On your next trip to
Myrtle Beach,
put it on your schedule: Tradition. Located in the village of Litchfield Beach in the south end of the Grand
Strand, this Ron Garl masterpiece offers one magnificent hole after another. Aptly named, the course is a
throwback to the great courses of old.
Tradition is
traditional in every sense of the word, as Garl let the natural elements dictate the design. The couse features
gently rolling, non-mounded fairways surrounded by native vegetation and dense pine forest. It also boasts
large Tifdwarf greens that were in outstanding shape when I played it in March 2005. The practice area is
so good you won't mind putting in extra time there. The English manor-style clubhouse with its fine restaurant offers
a gentile atmosphere that is in keeping with the overall feel of the property.
Opened in 1995, Tradition has received a ton of well deserved awards including
Golf Digest's Best New Public Course for 1996 and Golf Course of the Year for 2000 by the
South Carolina Golf Course Owners Association. In 1998, it received the Top Fairways award from
Golf for Women magazine.
Not long at about 6,700 yards from the tips, Tradition truly demands accuracy off the tee on most holes, as the ubiquitous forest and streams and lakes standing ready to snare wayward shots. A number of greens are perched on lakes that seem to glisten in the early morning sunlight. Garl balances these hazards with predominantly shallow fairway and greenside bunkers that give competent sand players a fighting chance to salvage par or, on several of the medium-length par 5's, a birdie. If you bring your A game, you will be rewarded appropriately, but the high slope and course rating are no accident. This is a fine and very fair test of golf.
For golf purists who have grown tired of the artificial, self-conscious designs of many of today's courses, Tradition will reward you with a refreshingly old-fashioned round of golf. I have played a majority of Myrtle Beach's courses, and I put Tradition right up there with the best of the Grand Strand. 
