Any golfer who has been to Myrtle Beach knows "The Grandaddy." It is the nickname for Pine Lakes International Golf Club, circa 1927, the oldest course on the Grand Strand and the one with the most tradition. In its clubhouse in 1954, for example, plans were hatched to initiate Sports Illustrated. During cold weather rounds, Pine Lakes attendants greeted golfers at one tee box with a cup of chowder. The course's starters wore kilts and other employees knickers. None of the 120 courses in the Myrtle Beach area could match Pine Lakes for private, old club and old world atmosphere.
And then, poof, it all seemed to vanish in a cloud of "progress" when the course closed last November in anticipation of a new housing development and a total rebuild of the layout. The developers pledged to keep a course on site, albeit a dramatically changed Pine Lakes, but local folks were skeptical, having watched in recent years as a dozen courses in the area closed permanently to accommodate housing. The threat of a course closure at Pine Lakes ended when the plans of Burroughs & Chapin, the local developers, were approved by the Myrtle Beach City Council. Those plans included a golf course.
Today, according to the Myrtle Beach Sun Times, plans to totally change the Pine Lakes course have been shelved, for the most part. Burroughs & Chapin, with advice from local and national preservationists, decided that the course's National Historic Registry status should be retained, and to do that, only minimal changes could be made to the course. To accommodate a main road into the new community, only holes 17 and 18 will be rerouted, moved to a wetlands area at the edge of the property, according to the Sun Times. That could afford some interesting finishing-hole challenges. Otherwise, Burroughs & Chapin have committed to rehabbing the course in its current configuration, and installing new saline-resistant grass on the greens; Pine Lakes's underground wells have a high salt content, and growing grass on the course's greens had been a perpetual challenge.
The Grandaddy's clubhouse is also getting a sprucing up. It and the course are expected to be ready in 2009.
The greens on the front and back nines were entirely different. Although it was a Monday, normally a day of rest at many courses, maintenance crews were out working. Oddly, the front nine's greens had not been cut, were quite grainy and medium slow. The back nine's greens had been cut in such a way that they appeared to have been both shaved and slightly aerated, giving the surface an indoor/outdoor carpet weave effect. Nevertheless, they were fast and generally putted as they read. Finally, the Diamond Back scorecard needs significant updating. Many official yardage stones from the back tees (6,907, rating 74.0, slope 139) did not match the card, and the course from the tips played more like 6,800. Son Tim played erratically from back there and still shot 74. My own 78 from the "back" tees (6,390, 71.4, 129) was my best round of the year.
