Grande Dunes Golf Club is the centerpiece of a high-end residential community that epitomizes luxury living. Styled in Tuscan Mediterranean architecture marked by its warm pastel colors, barrel roofs, and large patios, the clubhouse and modest number of gracious homes and rental accommodations complement the golf course wonderfully and speak to a tasteful restraint in developmental density, not always evident elsewhere on the Strand .
The masterplanned community, which will include a 150-slip marina, and a small commercial component, including shops and a health and fitness center, sweeps across 2,200 lush acres. Centrally located on Route 17 Bypass on the intercoastal waterway, the beautiful natural tract seemed ideally suited for fine golf and a quiet and elegant lifestyle.
Currently under construction on the north end of the property is a private members-only course designed by golf Hall-of-Famer Nick Price and Craig Schreiner. It is scheduled to open in the summer of 2005 and those familiar with the site and routing say it is even more spectacular than the resort course.
That is saying a lot. The resort course, which opened in 2001, is designed by Roger Rulewich, former lead architect with Robert Trent Jones Sr. (RTJ) who spearheaded the design of the famous Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail in Alabama . Designer of numerous Top 100 courses in the nation, Rulewich also redesigned The Dunes Club in Myrtle Beach and two former PGA Championship sites, Bellerive and Medinah.
The Grande Dunes resort course has five sets of tees, ranging from 7,618 to 5,353 yards, and from the back is the longest course on the Grand Strand. No fewer than seven holes sit atop a bluff overlooking the intercoastal waterway. A ravine traverses the course, offering dramatic elevation changes.
Featuring Bermuda fairways and bent grass tee boxes and greens, the course is very user friendly, displaying extremely wide fairways and large, modestly contoured greens. This consistently fine design meanders around and over streams and ponds and offers a couple of forced carries over environmental areas. Even so, the course is easily managed, provided players play from the appropriate tees and avoid the gnarly rough and numerous banks planted with love grasses that frame many of the holes.
On a course with too many spectacular holes to mention, the par 3 14 th hole stands out as perhaps the most dramatic hole in Myrtle Beach . At 244 yards from the back (158 from the whites), this hole sits high above the waterway and features an elevated tee box, a carry over a steep ravine and a large-two-tiered green that is wide but narrow from front to back. Fronted by a large bunker, the green rises sharply from the ravine and appears to be sitting on a shelf with a dramatic fall-off down to the waterway. Before teeing off on this gem, first-time players will spend a few minutes pondering the challenge and marveling at the beauty of this hole.
The course is served by a finely maintained driving range and short-game practice area that supports an active instructional program. With its fine wood-paneled interior, the clubhouse sports a restaurant with a first-class menu. 
Myrtle Beach Golf
