ARTMBGOLF's Spring 2025 Trip

        MYRTLE BEACH -- TRIP REPORT  4/24-5/9, 2025

TRAVEL: My drive from Delaware is around 9.5-10 hours, with lunch and rest stops.
I use I-95 to Lumberton 74 - 410 - 701 - 9 - 31 or I-95 - 40 - 140 - 17.
The VA Express Lanes are extended further south about 10-15 miles.
There is a lot of road construction in NC south of Rt 40. On the way home there is a
finished stretch with 4 lanes. It looked like everyone was doing 80 MPH there.

GOLF:

COMMENT: I started with my single phase, where most are with rainchecks.

Thursday 4/24 -- ARROWHEAD:
Range balls are provided for irons.
Good overseed and green wall to wall. Greens not overseeded, not as fast as usual.
I played Cypress/Waterway. I feel Waterway is the best 9 based on holes 2-5 + 9.
I ran into Dennis/Supergilbys at the bag drop, but we were not paired together.
AH isn't long from the white tees, but it is fairly tight, not always a driver from the tee.

Friday 4/25 -- WILD WING:
Fairways + Tees goos. Overseeded greens ridiculously slow, about a 5 stimp.
Greens were full coverage and mowed, just crazy slow. There were some rumors about
getting new greens.

Saturday 4/26 -- KINGS NORTH:
Good conditions, new greens on front renovated 9 were firmer + faster than back.
There is good room off the tee, you can see most hazards. There is no housing, a lot
of fun unique signature holes and you can score if you play well.
Each 9 starts off with 2 basic holes, but the rest of each 9 is good. KN is one
of my favorites to play and I play it on most trips.
On The Gambler par 5, the long way around isn't a whole lot more forgiving.
If it's CPO, skip the island, unless you are going to walk the hole carrying your clubs.
When laying up out to the right of the green, try to get down close to the bunkers,
so you can avoid hitting over the water on your approach shot.

Sunday 4/27 -- TIDEWATER:
Range balls were provided. Premium touch screen GPS is on the cart.
The tees, fairways and bunkers were all in good condition. The greens were
not overseeded and greener than past springs. Putting was 2nd fasted of trip.
The scorecard has a White/Green course at 6031 yards, with the 9 hardest rated
holes being green tees. White is 6323, Green is 5734. The par 3 Hole #9 is a
lot like Augusta #16, but with a marsh instead of a pond.
The par 4 dogleg left hole #18 is very difficult, where even a good drive will leave
about a 160-200 yard 2nd shot, possibly with a pine tree in the way. Try to drive it
as close to the far marsh as possible, rather than just past the deceiving corner.
New bunkers are good, with a few removed or made smaller.
* I got an ACE on the par 3 #17, 160 yard 5 iron, front left pin, hit just on and rolled in.
My first ace in MB and 5th overall.

Monday 4/28 -- CROW CREEK:
Good conditions, bent greens good.
This is a quality warmup course. Best time of year for the bent greens is about Nov-June.

Tuesday 4/29 -- ST BYRD:
The renovation article gave me hope for a significant improvement. It was disappointing.
The only difference from the old Sea Trail Byrd were the new greens, updated clubhouse
and new cart paths. I am sorry to anyone who played there, due to me saying it was
renovated, implying new quality. I would have been upset if I had brought my group there.
The greens were good, smooth, firm, medium speed. I could not tell if the bunkers were
new or just filled with a lot of new white sand. They were not groomed around the edges
like the new KN or TW bunkers. The fairways, tees, rough were dry, rock hard, with barely
any grass, not watered in a long time. The renovation article said new state of the art
irrigation system but it wasn't being used on the fairways/tees. 
Could be it's only at the greens?   I did not notice any new looking sprinkler heads. 
Tee shots ran forever. Could hit irons to the dogleg corners. Wooded areas were full of
pine cones and debris as if not cleaned out in a long time. Some trees were removed, but
they left the roots sticking out of the ground.
Same nice steel tee markers, but with faded rusting paint. Houses being built on the range.
Did not rebuild the putting green, so it's poor like ST Jones, per starter.
The front 9 is kinda boring. The back 9 is much more interesting. Stay away until there are
better reports.   
Don't listen to the MB needs rain excuse at courses like this, since every other course I
played, had fairways watered but firm with some brown spots, plenty green and mowing
the grass, which was still mostly overseed, with bermuda just starting.        

Wednesday 4/30 -- BF DYE:
Good conditions. Greens still overseeded, smooth medium speed.
The par 5's are the easier holes. #18 is like TPC Sawgrass. Range balls provided.

Thursday 5/1 -- WORLD TOUR:
Range balls were provided. The mini-verde greens were smooth and fast.
The practice area is very good. Conditions elsewhere were good. The International 9 has
been closed, but still not redeveloped yet, with it's 9th hole open as a practice hole.
The 6200 Gold/Back tees are like White tees.
This is not a difficult course, so it can be a premium warm-up, with it's nice practice area.
The best replica hole is Augusta #12, but tees play longer than Augusta. It might be
best to play it from 150, whatever tee that is, to get a real feel for the real length.
TPC Sawgrass #17 is a reasonable replica, but the green is smaller than the real TPC #17.
Augusta #11-#13 is played in sequence. There is St Andrews #1 + #18 side by side,
with huge greens.
While you have probably heard of all the included courses, you probably don't know half
of the holes well enough to decide if they are good copies, having seen them on TV once/twice
and maybe not in years. It's fun to play if not too focused on how realistic the holes are.

