When I took our annual family vacation to Myrtle Beach in August, I teed it up with Mitch Laurance in his hometown at a new place for me on the Grand Strand: Myrtlewood Golf Club. I’d driven by it on 17 Bypass plenty of times, but I’d never stopped by to experience the facility for myself. That day, we played the PineHills course, which had been renovated in 2018 with some bunker and green work. However, we noticed that the property’s other course, the Palmetto, had no one on it. The starter told us they were wrapping up a similar renovation and that the course would be back in September.
Founders Group International, which owns Myrtlewood as part of a 22-course profile in the Myrtle Beach area, has announced the work is done and the Palmetto course has been re-opened. Schlegel Golf Design was hired for the work, with Dan Schlegel and his team installing new Sunday Ultradwarf Bermuda grass greens and restoring the putting surfaces to their original dimensions. The work grew the total putting surface area by 28 percent, closer to the original design by Ed Ault, who Schlegel once worked with previously in his career.
All of the bunkers were renovated and improved, challenging players with higher visibility for aggressive players, with sightlines shifted to give players a better view of each hole, including the 18th which finishes along the Intracoastal Waterway.
“I’m really excited about the way the course looks,” Schlegel said. “We were able to revise the fairway bunkers and the impact they will have on play, so golfers will have to think about how they want to play shots. We were able to restore the greens to their original shape, and everything will be in perfect condition. The Palmetto will be like a new course.”
