Caledonia vs True Blue: The Pawleys Island Decision
Mike Strantz designed both courses. They sit within minutes of each other on the Hammock Coast south of Myrtle Beach. Both rank among the best public courses in the Southeastern United States. And yet they are so different in character that playing one gives almost no indication of what the other offers. Caledonia Golf and Fish Club and True Blue Golf Club are the two courses every serious golfer plays when visiting Myrtle Beach. The question is which one you play first, and which one stays with you longer.
Caledonia
Strantz designed Caledonia in 1994 on the site of a former rice plantation. The course opens with a drive through a corridor of live oaks draped in Spanish moss, an arrival that sets the tone before you reach the first tee. At par 70 and 6,526 yards from the tips, with a slope of 138, Caledonia is not long. It does not need to be. The course asks for precision, shot shaping, and imagination rather than distance.
No homes line the fairways. The routing moves through marshland, live oaks, and former plantation grounds without interruption from residential development. Complimentary fish chowder at the turn is a small detail that reinforces the course's unhurried, Southern atmosphere.
Caledonia is ranked among Golfweek's Top 100 Resort Courses. Green fees run $200 to $249, placing it at the top of the Myrtle Beach market below TPC Myrtle Beach.
The experience is intimate. Caledonia feels smaller than it is, with each hole framed by vegetation that creates a private quality unusual for a public course.
The greens are subtle, the bunkering is strategic, and the challenge is intellectual rather than physical.
True Blue
Strantz designed True Blue in 1998, four years after Caledonia, on an adjacent former indigo plantation. The temperament is different. Where Caledonia whispers, True Blue shouts. The course plays 7,060 yards at par 72 with a slope of 139, and the visual drama is immediate: enormous waste bunkers, dramatic elevation changes manufactured from flat terrain, and greens that demand a specific angle of approach.
True Blue is the bolder design. Several holes feature blind or semi-blind tee shots that require either a yardage book or a willingness to trust the architecture. The par-3s are particularly strong, with forced carries over waste areas that can intimidate the first-time player. The course rewards the golfer who plays it a second time, when the routing's logic becomes clearer and the strategy reveals itself.
Green fees run $150 to $196, making True Blue $50 to $53 cheaper per round than Caledonia.
For the quality delivered, this ranks among the best values on the Grand Strand.
The Strantz Difference
Mike Strantz died of cancer in 2005 at age 50, leaving a small portfolio of courses that are among the most distinctive in American golf. Tobacco Road in the Sandhills is his most controversial design. Caledonia and True Blue are his most accessible.
What unites them is visual drama married to strategic substance. Strantz did not build courses that looked hard but played easy, nor courses that looked easy but played hard. His courses look dramatic and play dramatically. The hazards are visible, the landing areas are generous when you find the right angle, and the consequences of missing are immediate. There is no subtlety in the bunkering. There is genuine subtlety in the green contours.
Playing both courses in sequence provides an education in a single architect's range. Caledonia shows what Strantz could do with restraint: a short, precise design that works with the existing landscape. True Blue shows what he could do with ambition: a long, visual course manufactured from flat terrain.
Which to Play First
If playing both on the same day or on consecutive days, play True Blue in the morning and Caledonia in the afternoon. True Blue's length and dramatic features benefit from morning energy and focus. Caledonia's refined, shorter layout is better suited to the afternoon, when the live-oak shadows lengthen and the plantation atmosphere deepens. Arriving at Caledonia after True Blue also provides a contrast that makes both courses more memorable.
If playing only one, play Caledonia. It is the more complete experience. The arrival through the live oaks, the no-homes routing, the fish chowder, and the strategic precision of the course create a round that stays with you. True Blue is the more exciting course hole by hole, but Caledonia is the more satisfying round.
Practical Details
Both courses are on the Hammock Coast near Pawleys Island, roughly 25 miles south of Myrtle Beach's central hotel strip. Litchfield Beach and Golf Resort ($150 to $280 per night) and Pawleys Plantation Golf and CC ($130 to $250) provide nearby accommodation. The Hammock Coast section of the Grand Strand is quieter and more residential than central Myrtle Beach, which suits the atmosphere of both courses.
Both are bookable via GolfNow and direct through their respective websites. Stay-and-play packages are available through area accommodations.
The Decision
Play both. They are 10 minutes apart, they are designed by the same architect, and together they form the strongest two-course pairing on the Grand Strand. A day that includes 36 holes of Strantz golf on the Hammock Coast, with fish chowder between rounds, is among the best days in American public golf.
The verdict