Well now: after a 24 hr travel yesterday from UK, and 3 hours sleep in 48 hours, we played today in glorious sunshine at Aberdeen G&CC for under $50/man. Great opener, and great to be back here at MB !
We were getting concerned about availability, price increases after Daylight Saving / season kicks in, so have just spent the past hour and a half booking our golf for the next 10 days. No round is costing over $100 each, so pretty happy with that !
Would appreciate your comments and opinions, guys, but have now booked our golf for the next 10 days on a two days on, one day off basis, as we’re not as young as we used to be, and need to last the three weeks !
So our confirmed bookings are at :
Azalea Sands (very little choice, and a 2nd warmer course), River Hills, Willbrook Plantation, Thistle, Leopards Chase, Shaftesbury Glen, and Rivers Edge.
Your thoughts please, gentlemen ?
Yorkshire Roomy 😘
Weather today and the past few days has been great. It seems like it will be nice temperatures with on/off rain through Wednesday of next week. Driving by Azalea Sands (somewhat) recently and it seems like they are maintaining it better. What it looks like up close...don't know. I think you'll be happy with your lineup. Leopards Chase is usually the best of the Big Cats.
We don't hear much about Col Charters to get a feel for conditions.
It should be OK if cheap and a practice round.
I don't think they have a range.
Azalea Sands does not have a range either, but manager is bragging about conditions.
Arcadian Shores has a range to get warmed up from the flight.
Beachwood is also gentle and has a range.
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We were getting concerned about availability, price increases after Daylight Saving / season kicks in, so have just spent the past hour and a half booking our golf for the next 10 days. No round is costing over $100 each, so pretty happy with that !
So our confirmed bookings are at :
Azalea Sands (very little choice, and a 2nd warmer course), River Hills, Willbrook Plantation, Thistle, Leopards Chase, Shaftesbury Glen, and Rivers Edge.
You have really done well booking very good courses for under $100. Most courses start peak
season rates around March 15 weekend.
Azalea Sands is a improved old course OK for a 2nd warmup.
The rest of your bookings are great choices.
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@artmbgolf : Was on a roll with bookings, so just added Whispering Pines, Man O War and Wellman all at under $75
@artmbgolf : Was on a roll with bookings, so just added Whispering Pines, Man O War and Wellman all at under $75.
Those 3 are also good choices. WP was just renovated last year.
MOW has bent greens, which only 2 others have in MB.
Wellman was rebuilt a couple years ago, after being closed for awhile.
I have not played it, but I see good reports. It's a longer drive, so plan for that.
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Azalea does not overseed so may be browner than the others but their greens are excellent. I have played most of the others except Wellman and you should have no issues. You are getting lucky with the weather so enjoy your trip.
Well, so far so good : played Aberdeen, Azalea Sands, River Hills and Willbrook Plantation thus far, and had a hoot ! The weather has been glorious, and we got lucky at River Hills, as we had a biblical downpour just minutes after getting back into the Clubhouse at River Hills.
After our round at River Hills, we got chatting to a great British “ex-pat”, called Norm, and him and his buddies have invited us back to play a mini-“Ryder Cup” against 4 of them for our last game before returning to the UK ! What a fun day that will be 👍🏻😊?
Day off today, then Thistle on Wednesday and Leopards Chase on Thursday next for us.
Having an absolute blast of a time, cheers fellas,
Yorkshire Roomy 😘 xxx
Sounds like your MB experience has been a good one, thanks for your report and enjoy Thistle and Leopards Chase.
@yorkshire-roomy
You are off to a good start. Thistle gets even better.
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So, 5 rounds in, time to give a brief review :
Day 1 : Aberdeen (Highlands & Meadows)
Returned to an old favourite of ours in ideal conditions. Course in great shape considering the Winter MB has suffered. A few patchy places, but the greens ran very true if not over fast. Very fair and a great way to warm up and start our week. The usual warm welcome from very friendly and helpful staff at the course.
Day 2 : Azalea Sands
Struggled to find a tee time due to no prior booking and arriving at 02:00am in the early hours of the day before. Course in decent shape, and another good warm up course, and the greens were good and lightning fast ! Another enjoyable round in perfect weather.
Day 3 : Day Off
Day 4 : River Hills
A really fun, yet challenging course in terrific condition. Plenty of water, but able to play round it. Having never played it before, there were a number of blind shots that were a bit of a lottery, as we didn’t know “what was round the corner”. Thoroughly enjoyed the course, however, and the welcome from staff and members alike was outstanding. : we even secured a return on our final day’s golf before flying home to play a mini “Ryder Cup” with four members who will be signing us in !
Day 5 : Willbrook Plantation
Despite major renovation works to the Clubhouse, and a “Port-a-loo”, once again the course lived up to recommendations and expectations. The staff were super friendly and helpful again, and the course conditions magnificent. Another course with plenty of hazards for risky shots, but very fair, and easy to avoid trouble by engaging your brain. Great greens once again.
Day 6 Day Off
Day 7 : Thistle (Stewart / Mackay)
WOW ! WOW ! WOW ! What a course / clubhouse / entire set up ! This was the best course we have played in 5 trips and some 30+ courses samples at Myrtle Beach. Hard to fault or criticise a single thing … in fact, I can’t ! Wonderful warm welcome, great pre-golf meal, super friendly staff, beautifully presented course in immaculate condition. Tough, but very fair, and again, employing one’s brain to plot a way round reaped rewards. The Stewart 9 played with very receptive greens and slower pace, whereas the 2025 renovated Mackay 9 were much faster, less receptive greens, but neither nine could be faulted - just required player adjustments. Easy to see why this course has repeatedly won Golf Weekly and Golf Pass Top 50 US Public Accessible Course status for the past several years.
Day 8 : Leopard’s Chase
That’s for tomorrow with 30+mph winds and heavy rain forecast ! It’ll be like being back in the UK ?! 😏🙄
We’ve now completed our bookings for the rest of our stay, and have the following to come :
Shaftesbury Glen, Rivers Edge, Whispering Pines, Man O War, Wellman, Shaftesbury Glen (again), and finally our mini-“Ryder Cup” at River Hills.
Cheers chums,
Yorkshire Roomy xxx😘
Thanks for this very good review! Hoping you have fun to play golf in MB. You have many good courses to play in the future. Hoping the weather will collaborate for you and your group for the rest of your stay.
''It's just golf, let's have fun''
Thanks for your update report!
The rest of your courses are good choices.
Check the drive time to Wellman.
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Thanks for the great update!!!
Let the Big Dawg Bark!!!
