Which course to play enroute to Myrtle Beach...

There is supposed to be a very interesting course near Mt Airy NC... the hometown of Andy Griffith.

I hear it is hilly and not easy, but incredibly interesting. 

Sorry.. don't know the name but probably easy to find out. Only a few courses nearby

Stay at The Mayberry Motor Inn and go across the street to Aunt Bee's BBQ for dinner 

5 hours to MB

The 2 Stranz courses near Pinehurst seems to be popular options, but
I have not played them.   
 
If your goal is to break up the drive, wouldn't you want to stop further north?  
Isn't Florence about 1.5 hours left to MB?    

If Tot Hill is your main goal, then fine.   

Take a little detour and play Tobacco Road.

We stopped and played a course called Clio several years ago, it was off of Hwy. 9 not much of a course but good enough to shake off some of the winters rust, best thing it was only 20 bucks with cart and not crowded, pop was under 4 hours.

Have driven from K-W to Asheboro and played Tot Hill the next morning. Do it...fun course to play...very scenic and challenging. Some hate it, others love it, but at least try it once. Then, only a bit over 3 hrs to MB.

Hey all, thanks for the replies.

JW11 - Mayberry sounds like an interesting walk down memory lane. Not quite what I want to do with a bunch of golf buddies, but depending on who you are traveling with, it could work.

Art - My original plan was Asheboro & Tot Hill Farm, but I thought I would ask for recommendations and maybe find a better option. We have also considered Tobacco Rd in the past but scheduling conflicts put the nix on it. I thought I would extend down to Florence/Marion area in case there were a hidden gem in the area.

rspeck77 - see above

LeftyGar1 - I've googled Clio golf and found something in Michigan, not on the way (lol kidding) More info, but in all honesty, doesn't sound like what we are looking for. Tot Hill or Tobacco or something else memorable, but thanks for the input.

HookerPusher - That sounds exactly like what I was expecting. We had it booked for last spring and got within 10 days before it blew up. Thankfully the "Hotwire" booking for accommodations was fully refunded as was our booking with Brian Noblin. Above and beyond!

Well hopefully our Nov trip becomes a reality and we get to play Tot Hill Farm on the way down.

Wishing you all the best and thanks again.

BT

In early November, you probably shouldn't stop any further north than Richmond, VA although there won't be any snow on the ground in the DC area. Of course, the temps could easily be in the upper 40s or low 60s around DC so Richmond, a little further south, might be a slightly better alternative.

A course that has been a subject of discussion in the recent Mike Strantz thread, https://myrtlebeachgolftalk.com/community/mb-course-talk/mike-strantz-apprenticeship-in-myrtle-beach/#post-14196 , Royal New Kent is just fifteen minutes east of the I-295 bypass you're likely to take around Richmond anyway, so not much of a detour. If you're looking to stop for the night, Richmond is a decent city with some good restaurants and nightlife. You're about five or so hours out from Myrtle at that point.

At that time of year, though, the sun is setting around 5 p.m. so you'd need to reach the Richmond area by noon to be sure you could get your round in or play the first thing the following morning to get to MB by roughly dark.

You can also get to Myrtle Beach by going down I-40 to Wilmington instead of coming east from Florence, and there are some good courses there, but at that point, you're almost to MB anyway. I like the Wilmington Municipal course, which is a renovated Donald Ross design with some fun holes. In the last few years, it's been kept in reasonable shape for a muni. Costs are about what you'd expect a non-resident to play for a muni.

I've never played Bald Head Island south of Wilmington, but that requires a ferry ride, which as short as it is, might be too much of a detour so late in the trip. I have played Cape Fear National, also south of Wilmington, and if the conditions are good, you'll enjoy your round there, but again, you're really getting close to Myrtle Beach at that point. It's definitely a step up from the Wilmington muni, but you can expect to pay double the greens fee.

