rkimbrell

True Blue was my 12th and final course to play during my 2018 Myrtle Beach World Amateur trip.
We definitely saved the best for last. This course was in excellent condition. The best we played on all week. Greens were perfect as was the rest of the course. Personally, I like this course better than Caledonia which is just around the corner. If you have never played True Blue, on your next trip to the Myrtle Beach area...play here. .

My 11th round in my 2018 Myrtle Beach World Amateur trip.
Well, paid full rate to play Lions Paw. Feel I got ripped off. Tee boxes and fairways terribly burnt out. Don't know if they can't water or what. But, then the rough was about 4 inches deep. Found lots of balls other had lost in this deep crap. The greens were about the only good thing about this course. At least they were in good shape.
Not sure what is going on at Ocean Ridge Plantation but was always fond of their courses. Their maintenance and upkeep of their golf courses has fallen well off now. Nope, would not recommend playing any of their courses till they improve.

My 10 round of my 2018 trip to the Myrtle Beach World Amateur.
Long drive from hotel up to Ocean Ridge Leopards Chase. Get there and am told the greens have been punched. Now, where I am from, that means the greens have been punched and then top dressed with sand. Never, ever assume anything. We paid full rate to play on greens that had been punched but not top dressed. Talk about terribly bumpy. And, many of the greens were full of weeds.
Other than the greens, the rest of the course was in pretty good shape.
I really like Leopards Chase and was hoping it would finally be in good shape. Was disappointed once again.
I am not sure what is going on with the Ocean Ridge complex but they really need to get their act together. My review of Lions Paw follows this...even worse conditions.

My Day 4 (final) course for the 2018 Myrtle Beach World Amateur.
Great course. Seems to always be in good condition. Fun, challenging layout. Pretty near perfect shape. Greens nice and rolled true. Bunkers in good shape as was rest of course. Course has some very good holes. This is an inland course so no noted for its views. But a solid golf course.
Friendly staff.

My Day 3 course for 2018 Myrtle Beach World Am.
Seems like each year maintenance of this facility gets worse and worse.
Greens not in good condition. Around entire course, lots of weeds.
This course has lots of blind shots and combine that with bad conditioning...not a fun time.
Even the cart staging area is full of holes with standing water.

My Day 2 course for the Myrtle Beach World Amateur. When I first played this course, it was a 27 hole complex and what I considered to be a Mickey Mouse layout. They have since become only an 18 hole layout and I guess they took the best of the 18 of the 27 holes and kept them. Much better now. Conditions were very good. Greens were near perfect and rolled true. No complaints about conditions of course.
Staff was friendly and helpful.

My Day 1 course for the 2018 Myrtle Beach World Am.
The course was in ok shape. They have bentgrass greens and they were very very slow. The rough on this course is very thick but not extremely deep. Fairways in good shape. Bunkers...just ok.
Speed the greens up and it may have been enjoyable.

The last time I played this course, it was Quail Creek. Been a long long time. This was my 5th pre-World Am course to play.
The course had some issues with their greens from the hard winter. But, Hackler has patched in grass on the greens. You could see the seams where the patches were put in but you could not tell it when putting. The greens were smooth and putted true. The overall conditions of this course were very good. No complaints. Nice layout with some interesting holes.

The reviews which talked about the condition of the greens earlier in 2018 would make one wonder if it would be worth playing. But, reading trip reviews on other sites said Byrd was in the best shape of the Sea Trail courses.
This was my 4th pre-World Am course to play. Conditions were good. Absolutely no complaints. Staff was friendly and helpful.
The course has come back well from the really bad winter.

This was my 3rd course to play pre-World Am. The general area had a hard winter and loss of grass hit a lot of golf courses. Oyster bay had one hole where they had sodded over half of the hole (#2) fairway. But, the sod looked dead (completely brown). In order to get sod to take hold and grow...it must be watered. This hole looked like it had not been watered in a long long time. On that hole the sod was nicely fitted into the fairway just dead. On another hole, they had laid a lot of sod...but it was not fitted in so there was a huge ridge where the grass was laid on top.
The greens were in pretty good condition but a tad slow...normal for MB area in summer. Most of the holes were in ok shape.
Nice layout, friendly staff. Fun course to play.
Breakfast buffet and lunch was good.

Played my second pre-World Am round at Pawley's. Overall course conditions were good. No complaints. Nice views on lots of holes. Staff was helpful and friendly. Played in afternoon so pace of play was never an issue.

Played a pre-World Am round at Heritage. Course was in very good condition. Greens were nice, albeit a bit slow. Fairways, bunkers, tee boxes all in good shape. Staff at bag drop and, in pro shop and restaurant all friendly and helpful.
Had breakfast buffet and lunch there. Food was good.

