Golfing Myrtle Beach

Last month I took full advantage of an opportunity to enjoy four days on a golf holiday in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. For golfers, The Grand Strand is one of those must-do destinations for the number and quality of golf courses (over 100, not including 50 miniature golf locales for miniature golfers), agreeable weather, close proximity to ocean beaches, and a wide assortment of family distracting, non-golf related attractions.

This was not my first foray into the northeast corner of the Palmetto State. Many moons ago in a land far away, Carol and I bundled the kids and six tons of provisions into and onto our Dodge Grand Caravan and drove the 11-hour trip to Golf Heaven.

Problem was my golf clubs wouldn’t fit.

Oh, they would have fit in the car just fine. They just wouldn’t “fit” family vacation time with three kids and a spousal unit, who rode shotgun on the Shortall herd for most of the other 358 days of the year.

Bringing the Frustration Sticks? Wouldn’t be prudent. Not gonna do it ... and I lived to golf another day.

But this time would be different. This time would be Mike time!

So me and one of my regular golf buddies departed at Zero Dark Thirty (roughly 0330 hours EDT) for Atlantic City International Airport and a 0630 flight on Spirit Airlines.

We did this in an attempt to shave a few farthings from the trip bill. To be honest, I’m not sure we saved all that much money; but I can say with certainty, we saved ourselves significant aggravation by departing and arriving through relatively small airports compared to Philadelphia International. Quicker lines through check-in and security screening; shorter walks to on-site parking; and no dependency on courtesy shuttles to get where one needed to go.

A drawback to the long commute to AC was exhaustion for those (me) who are not finely tuned, frequent travelers. The party we joined in Myrtle - our host for the weekend - wanted to play a round as soon as we got off the plane! Not a big fan of travel stress or of rushing right off the plane to do anything, so that first round of golf was tough. Then we added food shopping and adult beverage provisioning following the round, so I was dead by the time we reached our condo. The beach and party time would have to wait.

Party time?

Let’s put it this way. Take three guys well over 50; add golf, travel and a few beers, and it was a struggle to stay awake past 9 PM! So we concerned ourselves with the Thursday Night NFL game (Giants vs. Washington ... a blow out ... Thanks a bunch, Redskins!), enjoying the night time ocean breezes from the Sand Dunes’ dune-side bar courtyard, and one spectacular Italian dinner (Villa Romana ... Try the Shrimps San Marzano!).

Of course after our fine Italian meal, we had to play miniature golf! Not because we needed more golf, one of our party has an “adrenaline rush” dependency, insisting we play $1 skins with carry-overs. I’m not usually a betting man with the state of my golf game, but I’m proud to say I walked out of mini-golf $17 dollars to the plus side of the ledger!

As for the golf? Well, you can’t go wrong in Myrtle!

With over 100 courses, you can find tracks to accommodate all levels of golf competency (or lack thereof) and all price levels. Obviously, to attract the widest range of golf talent and therefore their golf dollars, there are quite a few courses in Myrtle Beach that can result in wild golf tantrums.

We tended to play more difficult courses, which was a struggle for those of us who struggle on our normal tracts. If you really want to enjoy yourself, be true to your capabilities and pick courses that are appropriate for your “skill set” ... or lack thereof. Then tee it up from age and/or talent-appropriate tees.

(For more, including reviews of the golf courses we played, visit Cranky Man’s Lawn’s home page.)