@lwildernorva Wow, now there's a lot to consider. Thanks for the input. Our routing from Toronto ON, tends to be through Niagara Falls, 90 west to 79 south, bypass Charleston WV on US19 to Beckly WV and 77 south to 74 south through Winston-Salem and down through Rockingham NC, Bennetsville SC around Marion and along 501 to Myrtle Beach. Many years ago (30+) we had a group of 8 and we thought we were going to Myrtle Beach for late February golf, (the days way back before the internet, using a 286 with 5 inch floppy disc copy of INTERSTATE HI-WAYS for trip planning and printing on a dot matrix). From a newspaper ad I booked 6 rounds of golf and hotel accommodation for 7 nights. As I recall it was less than $300.00 US but you paid at the course for the golf carts. And it was in Wrightsville Beach (Wilmington) not Myrtle Beach, but we had a blast anyway.

Should we ever decide to wander down the 95 way, I'll be sure to look into your suggested courses. One year we left Myrtle Beach and played Carolina National on the way home. That was the last time we golfed on the way home. Golf, followed by more than a 5 hour drive just doesn't work anymore, that's a young mans option. Me, I was tired yesterday, and I'm tired again today, so I guess I'm just "RETIRED"

Thanks for the information.

BT

@dobbs2u

Many years ago, when I was also a young man, a young man's fancy took me to Buffalo where my college girlfriend had moved after graduation. In those pre-GPS, pre-cellphone, pre-Internet, pre-personal computer days, I drove from my home in Norfolk, up 95 through DC, then branched off to Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, and headed north through mid-PA and mid-NY to Buffalo. During one of those trips, I came across the border and visited your wonderful city.

I'm sure modern GPS guidance has you on a much better route than I followed, especially since traffic around the DC area has only worsened tremendously since those days--at that time, so long as I avoided rush hour, there was no problem getting around DC. That's no longer true, and it would be a reason by itself to avoid the route I thought you might take--given my long ago trip up your way!

Mt Airy is a decent place but i would drive a little further to Pinehurst. Understand if you cant but that is my recommendation. 

Posted by: @lwildernorva

In early November, you probably shouldn't stop any further north than Richmond, VA although there won't be any snow on the ground in the DC area. Of course, the temps could easily be in the upper 40s or low 60s around DC so Richmond, a little further south, might be a slightly better alternative.

A course that has been a subject of discussion in the recent Mike Strantz thread, https://myrtlebeachgolftalk.com/community/mb-course-talk/mike-strantz-apprenticeship-in-myrtle-beach/#post-14196 , Royal New Kent is just fifteen minutes east of the I-295 bypass you're likely to take around Richmond anyway, so not much of a detour. If you're looking to stop for the night, Richmond is a decent city with some good restaurants and nightlife. You're about five or so hours out from Myrtle at that point.

At that time of year, though, the sun is setting around 5 p.m. so you'd need to reach the Richmond area by noon to be sure you could get your round in or play the first thing the following morning to get to MB by roughly dark.

You can also get to Myrtle Beach by going down I-40 to Wilmington instead of coming east from Florence, and there are some good courses there, but at that point, you're almost to MB anyway. I like the Wilmington Municipal course, which is a renovated Donald Ross design with some fun holes. In the last few years, it's been kept in reasonable shape for a muni. Costs are about what you'd expect a non-resident to play for a muni.

I've never played Bald Head Island south of Wilmington, but that requires a ferry ride, which as short as it is, might be too much of a detour so late in the trip. I have played Cape Fear National, also south of Wilmington, and if the conditions are good, you'll enjoy your round there, but again, you're really getting close to Myrtle Beach at that point. It's definitely a step up from the Wilmington muni, but you can expect to pay double the greens fee.

FWIW, from someone who has driven to MB via 95 south 10 to 12 times a year since 2001, I recommend two ways to the strand. Shorter, and usually the quickest way, is 95 to 74 at Lumberton, to 410 through Chadbourn, to 701, to 9 to 31 which has about seven exits from NMB to Murrells Inlet. 

Sometimes, when 95 is a royal pain to be driving on, I'll opt for the Wilmington route. However, instead of driving all the way to 40 to exit 95, I think the better way is to take 795 at exit 119 just past Wilson. 795 becomes 117 around Goldsboro and there are half a dozen or so lights when you go around that burg. That usually isn't much of a hinderance. I've made it through with all green before, but the opposite has also been true, LOL. Anyway, the 795 route is more of a straight line way to Wilmington and hooks up with 40 near Faison. Every time I've opted off of 95 this route has been a more relaxing drive that knocks off 106 miles of driving on 95.

