Myrtle Beach Golf Course Royalty Starts with These Three Award-Winning Designs

Myrtle Beach is widely known for its quantity of golf courses, but savvy players are also keenly aware of the quality of the area’s offerings. Myrtle Beach has had as many as 10 layouts ranked among America’s 100 greatest public courses, highlighting the depth of the Grand Strand’s roster.

While those lists naturally ebb and flow, The Dunes Golf & Beach Club, Caledonia Golf & Fish Club and True Blue Golf Club have long been at the top of nearly every ranking of the Myrtle Beach area’s best layouts. Highlighting the staying power of the trio, Golfweek recently ranked all three courses among the best public designs in all of golf-rich South Carolina with Caledonia leading the way at No. 3, followed by The Dunes Club at No. 4 and fifth-ranked True Blue.

Mike Strantz’s first solo design, Caledonia burst onto the scene in 1994, immediately attracting national acclaim. While the layout is an atypical Strantz design – the course’s footprint is small, playing through just 120 acres of land – it’s an unforgettable experience.

Caledonia is routed through centuries-old live oak trees draped in Spanish moss and along water and the area’s native wetlands, a canvas few courses can dream of equaling. Strantz’s design is equal parts art and architecture, and golfers have flocked to the consensus top 100 course since its opening.

The Dunes Club was a driving force behind Myrtle Beach’s emergence as the game’s most popular destination. The Robert Trent Jones Sr. classic opened in 1948 and almost immediately began attracting the attention of golfers and media from across the country.

The Dunes Club recently hosted the Myrtle Beach Classic, the area’s first PGA TOUR event, and drew rave reviews from players who gushed about the greens complexes and the nature of the challenge. The greens at The Dunes Club are among the area’s fastest and most undulating, adding to the fun on a layout that has long been ranked among America’s best.

True Blue, Caledonia’s sister course, is classic Strantz, featuring wide fairways, often framed by rugged waste bunkers and large, undulating greens, allowing for great creativity in the setup. With five par 5s and five par 3s, Strantz leaned into his reputation as a maverick, most notably on holes like No. 4, a button hook par 5 that plays around a lake every step of the way.

True Blue is a layout that allows golfers to use their imagination off the tee, on the approach, and around the greens, and that’s at the heart of its enduring popularity.

If you are looking to play Myrtle Beach royalty on your next trip, Caledonia, The Dunes Club and True Blue need to be on your list.