Arcadian Shores Golf Club - Myrtle Beach Golf
Some of today's golf course architects seemed overly infatuated with their novel designs, and the result is a mushroom of courses filled with gimmicks. Not so with Arcadian Shores, a fine "old fashioned" course in the heart of Myrtle Beach designed by Rees Jones.
The course opened in 1974 as part of the Myrtle Beach Hilton Resort, making it one of the older courses on the Strand. After 26 years, it still deserves to be ranked among the best on the Strand. Wyndham, which took over the Hilton in '98, recognizes it has a great asset in a course that meets the acid test of all successful layouts: It is scenic, it is challenging but very fair for golfers of all levels, and each hole is distinctive.
Ross and MacKenzie would have been proud of Jones. Arcadian Shores bears witness to the fact that a challenging golf course doesn't have to torture you with impossibly steep bunkers, multiple blind shots, 10-foot high mounds, hidden fairways and other assorted artificial elements. On this classical-style layout, what you see is what you get.
The course, which lies about a half mile inland from the Wyndham Myrtle Beach Resort, is set in thick woods and features narrow fairways, 64 bunkers, and water on eight holes. The course stretches from 5,636 to a modest 6,857 yards from the tips where it plays to a slope of 137. The slope is that high because the course puts a lot of pressure on accuracy, particularly off the tee. Every hole is tree-lined and fairly narrow. Here you may want to hit 3- or 4-wood or long iron some tees.
Arcadian Shores is generally flat except for a corner of the course that includes holes 13 and 14. The 13th is on the all-Strand's 18. The no. 1 handicap hole, it is 408 beautiful and difficult yards, requiring an accurate tee shot through a chute of trees to a crest of a hill. From there the hole veers downhill over a lake to a severely sloped green with a large bunker behind. The 398-yard 14th requires a drive over the same lake to an uphill fairway with a cluster of bunkers in the fairway on the left. Like all of the holes, there is plenty of trouble in the trees if you veer off line. The green has two large bunkers left and right.
The par 3's are all outstanding, beginning with No. 2, also on the all-Strand list. It measures between 114 and 201 yards and the tee shot must carry water to a green perched right on the lake right. A large bunker guards the left side of the green on a hole that has no bailout. Set in the woods, it is a gem of a hole and one you will want to save your best swing for. The 17th is 169 yards over another lake to a well trapped green that slopes severely back to front.
From the back, the course has only five holes over 400 yards including the straight 425-yard 11th, which requires a 210-yard carry over a lake to reach the fairway. From the landing area the hole runs slightly uphill through the trees. The 18th is a slight dogleg right 447 yarder. There are two reachable par 5's, including the 508-yard 3rd and the 502-yard 10th, which is heavily bunkered at the landing area and around the green. The longest par 5 is the awesome 16th. It measures 557 yards. It is slightly downhill off the tee through the woods to a green at the end of a rising fairway from the landing area. Three very large bunkers are situated in front of the green and come out about 30 yards from it.
Generally speaking, the bunkers are not overly penal. The slope of the moderate to large-sized greens varies from gentle to moderately severe. For a wooded course with heavy shade, the condition of the Bermuda fairways and Bermuda Tifdwarf greens is acceptable. Some of the greens are excellent, but a few were a bit shaky during my visit in July of 2000. The shaded clubhouse is small but very attractive and comfortable, and the golf school is right outside the door.
Arcadian Shores is a fine test of golf that should be particularly appealing to golfers who like traditional designs. Don't leave home without your "A" game. The course is open to the public.
The Wyndham Myrtle Beach Resort Hotel
The Wyndham Resort, with it's own beach facility,
is an excellent choice for golfers who want to be near
the center of Myrtle Beach yet in a secluded environment
Wyndham bought the Hilton property in February 1998, inheriting Arcadian Shores. The golf course site is actually leased from Burroughs & Chapin, which has immense land holdings in the area. The current lease expires in 2007 and despite rumors that Burroughs & Chapin plans to turn the site into development when the lease expires, it seems a safe bet that Arcadian Shores will be around for a long time to come.
Shortly after taking over the Hilton Hotel and course, renaming it the Wyndham Myrtle Beach Resort, the company launched a multi-million dollar renovation project that has included a redesign of the hotel's entrance and lobby and upgrades of the pool complex and meeting facilities. An additional $6.5 million is earmarked for further improvements including a total renovation of the rooms, a project that will be completed in stages.
The hotel sits right on the beach and has its own beach facility. The pool complex includes a Jacuzzi, and an open air bar and grille. The hotel has 385 small but comfortable rooms, all with ocean views. The business-conscious Wyndham as of mid-summer 2000 did not have a business center where guests can go online, nor Internet connections in rooms - amenities becoming increasingly more important to vacationers and business travelers. Plans are to include Internet connectivity in future renovations. Centrally located just north of Myrtle Beach's downtown area, the high-rise hotel with 12-story atrium and on-site golf course is convenient to Restaurant Row, many amusements and most of the Strand's other courses. 
Myrtle Beach Golf
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