Friday 5/2 -- TPC:
Range balls were included. Carts have GPS. Conditions were good everywhere.
The greens were smooth, firm and tour fast. Rough also overseeded, but not deep.
I played it 3 days before PGA Tour Monday qualifying to get into the MB Classic.
There are 3 forced carries from the tee, that will help confirm if you are playing the
proper tees. IMO the carry on #15 is a bad design, since playing safe to the right puts
you behind trees. TPC is challenging, but still fair, unless maybe you are a beginner.
Much of the challenge is the green complexes, where most of the greens require
accurate approach shots. It is a difficult course to scramble around the greens.
Hole #9 is a brutal long uphill par 4, designed like a par 5.
Houses are now left of the lake on #18 and almost down to the tee.
TPC Myrtle Beach has a good logo that says Myrtle Beach, if you want MB apparel,
so others don't have to ask where is that course.
White tee players should consider making up combo tees, playing the gold on 3,4,9,11,15.
If you are losing a club length with irons, then you are also losing distance on drives,
since it's sea level.

Saturday 5/3 -- RIVERS EDGE:
New owner has enhanced everything but the greens. Clubhouse: Great renovations.
Carts: Plush. Staff: Very nice. Tees, fairways, bunkers: Very good condition.
Range balls included.
Greens: Have many fairway bermuda spots, some 50% or more fairway bermuda
grass, which is like putting on the old 1980's tifdwarf greens, with grain.
The greens are a little faster than previous years, but no true like other courses.
The greens have plenty of grass, but it's not a quality putting surface, thus worse greens
of the trip and likely bottom 10 in MB. The putting green is the best green right now.
Rumor is new greens at RE in 2026. 5.5 hour round, which may be common at RE.

SPRING GROUP PHASE: I have been going to MB since 1978. We started this group
with all East coast guys PA/NJ/DE in 1998. One guy invited his brother from CA, who later
invited some CA friends. We grew to as many as 16. Lately we have had around 12 on the trip.
This trip we had 8, due to injuries: 7 from East Coast, 1 from CA.

Sunday 5/4 -- RIVERS EDGE:
See previous day. Another 5.5 hour round.

Monday 5/5 -- KINGS NORTH:
Same report as previous KN round.

Tuesday 5/6 -- THISTLE:
Range balls provided if on package. Played Cameron/Stewart.
Cameron is the renovated 9. The new greens are in good condition with medium speed
and are larger. The greens on the Stewart 9 were the same speed, I guess to be
consistent. The Stewart/MacKay combo is the most interesting 18 of the 27 holes and
these two 9's compete for the most challenging 9 at Thistle. There is little housing in play,
but more are being built. Conditions were very good everywhere.
The stacked astro turf sod bunker walls look nice, but they can be unplayable if close to
them. A new outside snack bar has been added for on the turn.
We had a 1:01 tee time on Cameron and oddly nobody was between us and the 12:30 PM
split tee start, so we had nobody to wait on. Also nobody in front when we turned, so we
had a 3:40 round and we could have played faster.

Wednesday 5/7 -- TPC:
Same as previous TPC round.
We played it 2 days after PGA Tour Monday qualifying to get into the MB Classic.

Thursday 5/8 -- TIDEWATER:
Same as previous TW round, but no ACE.

Friday 5/9 -- ARROWHEAD:
Same as previous AH round on first day. Greens smoother, but not faster.
Woke up to rain + thunder storm, looking like a rainout.
We went to course to be ready to play or get rainchecks. Play had not started yet when
we arrived. Play began with a 1 hour delay and it turned into a beautiful day, with no CPO.

Myrtle Beach Classic:
I did not go this year. Watched on TV, including final round playoff.

RESTAURANTS: (In no particular order)

Boundary House, Lil Pigs, Jersey Mikes, Dagwoods, Clarkes. All were good.

CRAVE: They have moved into the closed Bonefish Grill at Cane Patch range.
Italian and American food, plus Pizza and lots of alcohol.
They have made it about 1/3 bigger with a outside enclosed seating area.
They have occasional live music. It's filled with people every night.

J PETERS: This is a newer chain with 3 locations. I ate at the International Drive/Grissom
location this time. It has a menu like Carolina Roadhouse and they copied the salad.
Nothing fancy inside. Food good.

GIOS ITALIAN: The new location is in the old Applebees on 79th ave N.
Their original location in Pawleys has been open for a number of years.
The 79th ave location is nicer more upscale looking. You would never
know what it was before. The menus are the same.
They have a lot of wines also. The Servers are excellent. Most Entrees $20-38.
If you like meatballs, the meatball app is very good.

FLAMINGO GRILL: Is fairly big with an interesting look inside.
It suits all tastes with steak, prime rib, seafood, pasta. Try the lobster bites.

CHUCKS: I met 1PUTT1 for dinner. It had been about 25 years since I was last there.
It was good and they have a good salad bar. It's a busy place.

CONCLUSION:
Trip Reports are never too long and are a valuable part of MBGT.
Besides helping group leaders plan, they also help to keep MBGT alive.
As you benefit from MBGT forum advice, please show your appreciation
to the forum members (mostly Group Leaders), who are "working for Trip Reports",
by reciprocating with your own Trip Report.
Besides sharing info, the primary benefit of Trip Reports is to provide each other
with a continuous flow of course conditions. Writing a Trip Report also brings back
more trip memories than you would have thought. Try it!

The number of Trip Reports has been declining every year since 2009, to
half as many now. Help us stop that decline! Do your Share by Contributing.
Course conditions are the most important info to report on.

Thanks for participating in MBGT with Trip Reports and other MB info!

Art