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Golf Link Travel: DEG: Myrtle Beach - Pine Lakes

Pine Lakes: A Bit of Old Country in the Low Country

In the heart of Myrtle Beach, just off Highway 17 at 56th St., is a golf club that will transport you back in time and space to the wonderful Old Country of Scotland. Pine Lakes International Country Club offers a golfing experience unlike any other on the Strand.

Tartan-clad starters and Rolls Royce
carts serve golfers at Pine Lakes

You drive up to the splendid clubhouse, and smiling attendants clad in white gloves, knickers and red jackets take your bag. Before your round, the starter, clad in a tartan kilt, gives you a quick history of the club and describes the dominant features of the course. Later, as you line up your putt or prepare to tee off on the course’s many fine holes, you may well hear bagpipe music wafting through the trees.

Rest assured that the staff won’t send you off down the 1st fairway and leave you until your round is over. On some days, you may well be walking to the 3rd tee when you are interrupted by another tartan-clad assistant sitting under the elm tree behind a table covered in white linen. "Would you like a mimosa (orange juice and champagne)?" he asks, handing you a glass. "Or orange juice?" During cold weather, hot chocolate may be the order of the day or a cup of club-made chowder.

Here, on this splendid classically designed course, it is fitting to walk. But if you prefer a cart, for a slight additional fee you can rent one of the club’s small fleet of electric carts that look just like miniature Rolls Royces. This is one of the few concessions to things non-Scottish at this club which was founded by St. Andrews, Scotland native Robert White, the first PGA of America president and the course architect.

Nicknamed "The Granddaddy, " Pine Lakes is the oldest course on the Strand. Opened in 1927 as the Ocean Forest Club, it was a favorite stomping ground of the likes of the Vanderbilts and the Rockefellers. Sam Snead and Gene Sarazen are among a host of golfing greats who came through here to play a round of golf and hobnob with the elite of the Strand. Like White, Sarazen is commemorated with a bronze plaque (at the 10th hole). "The Squire" shot a 78 here on his 78th birthday.

The club’s reverence for Scottish tradition and for old-style southern hospitality continued uninterrupted after it was bought in 1944 by Frederick Albert Warner Miles, whose family owned and operated some of the East Coast’s finest hotels, including the Jefferson in Richmond, the Hotel Roanoke, and The Belvedere in Baltimore. Maintained today, this tradition sets the club apart from the more modern courses.

Pine Lakes' 7th is reminiscent of Augusta's #12

Also distinguishing the club from the other Strand golfing experiences is the course itself. Pine Lakes is a throw-back to the best of the traditional layouts. White, who consulted with Donald Ross on the design, created a straight-forward 18 through the pines, oaks and elms. There are even hints here of Alistair MacKenzie, particularly on the 170-yard 7th which plays through the woods downhill over a lake to a green surrounded by three large bunkers. In April, the blooming azaleas and dogwood behind the green give the hole a look similar to Augusta’s 12th.

By today’s standards, Pine Lakes is not a long track, only 6609 yards from the tips (5376 yards from the forward tees). Yet, few have gone real low here. In spite of its overall short length, distance is required to reach several of the par 5’s in two. Five par 4’s (2, 3, 6, 12, and 17) measure well over 400 yards from the back and two of the par 3’s are over 200 yards.

The course begins with a benign, relatively short par 5 and then clenches its fist with the fairly long par 4 straight-away 2nd to an elevated green. The 3rd is similarly long, featuring a fairway that dips down to a hollow and then climbs sharply to another elevated green. No. 4 is a terrific slight dogleg right that again dips down over a creek to a rising fairway. On the flat at the top of the rise you have a short iron in to a green that slopes noticeably back to front, a typical feature of this and most classic designs.

A lake left and bunkers center and right create a tiny landing area on the relatively short par-4 10th, which opens the back 9 that is virtually without flaw. This 9 has more water on it than the front 9 and puts even more pressure on the tee shot. The great 11th plays up hill to a completely bunkered green. Into the wind and from the back, this is one of the hardest par 3’s you will ever play. It is also a dandy.

The beautiful, tree-lined 12th doglegs right through the pines and features a tight fairway with thick rough on the margins. The straight 13th is another gem, playing through the woods to a green behind a lake on the left. The 9 finishes with three excellent jewel--the dogleg left 16th, a sub-400 yarder; the sharp dogleg left 17th, perhaps the tightest driving hole on the course. The bend of the dogleg is guarded closely by a lake on the left. Trees jut out on the right, making it difficult to reach the green even with a tee shot that lands on the far right side of the fairway. The finishing hole is only 370 yards but the tee shot must avoid a pond right and high rough on the left. To set up a short approach to this elevated green requires a precise high wood or iron off the tee.

The lack of "modern" features may put off some golfers, but for those who like their courses straight-forward and non-gimmicky, you can’t beat Pine Lakes. You will also welcome the friendly service and other pleasant amenities such as the grille, which stands slightly apart from the club’s columned, antebellum clubhouse and offers the Strand’s finest hamburger. The ground beef is of the highest quality and is ground right on the property.

Pine Lakes is also known for its role in the formation of Sports Illustrated. In the early '50s, a group of 67 executives from Time-Life, Inc., including Henry Booth Luce, came to Myrtle beach by train to play Pine Lakes and to plan a sports weekly. Luce's famed SI appeared on newsstands shortly thereafter.

For tee times, call 800-449-6459.

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Alan B. Nichols is a professional golf-travel writer residing in Bethesda, MD.
He is the featured golf-travel writer for GolfLink. Alan appreciates your
comments on his features and the courses he has written about.
E-MAIL ALAN NICHOLS

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