The Average Joe reviews Heather Glen Golf Course

By Joe Derus, NorthMyrtleBeachOnline.com
Little River, SC | June 16, 2010

Once again a review of Heather Glen was on the bill of fare. The last review was in March 2008 on a cold, blustery, rainy day. This time it was a warm and cheerful.  Myrtle Beach Golf Directors set up the tee time for us and somehow they always provide the best tee time on the nicest courses. They are still working on the weather.

You know you are in for something special when you drive up to Heather Glen where you are a greeted by a magnificent 100 year-old oak. Just think of it as an omen of mighty drives you will need to make to play this course well. Also greeting you before you enter the club house is a plaque that boast of Heather Glen named as the best New Public Golf Course in America by Golf Digest in 1987 and later named in first 50 Public Courses in America. Normally this golfer is not impressed by awards that are 23 years old, golf course do change over time. But a quick glance around the course from the British style club house and you will appreciate how this 27 hole layout maintains that award winning aura.

Heather Glen is a beautiful course to play at any time of year, but especially in the summer. One hundred year-old pines, colorful dogwoods and winding streams provide shade without interfering too much with the course itself.

The three courses are patriotically named, red, white and blue.  In fact, the day we played the red course was closed for grooming. I only mention this because the other two courses were in superb condition.

We felt as a group the greens were rather fast, not super fast, but speed of putts was an issue. You need to take just a bit of time reading the breaks. What’s that rule, up hill putts break right, down hill break left? That is generally true except when you play it that way, right!

We played the first nine on the blue course. In keeping with Scottish tradition there is minimum signage and directions on the course so a guide book is provided that gives this vital information. I suggest you take a minute or so and understand the guide.

One problem I personally have playing the course is the guide book does not detail which course you are playing, plus it contains part of the different nines on the same page. For example our starter told us our play begins on the blue course and page eleven in the book. There are four holes shown on page eleven,  # 8 and # 9 ( second 9) and # 1 and #2 (third nine).

This gets a little confusing until you figure it out. The guide uses the term, first nine, second nine, third nine, when red white and blue would be better.

The par threes on the two courses averaged 154 yards and are all somewhat forgiving in that shots a bit off line or short still give you a good chance at par. A good chip shot and one putt, still counts the same as two putts on the green. More than one par in our group was made this way.

In my mind, the spectacular number 8 par 4 is the most memorable hole for many reasons. This hole requires distance in your drive and accuracy also. From the tee you have your choice of banging one just a bit over 175 ( in the air) to set up a second short shot or punching one out 152 ( in the air) setting up a  longer second shot that may take you over water and a bunker. This hole is the benchmark for all the holes at Heather Glen, one does not just walk up to tee box and swing away.  Well-placed tee shots are rewarded as much as booming drives.

We felt the “blue” or first nine we played was a bit easier than the “white’ second nine.

The first hole on the second nine is a 388 yards (from the white tees) that simply ate our group alive.  It is a dogleg right and the green is extremely elevated and has an incredible bunker right in front of the green. We all stayed clear of the bunker yet we still took two bogies and two double bogies. Three putts ate us up.

However, being the level headed players we are, we quickly put that hole behind us and somehow managed two birdies and two pars on the next hole a 133 yard par 3. See I told you the par threes were friendly.

The final hole on the second nine sums up Heather Glen. It is beautiful to look at; it requires thinking before you tee it up; it rewards well-placed shots and challenges every one of the five strokes to par this hole.

Number 9 is 558 yards with a second or third shot over water. Long hitters may risk going for the green in two, but this means a, 250 + yard second shot over water, sand and grass.

After some decent tee shots we all decided to place the second shot in position for a easier third to the green. There are two trees at bout 114 yards from the green that sit like football goal post. These trees are a good target to shot at but they are close to the water.

One of our players was a football coach in his other life and we told him shoot for the goal post, he did.  “Oh no,” he yelled, “I hit it too far,” but it stopped just one yard short of the water. That’s the only time a football coach was happy about being stopped one yard short. He went on to par the hole.

I look forward to returning to Heather Glen that is just short drive over the Inter-coastal bridge heading North on route 17. It is almost opposite Glen Dornoch Golf Links, another outstanding golf course where tee times come easy to Myrtle Beach Golf Directors. You can also read the review on Glen Dornoch on NorthMyrtleBeachOnLine.com