Pine Lakes Country Club

Pine Lakes Country Club is the oldest golf course on the Grand Strand. Robert White, the first president of the PGA of America, designed the original layout in 1927, a time when Myrtle Beach was a small coastal town rather than America's most concentrated golf destination. The course has been modified over the decades, but its identity as "The Granddaddy" is secure and historically accurate. Every course that followed on this stretch of Carolina coast owes something to Pine Lakes for establishing that golf could work here.

The design reflects its era. At par 70 and 6,675 yards from the back tees, Pine Lakes does not attempt to challenge modern distance. It asks instead for accuracy and touch, qualities that White's generation of designers valued above power. Fairways route through mature pines and hardwoods on terrain that is flatter than ideal for dramatic golf but suitable for the strategic, ground-oriented game that early American course design favored.

The clubhouse contributes meaningfully to the experience. The plantation-style building dates to the course's origins and serves as a reminder that Pine Lakes operates in a different register than the modern resort facilities that surround it. Clam chowder served at the turn became a Pine Lakes tradition decades ago and persists today, a small detail that signals the club's commitment to its own history rather than to contemporary golf-resort conventions.

Green complexes are modestly sized and feature the gentle contours typical of 1920s design. They do not present the dramatic undulation of modern greens, but they reward precise iron play and punish careless approaches through subtle breaks that reveal themselves primarily on the putting surface. Bunkers are traditional in shape and placement, defending obvious angles without the visual aggression of later design movements.

The course plays shorter and more forgiving than most Grand Strand options, which makes it genuinely accessible to higher-handicap golfers and seniors who find modern 7,000-yard layouts exhausting. This is not a weakness but a characteristic: Pine Lakes serves a different purpose than the area's longer, harder courses, and it serves that purpose well.

At $60 to $120, the green fee reflects both the course's historical significance and its honest assessment of what the playing experience delivers. Pine Lakes is not competing with Caledonia or Dunes Club on conditioning or design sophistication. It offers something those courses cannot: nearly a century of continuous operation on the same ground, a direct connection to the origins of Grand Strand golf, and a pace of play that tends toward leisurely rather than hurried.

The location in central Myrtle Beach, just off Highway 17 Business, makes Pine Lakes one of the most convenient courses in the area. For golfers with an interest in the history of the game, a round here provides context for everything else on the Grand Strand. For everyone else, it provides a pleasant, unhurried round on a classic layout at a fair price.