golfrewind.com

Hi All,

Thought I'd take a couple minutes to share my recent (Feb.26-Mar.5/2005) trip to Myrtle Beach, since a few of you were so kind to provide some feedback to me before I made my decision on where to stay/play.

Four of us went down. Decided to fly out of Buffalo, as the airfare was almost half of what you had to pay to fly out of Toronto. Trip was good on the way down, until we arrived @ the Myrtle Beach Airport. Bags took FOREVER to get to us. When they did finally arrive, one of my buddies had not made it (though his clubs did ) It did subsequently get to him by the next day....early a.m.

First stop from the airport was Golf Dimensions, a well advertised golf super store. Went in and stocked up on golf balls (Max Fli Noodle's @ $15.95 U.S. beats the heck out of $29.95 Cdn.) and looked around. Some good deals on clubs and golf balls, but most of the other goodies were priced about the same as home. Martins was the other big Golf Store and also had similar deals.

We made our way to the Legends resort which was just a short drive up Hwy. 501 from the golf store (about 15-20 mins direct from airport), so very convenient. When we arrived, everything was in order. We checked in, got our "coupons" for golf, complimentary daily drink and breakfast for the week. Went to the villa, which was quite nice. 2 bedrooms with separate baths, laundry room with dryer/washer, kitchen/dining and TV room. TV's in each room. They were clean and in good order.....even a place by the door for putting your golf bags.

Right behind the Check In building is the practice facilites. They were decent. Got tokens from the check-in bldg. to get your range balls. Putting and chipping areas, though putting greens were no where near as fast as the course greens. This was all included in the package.

Each day we went for the buffet breakfast. It was average, but filled the need for sustinance before the round. Our first round of golf was on "Heathland". It was a challenging course, but the greens were a little on the rough side. Next we hit "Moorland". We were originally scheduled for a morning tee off, but it was pouring rain, so we rescheduled (without any problem) for the afternoon. This was the toughest course onsite. Lot's of deep bunkers around the greens, water, waste areas all nicely placed. Greens were deadly fast, but true, so if you screwed up....there was no one to blame. And...as it would have it, the wind was a BIG factor, so it played like a links course out of ScotLand.

Our final round at Legends was played on Parkland. Another nice layout set amongst the Woods and Villas. Greens were similar in speed and trueness as Moorland. Tigher fairways in many cases due to the abundance of trees. One of the holes that ran along side the Driving Range was particularly tough. Think it was #9. Short par 4, but elevated, heavily bunkered green. Water on left, bunkers strategically placed along the fairway and around green. Wind was blowing hard on the top of the green, combined with a deadly pin placement and a hill on the back side that lead to OB (road) made any error in length very costly....just ask my cousin.

Our next 3 rounds were spent at the Barefoot Resort, where they have 4 courses, designed by and called Fazio, PB Dye, Norman and Love III. We golfed PB Dye, Norman and Love III. This resort seemed a bit higher end. Carts equiped with GPS, and beautiful clubhouses. I felt the course conditions were similar to those @ Legends. The PB Dye course was very similar to the Moorland course....go figure, they were designed by the same guy.

Really enjoyed the carts with GPS. Made life a bit easier on club selection and also pointed out how far the group was in front of you. Also, the courses that had dormant grass, made the courses very dramatic looking, with the contrast of the green Fairways and greens.

Overall, I would recommend staying at Legends to anyone who wants to golf some quality courses with good ameneties closeby. For those wanting to go a bit upscale, Barefoot would probably suite your needs. My only disapointment was the weather. Seems temps were about 8-10 degrees lower then normal. Most days we woke up to a temp in the mid 40's with afternoon temps of mid 50's and close to or at 60 on our last round. Didn't matter though, we just put on some extra layers of clothes.

Happy Hacking!
Macker