Myrtle Beach, SC: Long Weekend Golf Getaway (2–3 Days)
The Grand Strand is one of the few golf destinations in America where a short trip does not feel like a compromise. Ninety courses stretched across sixty miles of coastline, a commercial airport less than forty minutes from the best layouts, and green fees that leave room in the budget for serious volume. A two-day trip here can yield three or four quality rounds. Add a third morning and the count reaches five. The key is strategic lodging and a willingness to tee off early.
This itinerary is built around Pawleys Island, the southern anchor of the Grand Strand, where the highest-caliber courses cluster within a few miles of each other. Staying here eliminates the forty-minute drives that erode short trips at spread-out destinations.
Day 1: Arrive Early, Play Twice
Book a morning flight into Myrtle Beach International (MYR). Most direct routes from East Coast hubs land before 10:00 a.m., and from the terminal to the Pawleys Island corridor is roughly thirty-five minutes with bags in the trunk.
Caledonia Golf & Fish Club
Morning Round: Caledonia Golf & Fish Club
Caledonia Golf & Fish Club is the course that anchors any serious trip to the Grand Strand. Mike Strantz's 1994 routing through a former rice plantation plays just 6,526 yards from the tips, but the design asks questions at every green complex. The drive down the live oak avenue to the clubhouse sets a tone the course sustains for eighteen holes. Green fees range from $200 to $249 depending on season. An early tee time, ideally before 8:00 a.m., leaves the afternoon open.
Afternoon Round: True Blue Golf Club
True Blue Golf Club sits minutes from Caledonia, also a Strantz design but an entirely different proposition. At $150 to $196, it pairs naturally with Caledonia for a day that covers both ends of Strantz's design range. A 1:30 or 2:00 p.m. tee time allows for lunch between rounds and finishes comfortably before dark in most seasons.
Where Caledonia is composed and precise, True Blue is expansive, with generous fairways, dramatic bunkering, and greens that reward imagination over rote positioning.
Evening
Dinner in Pawleys Island or Murrells Inlet, the latter known locally for its seafood restaurants lining the MarshWalk. The drive is ten minutes. Keep the evening short. Day two starts early.
Day 2: Signature Course, Then Departure or Dinner
Morning Round: Tidewater Golf Club or The Dunes Golf and Beach Club
Two options here, depending on taste. Tidewater, located in North Myrtle Beach, occupies a peninsula between the Intracoastal Waterway and Cherry Grove Inlet. The setting is the draw: several holes play along bluffs with long views over the marsh and water. Green fees run $130 to $220. The drive from Pawleys Island is roughly forty-five minutes, so an early start matters.
The Dunes Golf and Beach Club, a Robert Trent Jones Sr. design from 1948, offers historical weight that few Grand Strand courses can match. Its par-5 thirteenth, Waterloo, has been a fixture in American golf course photography for seven decades. Green fees range from $200 to $300. The course sits in central Myrtle Beach, about thirty minutes from Pawleys Island.
Either option delivers a strong closing round for a two-day trip. Groups with afternoon flights should confirm tee times that allow a comfortable buffer for the twenty-minute drive to MYR.
For those staying through dinner: the evening is unstructured. The boardwalk area in central Myrtle Beach is lively but skews commercial. For a quieter meal, Litchfield Beach and the restaurants along Highway 17 in Pawleys Island are more in line with the tone of the trip.
Day 3 (Optional): Morning Round Before Departure
A third day transforms a good trip into a thorough one. Schedule a morning tee time at a walkable, lower-intensity course to close the weekend without rushing. Tradition Golf Club, a Willard Byrd design near Pawleys Island, plays at a comfortable pace and charges $60 to $100, a useful counterweight to the premium rounds earlier in the trip. Heritage Golf Club in Pawleys Plantation is another solid option in the same price range.
Finish by noon, return the rental car, and catch an afternoon flight. MYR's compact terminal means ninety minutes before departure is sufficient.
Budget Overview
A realistic per-person budget for this itinerary, assuming shared accommodations and rental car:
| Category | 2-Day Trip | 3-Day Trip |
|---|---|---|
| Green fees (2–4 rounds) | $350–$500 | $400–$600 |
| Lodging (1–2 nights) | $75–$150 | $150–$250 |
| Rental car (split) | $30–$50 | $40–$70 |
| Meals | $60–$100 | $90–$150 |
| Total per person | $600–$800 | $750–$1,200 |
Tip
When to Go
Spring and fall are the optimal windows. March through May delivers warm temperatures and firm conditions, but also the highest demand and pricing. October and November offer similar weather with thinner crowds and better availability at Caledonia, which can book up weeks in advance during spring.
Summer is playable but humid, with afternoon thunderstorms a near-daily factor from June through August. Winter rounds are possible on mild days, though overnight lows in the 30s can leave morning greens slow and heavy.
For a long weekend trip, mid-October is the most reliable intersection of weather, price, and availability.
Final Consideration
The Grand Strand's depth of golf makes it tempting to overpack the schedule. Three or four rounds in two days is ambitious but sustainable if the courses are close together, which is why this itinerary anchors in Pawleys Island rather than spreading across the full sixty-mile corridor. Play the best courses available, leave time for an unhurried dinner, and resist the urge to add a fifth round at the expense of a 4:00 a.m. alarm. The courses along this stretch of South Carolina coastline reward attention. Give them that, and the trip delivers well beyond its price point.
The verdict