River Club / True Blue / Pawleys Plantation

Took my group of 6 down to Pawley's island this past weekend.  For reference, we consist of 2 guys about a 10-12 handicap and then 4 guys who play when they can.  Two of those guys shoot mid 90's and 2 shoot 100+

All 3 courses are in excellent condition at this time.  Weather was perfect (mid 80's to low 90's).  After last years weekend of fighting off the rain, we were in heaven.

We opened the weekend with River Club.  All felt is was an excellent opening day course.  It's not too long and a very fair test of golf.  Tee boxes, fairways and greens were all in very good shape.  Greens were not overly fast but putting consistently and little to no bouncing around due to conditions.  All the golfers enjoyed the course.  I tied for low round of the day with an 86.  We teed off about 2:30 and had the course all to ourselves.  Everythings pretty much right out in front of you.  Highly recommend this course to all levels.

Saturday afternoon we played True Blue.  Place was packed but the cart area was well run, we went off on time and the pace of play was pretty good.  We waited a little on most of our shots on the front 9, but by the back 9 there was little to no waiting.  What can I say.  True Blue is beautiful, but one of the 2 or 3 most intimidating courses from the tee of any course I've played.  It reminded me of the Ocean Course at Kiawah but without the ocean.  We played the white tees and it was about as long as my group is willing to play.  Tees fairways and greens matched what we found at River Club (all in very good shape).  I hit 80% of the fairways (all wide and accommodating off the tee despite the visual intimidation).  Hitting the greens were another matter.  It was tough, I'm not going to lie.  But again, everyone in the group enjoyed playing the course, no matter the skill level.  Moving up a tee might have helped the high handicap guys, but the green complexes (bunkering and waste areas) were what kept tripping everyone up.  This is one I want to play again as I could easily shave off 4-5 strokes by knowing what club to hit off the tee.  None the less, great course and a great day for all.

Finished up the trip Sunday morning with the first tee times at Pawley's Plantation.  As much as we enjoyed True Blue, half the group felt Pawley's was there favorite.  It's just a great course.  Again the conditions of the tee boxes, fairways and greens was very good.  Some holes are VERY narrow off the tee box (overhanging trees) but getting off the tee was not a problem for anyone in our group.  Once again, waste area's and green complexes tripped everyone up.  However, Pawley's allows more options for bail out areas than True Blue did.  The back 9 at Pawley's may be as pretty a 9 as I've ever seen.  I will echo the complaints about the par 3, #13 which has no bail out area, no bunkering to stop an errant shot, despite it only being 100 yards from the tees we played (Red Tail Hawk / 6209 yards).   I get why the hole is designed like it is as there simply was no more land, but it's tough.  Out of 6 guys, only 1 hit the green and stayed on.  I was inches away from being number 2, but hit the boards on the near side of the green and ended up in the marsh.  But again, every player was thrilled to play the course.  No complaints from anyone.

We stayed at True Blue condo's as it offered 3 bedroom villas.  It was nice.  Everyone had a bed... Nothing spectacular, nothing bad.