Fat Guy Golf Monthly
This is just a spot to highlight a few pages on the site every month, based on such whims as where I've been playing lately, good seasonal destinations, where the Tour's playing, and other favorites.
January 2011- The Myrtle Beach Issue
Oyster Bay GC
January is the time of year when most spring golf trip planning starts in earnest. The holidays are finally over. The 5 pounds you gained over Thanksgiving resulted in an already-fading New Year's resolution, Christmas is now just a credit card bill, and New Year's left a vague impression of a good time and a world class hangover in front of a full day of football. Now you're back in full work grind with no holidays in sight until April, they've already started advertising The Masters on CBS, and your golf jones is rapidly reaching its mid-winter peak. It's time to scratch that itch by laying the groundwork for a golf weekend somewhere warm and far from work and other responsibilities.
Call me an over-testosteroned neanderthal simpleton redneck marketing whore (you wouldn't be the first), but to me, Myrtle Beach SC is the golf weekend perfected. Over 75 mostly-quality courses, endless entertainment options, great local spots for grub (even good wings), more bars than you could ever have a drink in, plus good Gentlemen's clubs, go-carts, waterparks, and every other form of pure guy entertainment that's been invented to date. It's not trying to be upscale like Vegas--they invented the golf package here, and there's still nowhere that does it better or cheaper--and Myrtle doesn't apologize for what it is, which is pure beach/golf Americana. I think Golf Digest's David Owen summed Myrtle up best when he wrote, "The main appeal of Myrtle Beach is not that it's a bargain but that it's so unashamedly devoted to the heartbreakingly pedestrian fantasies of the average American golfer. Tee times and bar stools are inexhaustible, good used golf balls are easier to find than fresh vegetables, and everything is divisible by four."
Fat Guy's Myrtle Beach SC Golf Weekend
River City Cafe
I've explored Myrtle extensively a couple times and collected more nuggets about where to play, grub, and booze than you could shake a stick at, so here's where I stand on the Grand Strand.
Golf Digest's How To Myrtle Beach
Back in May 2010, Golf Digest put out one of the most comprehensive Myrtle Beach guides from a major golf publication ever.
Caledonia G&FC
A good recent article on a fall buddy trip featuring the courses of South Myrtle, from TravelGolf.com.
Barefoot GR- Dye Course
Another good recent article from TravelGolf.com.
Bummz Beach Cafe
Lucky enough to be headed for a convention at the Myrtle Beach Convention Center? Here's how to squeeze in some golf in between sessions, again from TravelGolf.com.
Tour Spotlight-
If the the Tour played here (they currently don't), they'd play at TPC Myrtle Beach . It did host the Senior Tour Championship, and is among the best (and priciest) courses in town.
Fat Guy's Course Of The Month- Prestwick GC, Surfside Beach, SC
I played this course in the middle of a Myrtle Beach bachelor party weekend with a guy who was so loaded he had the hiccups and still shot a legit 79 (he had played on the golf team at Coastal Carolina up the road and had gone on to become a sales rep for Callaway, so he basically played casual drunken business golf for a living). For Prestwick to have left such a great impression on me through bachelor party beer goggles gives you an indication how good it is (let alone that they had the balls to name it after arguably Old Tom Morris' quirkiest layout and the host of the first British Open). The layout is Pete Dye at his finest, with a great variation of holes. Deep, very penal bunkers. Some tight fairways, some wide open driving holes, links holes, water carries, downhill par 3's, Low Country swamp elements. You name it, this course has it.
Fat Guy's Link Of The Month- Myrtle Beach is the definition of the kind of golf weekend where riding is the order of the day (hungover, buzzed, busting stones, long drive contests, swing oil, mixing drinks in the cart), but that doesn't mean you aren't in need of caddy services during a round in Myrtle. One look at the girls of Myrtle Beach Caddy Girls (www.mbcaddygirls.com) and you'll know what I mean. Their $139+tip fees are a steal compared to similar services in Vegas (and they take caddying semi-seriously, without all the L.A.-East 'I'm a model' aloofness).
Myrtle Beach Caddy Girl Amy
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