@2manyputters

From my home in Norfolk, I have an even more preferred way: I go down US 13 past Ahoskie, hook up with NC 11 to Greenville, then go down past Kinston, turn left on 113 at Pink Hill, and catch I-40 at Wallace. Wilmington used to be a pain if you hit it at rush hour, but with the completion of I-140 a couple of years ago, I find this route remarkably free of traffic, except around Greenville (I-140 still doesn't have a lot of traffic on it, but I'm sure the residential and commercial development is coming that will make that a pain again in another 5-10 years). This route is only 15 minutes slower than going down I-95 and getting off anywhere along the multiple options to get to the coast south of Wilmington. There's work on a bypass around Greenville that might even make the trip the equal of going down I-95, and from my home, it's a good 75 miles shorter.

I've done the 795 route near Wilson, and there's a funny story about that. I was with a group of three others and we hit Goldsboro about lunchtime. Although it was spring, and the sun was going to be up for another 7 hours or so, the guys wanted to find someplace to play in Goldsboro rather than driving all the way to Myrtle Beach and playing there.

I left the decision to one of the others--big mistake. He called some place that we drove to somewhere nearby.

I don't recall the actual name of the course, but it's lived on in this little group's lore as the Fire Ant Golf & Country Club, first, because there was a sign up in the clubhouse advising you of a local rule regarding fire ant mounds and second, because there indeed were fire ants crawling all over the course. The course itself probably wasn't bad at one point--the design was decent and it was built on the kinds of sandhills that make central NC famous--but it had clearly gone to seed, and there was a one-man band of an owner/operator who had probably picked it up for a song and who we saw on several occasions during the round on a tractor doing maintenance work.

Heavens knows it wasn't expensive, no more than $20, and the bones were there for a good course, and the owner/operator seemed to be making some progress. The greens were a joke though, sandy and bumpy with patches of grass all over. In the pro shop, a friend of mine bought a serviceable pull cart for about $15, and I found a Wilson 8802 putter in good shape for $10. As soon as we finished the round and got in the car, though, we both laughed at the guy who set up the round and at the course that as I say, I can recall only as the Fire Ant Golf & Country Club. I've tried to find it on subsequent trips around Goldsboro but never have. Even the guy who booked the round has no idea where the damn thing is.

Sometimes a golf course doesn't have to be really good to be memorable--it was the topic that night at dinner at Greg Norman's and every so often, it still comes up when we get together for a drink!

For anyone driving 40 to 140 and wanting a course in that area, 
Compass Point is right off 140 about 5 miles from 17.  My report in below. 
 
10/14/2016 -- COMPASS POINTE:
Compass Pointe is a new upscale community, located in Leland NC, a few
miles West of it's sister course, Magnola Greens. The course opened in 2016.
It's basicly the same drive time from MB as Mag Greens and Cape Fear.
Some features: www.compasspointegolfclub.com/info/
- Plays 7,228 yards from the championship tees, with rating of 74.6 to 4,733
   yards from the forward tees.
- Designed by North Carolina native Rick Robbins. He also designed Crow Creek.
- Has a short par 3 19th hole, that can be used to settle wagers or just for fun.
- Contours/drainage to make play possible all year long with no wait after rain.
- Wide fairways that that are meant to play “firm and fast”.
- Large undulating Champion hybrid bermuda greens.
- Rick Ferrell is Director of Golf for both courses. He previously managed River’s Edge.

Conditions were excellent. Hybrid greens were medium speed. Fairways, tees,
rough were green everywhere.  
Wide fairways and big greens were open in front. The front 9 is through housing,
either up or going up.  The back 9 starts with some housing then goes into the
woods with the best holes towards the end of the back 9.

@artmbgolf

Good to know. I've seen signs for it but knew nothing more. I've never played Magnolia Greens either, but the friend who introduced me to Cape Fear National has played there and likes it although he doesn't consider it on the same level as Cape Fear. I may need to do a short trip just focused on Wilmington with the muni, CFN, Compass Point, and Magnolia on the agenda.