Tidewater CC: A North Myrtle Beach, SC Course Review
The gorgeous par-3 12th hole at Tidewater
Playing in
Myrtle Beach World Amateur
means you’ll get to try at least four different
courses -- plus a fifth if you’re lucky enough to
win your flight and qualify for the final round. So
knowing that – with just one spare day before the
tournament – I could only see one of my assigned
courses I decided to throw the whole practice round
thing out the window, and grab a round at a fifth
course I had heard good things about.
That venue was Tidewater, a North Myrtle Beach
gem with a number of holes that play right against
the marsh, with beautiful views (and challenging shot
values) all around.
Tidewater, like most of their Myrtle Beach area
counterparts, has the curbside check-in thing down to
an art. No overfriendly greeters here. Just guys who
size you up, and, if you seem to know what
you’re doing, point you in the right direction.
The range is nice, and the practice green even nicer. I
hit a number of different short game shots with just
one other guy alongside.
The opener is a gentle par five through the
woods, and it’s followed by a short dogleg
right guarded by a couple of monster trees on the
inside corner. Then it’s through a tunnel
(you’ll do this a few times during the round)
and onto the marsh portion of the golf course, where a
gorgeous par three with a big valley of sin on the
front left of the green awaits. Even better is the 4th
hole, a sweeping dogleg-left with a 6-foot deep waste
bunker running like a ribbon down the left side. I
loved the look of the hole, and even after chickening
out and pushing my drive into a bunker on the right, I
was able to hit the green and save par. Tidewater is
pretty fair that way.
I’ll spare you the “hole-by-
hole” but the rest of the nine runs back
through the tunnel and through trees again, before
reaching No. 9, a middle-length par 3 with a wetland
on the left. You’ll want to avoid that, just as
you’ll want to avoid it when coming down the
parallel 18th, where the same wetland guards the
right side of the green.
 |
The 13th hole
is my favorite |
A couple of my favorite holes on the back side are
again on the marsh side of the tunnel. The 12th is a
par 3 with a forced carry over the wetlands; the 13th
a par-5 that I would have to claim as my favorite at
Tidewater. It’s seldom that I like an uphill tee
shot, but here you start (at least from the back sets
of tees) from a tee box nestled close to the water,
and look up to a dogleg left that starts to tighten up
from “way down there.” There’s
a strategic layup required after hopefully finding the
fairway, and a shot into one of the biggest greens at
Tidewater which will require some resolve, especially
if the pin is tucked in the back right of the green.
The view from there makes it all worth it, even
the trips back and forth through the tunnel and past
homes that a purist might not prefer. But I
don’t think anyone would argue with the
variety of the holes, and quality of the conditioning at
Tidewater. They seem to care about the golf, and it
shows.
To learn more about Tidewater, click on the
course name above and follow the links to their
website.