Wicked Stick Golf Links, Myrtle Beach, SC

I've read reviews of the friendly staff here. That group must be off on Tuesdays. That is the day the 'cold and distant' staff are on!

My son & I arrived for 8:18 tee time well ahead of schedule. Got cart and pulled up to starter as instructed. Having arrived well before scheduled time we knew that there was no one immediately in front of us. Starter asked if we had played the course before.

We said, "No."

He proceeded with an instructional tutorial directed as we had never played golf before, let alone the course.

He then said to wait and he would pair us up with another duo. My son asked if there was any way to avoid being paired up. Starter said it was too late for that. "If we had been there earlier, it might have been possible!"

Huh?

"We are really booked up now"! (I looked back at two bags in the staging area.) After that he said, "I don't know why they're not here......but should be shortly." He repeated this a couple of times during the ensuing five or six minutes before our 'partners' arrived.

There was absolutely no one close to being in front of us!

Within two holes we had a threesome waiting behind us.

We also had to listen to the rhetoric of a 'Carnival Barker' with an offer we couldn't refuse for a proshop promotion on a par 3. He could have saved a lot of time if he would have explained early on that he needed cash for this gamble.

Point being.....the starter could have easily let us go as a 2-some.

One of other really irritating issues was the lack of drinking water through the first nine holes. Not that there was no place to get water. The containers were not filled and put where they belonged.

I addressed that with the staff at the turn. One staff member argued that there was water out there. Another that said he'd better check on it.

An addition to the frustrations of the day........the second nine had an 'army' of maintenance staff and vehicles.

Annoying........is not sufficient.

There was no attempt by these 'troops' to accomodate the golfers.

Literally, while on the tee......two tractors within 150 yards on the fairway. Two more vehicles on adjacent fairway and one behind. They were not setting there........they were buzzing back and forth!

I've been on a lot of golf coures over the years to include 11 different ones this month and I have never seen such utter disregard for the satisfaction of the golfer.

While in the parking lot, I talked to a couple guys that where behind us on the course. I apologized if we had held them up! They had no problem other than they also arrived as a pair and were told they had to have another join them because of the course being too busy.

Hogwash!

Sixteen cars in the parking lot!

Too bad!

Ratings would be much higher if there would have been an inkling of appreciation for patronage!

Pretty nice course.

A very good course to start your trip at Myrtle Beach. The course was in great shape and the staff was very friendly and helpful.

A previous reviewer complained that the promotion for this course was misleading because the course was crowded with short, parrel(sp.) holes and tight, unforgiving fairways. I can only say that this guy must really spray the ball all over the place. I hit driver on every pay 5 and every par 4 except 1 where there was water to the right and OB to the left and the green was easily reachable without the driver. Of those 13 holes, I was in the fairway on all but one (I hit the ball well, but I'm no pro). The course was not especially long, however, so "ripping" it wasn't really necessary.

Some fairways were a bit soggy from either overwatering or poor drainage, but otherwise, the fairways and greens were in decent shape. The par 3s offer a pretty nice variety in lengths. Not the nicest course, but fun and not too difficult.

The owners of Wicked Stick should be sued for false advertising. When you bill yourself as a "John Daly Course", I assume that to mean "long and wide open". Wicked Stick is the exact opposite. It's a crowded little course with short, parrel holes and tight, unforgiving fairways. Perhaps I would have enjoyed it more if I hadn't gone in expecting something different, but it was a course that I never intend on playing again.

Course was nice but very crowded especially the first 3 holes you need a hard hat 5 hour 20 min round kinda spoiled it for me staff was courteous
driving range with restricted flight balls no driver allowed