it. Way too many better options at that price point. 

Excellent practice facilities and the practice green right on the ocean was nice. It was firm and fast, i couldnt believe how firm it was playing. There is a lot of water but I would say its mostly avoidable of you choose to be conservative.

 On their signature hole, The Waterloo it's impossible to take the water out. Its basically a banana shaped hole. Off the tee you can play a long iron to give yourself a larger landing area but you will have a forced carry over water 2nd shot if you want to use a 3wood. If you take on the risk of hitting driver you have a very narrow landing area where a miss right will be in the water.  The reward is a much shorter forced carry but there is water all down the right side.

Im not sure how much excavation they did when building this course because there were a lot of bluffs and elevation changes. Greenside bunkers were deep and mean. I visited many of them and am proud I got them all out in one shot except for one. All the geeens are heavily guarded with bunkers. A fairway bunker usually comes in to play for your driver as well so being straight off the tee is crucial. 

The green complexes are severe and elevated. Pretty much every hole had an area on the green that would repel balls off the green to a runoff area. I was expecting the greens to be a lot faster but Im sure they dont want to shave them down too much until tournament. Rough was deep and thick. 

The only hole with an unobstructed ocean view is the par 3 10th hole. A few others play along a marsh.

Overall it is a good mix of long and short holes that put a wedge in my hand for my 2nd shot which is always nice. Par 3 distances were perfect. None of them were crazy long around 140-160 but heavily bunkered. 

I look forward to hopefully playing here again in the future.

Rate: GolfNow Hot Deal $109

Tees: Overseed was perfect and flat 

Fairways: Lush overseed  8/10

Bunkers: perfectly playable 

Greens: Listed as UltraDwarf Bermuda but something else maybe. Yellow colored and “seedy” They rolled fine just not sure what they are  

Gators: Was promised 3 or 4 by starter and got ZERO

POP: 4 hours

Cart Paths: Just fine. 

Started on the back 9. Just the wife and I. Enjoy this course. It has several forced approaches and a few holes I personally think are bad designs (16 and 18). You get some great views of the Intracoastal waterway and the design never gets boring. 

Rate: GolfNow HD $78

Tees: Firm for putting tees in but turf was good and tees were flat  

Fairways: Course wall to wall overseed  Fairways in good shape  

Bunkers: Perfectly fine  

Greens: Smooth and receptive but slow compared to what they “looked like”

Gators: ZERO

POP: 4 hours and 20 minutes  

Cart Paths: Great

This Arnold Palmer course is always one of my favorites. Hole 8 and 9 are worth the price of admission and the finishing three holes might be the best finishing stretch in MB. 

Rate: GolfNow Hot Deal $107

Tees: Not overseeded and thin in spots

Fairways: Overseed took pretty well. Some thinner patches but completely serviceable. 

Bunkers: Good shape. Well maintained. 

Greens: Medium speed. Smooth and receptive. 

Gators: EVERYWHERE! I honestly lost count of how many we saw. If you like these scaly critters like I do, get to Oyster Bay

POP: Smidge over 4 hours. 

Cart Paths: HORRIBLE