While the Myrtle Beach area made its reputation on the golf courses that welcome players yearly, the number of courses used to be higher.
With nearly 80 golf courses in the Myrtle Beach and southern North Carolina area, there used to be more courses where golfers could spend a day struggling to save their par or keep their ball out of a water hazard. Many locations have closed in the last decade, with more golf courses planned to be replaced and converted into residential and commercial development.
Parker Smith, president of the golf vacation and packaging firm Golf Trek, estimated in a July 2024 interview that between 15-20 courses closed starting around 2004. Here is a list of some courses that closed in the Myrtle Beach area in recent years:
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Deer Track Golf Resort in Myrtle Beach, S.C., closed in 2006 after its first of two courses opened in 1974, according to ForeTee.
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Heron Point Golf Club in Myrtle Beach, S.C., closed in 2014 after opening in 1988.
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Wicked Stick Golf Links in Surfside Beach, S.C., closed in 2015 after opening in 1995.
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Waterway Hills Golf Club near Restaurant Row in Myrtle Beach, S.C., closed in 2015 after opening in 1975.
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Black Bear Golf Club in Longs, S.C., closed in 2016 after opening in 1989.
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Heather Glen Golf Links in Little River, S.C., closed in 2017 after opening in 1987.
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Conway Golf Club in Conway, S.C., closed in 2018 after opening in 1952, according to Golf Pass.
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River Oaks Golf Plantation shuttered its nine-hole Bear Course in 2018, while the rest of the complex remained open. The Sun News also reported in February 2024 that developers bought the rest of the course to re-develop it for residential purposes, but it will stay open for now. The complex opened in 1987.
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Indian Wells Golf Club in Garden City, S.C., closed in 2019 after opening in 1984.
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Possum Trot in North Myrtle Beach, S.C., closed in 2019 after opening in 1968.
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The Witch Golf Links in Conway, S.C., closed in 2021 after opening in 1989.
The number of closures in the Myrtle Beach area during the late 2000s and 2010s marked a deep recession that impacted the entire golf industry. It also ended the significant increase of golf courses the Myrtle Beach area saw during the final quarter of the 20th century.
At one point, there were more than 100 golf courses across the Grand Strand. According to Myrtle Beach Golf Tips, 87 courses opened between 1980 and 2001. Between 1985 and 1989, 26 golf courses started in the Myrtle Beach area.
Part of this was due to the area’s growing stature for quality golf. In the 1970s, Myrtle Beach’s golf courses started attracting the attention of national sports media, including publications like Sports Illustrated.
A building boom that impacted the entire area from the 1980s through the late 2000s also turbocharged the number of courses. At the time, golf courses were considered an amenity for new communities being built. Golf courses would also accompany significant developments, like the Grande Dunes community in Myrtle Beach that opened in the early 2000s and featured a golf course as an amenity for the surrounding area.
Tracy Conner is the executive director of the Myrtle Beach Golf Course Owners Association and is currently serving as the interim CEO of the Myrtle Beach Area Chamber of Commerce. In an August 2024 interview, he said that building new old courses also benefited home buyers because new links drove up home prices and made communities more valuable.
However, while the new courses gave golfers new layouts to play , the demand for new golf courses in the area never rose with their ever-increasing supply. Indeed, Conner said that the number of rounds golfers played didn’t match the number of new courses built. The courses were often created as an amenity to drive up the value of new communities surrounding them not to address what avid golfers actually wanted.
“In the (1970s), it was driven by organic demand. In the late 80s and through the 90s, it was driven by artificial demand. There may or may not have been any demand for that golf course to be built and for those rounds to be played,” Conner added. “We created an artificial supply that didn’t exist, and so there was just a simple correction in the overall industry.”
That correction involved closing many courses, which Conner said began around 2005. The Great Recession also helped push this market correction, which usually involved shuttering older or less well-maintained properties.
Speculation and conversation regarding golf course closing for re-development often raise concerns from locals who are less than keen on seeing them close.
PGA Director of Operations for both True Blue Golf Club and Caledonia Golf and Fish Club Bart Romano said in an October 2024 interview that he believed that the number of courses now mostly matched the interest of local and traveling players.
He added that the Myrtle Beach area’s age of building golf courses is also probably over.
“Over the next few years, we’ll probably see a handful of our courses close for various reasons,” Romano said. “As far as growth, at least in our area, I think we’re probably at where we need to be … I’d be very surprised to see a golf course, a new course built within the next five years.”
Interest in the game saw a resurgence beginning during the coronavirus pandemic in 2020, with rounds played increasing. That level of interest continued to grow after the pandemic, as On The Green Magazine reported that 2023 saw a six percent increase in rounds played compared to 2022.
Conner added that the inaugural Myrtle Beach Classic in May 2024 corresponded with an all-time number of rounds played in the Myrtle Beach area, with more than 281,000. Conversely, Romano said that rounds played didn’t particularly grow in 2023 and 2024.
“Our forecasting as a company is we’re looking to see more of the same,” He added.
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