GolfTravelReviews: The Reviews "Pawleys Plantation is a South End Gem"

Located off Highway 17 in Pawleys Island, SC, Pawleys Plantation is an upscale gated resort and residential community offering outstanding golf on a Nicklaus signature golf course in a marvelously secluded and protected natural setting. The 582-acre resort is nestled among tall coastal pines, moss-draped oaks, wetlands and salt marshes, and lakes and is bordered on the south by a 600-acre nature preserve.

Southern style clubhouse serves as background
for fine finishing hole at Pawleys Plantation

In Myrtle Beach’s south end, which is decidedly quieter and less hurried than other parts of the Strand, the Plantation extends to resort guests a private club atmosphere of friendly and efficient personal service, no crowds and convenience.

Guests stay in one-, two-, and three-bedroom tree-covered golf villas that line several fairways and are a short distance away from the center of activity. Amenities include two pool complexes, tennis courts, a health and fitness center, and a huge groomed practice facility where the Phil Ritson-Mel Sole Golf School is located. Also, the conference center which includes a spacious ballroom is designed for business meetings of up to 300. It is directly adjacent the ante-bellum clubhouse overlooking the marsh and live-oak dominated 18th hole. The clubhouse encompasses the award-winning dining room.

The short but devilish 10th hole featuring sand and
water is one of Nicklaus' best on a quality 18

Opened in 1988, the layout plays to par 72 and ranges from 5029 to 7026 yards. Nicklaus gets an enthusiastic thumbs up from this reviewer, who loved the interesting mix of holes in two distinct natural settings. Starting slowly with a relatively easy par 5 of 511 yards (484 from the whites), the front 9 meanders in a westerly direction through hardwood and pine forests. The back 9 beginning at #12 winds east out around the salt marsh.

To his credit, Nicklaus showcased the land as he found it, moving the earth only as much as was needed to create slight elevations, mounds to frame greens and fairways, and ponds, which together with the land’s existing streams provide postcard visuals while presenting a few golfing challenges.

Speaking of challenges, Pawleys Island is a bear from the back, though it is much gentler from the forward tees. With the exception of the opener, the par 5’s range from 525 to 563 yards, and there are six 400 plus yard holes ranging from 416 to 461 yards. These include what is the best hole on the course, the 444-yard 16th, a dogleg left from a tree-enshrouded tee box to a marshside green virtually encircled by a question-mark shaped bunker.

The 16th green shares rent on a double green with #13, a par 3 of between 69 and 145 yards. Though it is by far the shortest hole, #13 can get nasty in the prevailing easterly winds. The green is bulkheaded smack on the marsh.

The dike with 13th teebox, 13th green
at far end. Foreground: 12th green

The tee box of #13 sits on a narrow grassed dike that separates holes #13 - #16 and the tee box at #17 from the rest of the course. The dike runs diagonally to numbers 13 and 17, allowing the tee markers to be placed at widely varying distances from the greens. Hole 17 requiring a carry over the marsh can be stretched to 201 yards. It is another in a fine set of par 3’s that also include the 194-yard 3rd (125 from the forwards) requiring a carry over a lake.

Nicklaus, known in his salad days for his prodigious length, also appreciates good short par 4’s and he has a few gems here. No. 9 is only 350 yards from the second front tee but it is a dandy, featuring a massive live oak that sits squarely in the middle of the fairway. No. 10 measures only 361 yards from the back, but is one of the hardest holes on the layout. To place your tee shot for the best approach you must thread a narrow space between a massive waste bunker on the right and trees on the left. Even then you are left with a short iron over a portion of the bunker and water which fronts the green guarded by two sizable bunkers left and right. When you add in some testy slopes on the green, you have a hole where you hope, as Ken Venturi says, "to get your par and get out of there as quickly as possible."

Pawleys Plantation has a quiet southern-style charm that continues a tradition established earlier on this site. The property was once used as a hunting and fishing preserve featuring a cozy lodge. The property also once encompassed a lumber plantation but all that has changed. Pawleys Plantation is on one of the most unspoiled tracts on the Grand Strand. Habitat for a huge variety of fauna and flora, the tract is a recognized Audubon bird sanctuary.

For information and reservations, call 800-367-9959.
Photos courtesy Pawleys Plantation and Ron Dalto/PhotoGraphics