Playing a round at Cypress Lakes in one of my tournament leagues. There was frost on the greens when we arrived but the forecast was sunny so knew it would not be an issue. Teed off close to on time and round was about 4 hours 5 minutes. Wasn't bad since I had my cart cover and cart heater. Overall the course is in really good shape except for the bunkers. They had standing water in lots of holes and others were washed down from the edges and sand was wet/packed.
The greens this time of year are always super fast so putting was definitely a challenge. Heard lots of comments from the group about their struggles putting.
Staff is always friendly.
I enjoyed the day at Cypress Lakes.

One of the tournament leagues I play in played West Fork this week. Arrived at the course and it was only 27 degrees with frost everywhere. Knew we would be delayed but also knew the forecast for the day was good. Many of us have cart covers and propane heaters so all was good.
West Fork had some massive flooding from Hurricane Harvey and the release of water from nearby Lake Conroe. The course has done a spectacular job of bringing it back into nice condition. I believe they only have 4 holes left in their bunker rebuilding process and the ones that are done look great and play just as they should. Nice job West Fork.
The greens putted very true. They have a few greens that have some spots on them but those are along the perimeter of the green and there is plenty of good playing surface for varying pin positions.
The fairways were in pretty good shape considering it is winter time. We did play lift clean and place so it would be hard to complain but honestly most times I never moved the ball and had no issues.
This is one of my favorite golf courses in the Greater Houston Area. For this part of the world, it has some nice elevation changes. The first time you encounter housing on the course is behind the green on hole 15 and then housing on the remaining holes. But, housing does not butt right up close to the fairway so you have to stray quite a bit for it to be an issue. Most of the course is set in the woods and it is very peaceful.
The staff here is friendly and helpful.
Nice practice area. Wide range, large practice putting green.
I would definitely recommend if you are in the area, give West Fork a shot.

The last 4 of us who were left from our group who attended the Myrtle Beach World Amateur played Founders Club at Pawley's on our way out of town.
We had been scheduled to play Heritage but they had a delay and we could not make our flight if we waited that long to play. We called Founders Club up and they told us to come over and we could go right out.
The course was very wet but playable. Lots of rain just a couple hours previously. Founders does not have a lot of cart paths. You drive most of the holes either in the waste bunkers or on the fairway. They told us to just take it easy and we could ride on the fairways.
Greens were in excellent shape and the course overall was in good shape. Founders is not finely manicured, lots of weeds and such along the waste bunkers but the course has some slight elevation changes, is fun to play and is a good value.
These folks are super friendly and super nice.

Played Parkland as replay after having played Heathland for the morning round.
No sooner than we paid our fee and headed to tee box it started raining (again). Course was already super wet. To make matters worse, we saw a group of 6 golfers in the fairway on our first hole (#10). They were horribly slow.
Fortunately when we got to the tee box on #11, they asked if we wanted to play ahead of them. Absolutely so off we went.
Parkland is a lot of fun to play. The complex is redoing all of the bunker complexes I guess. We saw bunkers that were taken down to the bare ground and in various stages of rebuilding. Many areas have been resodded with grass. The crack in the new sod were deep so we took drops from them. Did not want to screw up their new sod anyway.
The new bunkers look nice and when they are done, the course will look really great.
Did not mention in my review of Heathland but the food at Legends is excellent.
Service in pro shop and the the restaurant is excellent. Very friend, very personable. staff.

Have played all the Legends courses over my years of coming to the Myrtle Beach World Amateur.
For the most part, it has been a great experience.
We got a super deal on playing Heathland which included breakfast buffet, round of golf with cart, 2 drinks, and lunch off the menu. Super Super deal.
Cart Path Only - lot of wet fairways but course was in excellent shape. Moderate challenge and fun to play. Pretty much everything is out in front of you if you hit the ball in the right places. Their booklet they give you helps guide you around the course which is great.
The staff at Legends is friendly and helpful.

Drew Indian Wells again as my last day (4) of the Myrtle Beach World Amateur.
The course was wet...very wet. Considering how wet it was, the conditioning was pretty good. Indian Wells is not a high end daily fee course so it is not meticulously manicured but still looked good. Greens were in good shape, did not see any really bad spots in the fairways, some tee boxes were not in best of shape probably due to lack of circulation of air by having so many trees surrounding the tee box.
The staff there is very friendly and helpful.

Played this course again this year (2017) in the Myrtle Beach World Am. I gave it a rough review last year because of conditioning. I was not anticipating much this year because the weather and course was just as wet as it was last year.
Well, I was surprised. The greens were the best we played on all week. The bunkers, although wet, had been manicured and were in very good shape (something I could not say last year). The staff is very friendly and helpful.
Good job Meadowlands!!!!

With a storm moving up the coast, we had sprinkles off and on but pretty high winds most of the day. Considering how wet the course was the wind just added to the difficulty trying to choose the right club.
This was my Day 2 course of the Myrtle Beach World Amateur. I have played it several times before.
Lots of water comes into play. Greens were decent, not great but certainly not like the first day Barefoot Love course where they sucked.
Had it not been so wet, the course would have been a lot more enjoyable. Lots of mud balls and plugged balls in fairway.
On holes 15 and 16, I counted a 15 alligators of all sizes laying on the banks by the water on the edge of the fairway.