This is the second part of an updated review that was mistakenly 'buried' on the site earlier this week.  We repeat it here and apologize to those for whom this might be a repetition. 

    The Reserve's Greg Norman golf course winds its way through the live oaks and scrub pines that are indigenous to this part of the world.  Green complexes are roller-coaster contoured but not heavily trapped, and we were delighted that we could putt on some holes from 15 yards off the green.  The course is always in nice shape too.  The community brackets Route 17, the main north/south thoroughfare through all of the Grand Strand of Myrtle Beach.  To the west of the road is the largest part of the community with single-family homes that range generally from the $400s to $1.5 million.  Across Route 17 and within walking distance of the beach, a small group of single-family homes are set up in a Charleston-type row house configuration, but separate from each other.  These sell for more than $1 million and are within a three-minute walk of the beach.  At the beachfront are a number of high-rise condominiums that are rented out by their owners.  At prices in the low-mid-six figures and up, they are one alternative for second-home owners who want oceanfront living and aren't unwilling to live in close proximity to others.     

    Wachesaw Plantation is also west of Route 17, and a river runs through it (the Waccamaw).  The community had some marketing and image issues when it first opened in the 1980s, but those seem behind it.  The excellent Tom Fazio golf course can get a little moist after heavy rainfalls, but the layout is unmistakably Fazio, with large cloverleaf bunkers and roller coaster fairways.  Some grasses (see photo below) grow long, adding a Scottish links cachet to the routing.  Wachesaw is probably the most reasonably priced of the communities; the quality of housing and cost per square foot are relatively low for the area, which probably has something to do with its west of Route 17 location and some marketing problems in the community's early years in the mid 1980s.  But Wachesaw is closest to the best variety of shopping and other conveniences, including Myrtle Beach International Airport, which is about 25 minutes away.  The beach is about 10 minutes farther away than it is from the other communities, but the scenic and lazy Waccamaw River provides plenty of watery compensation.         

    The South Strand offers a wide range of high-quality daily fee courses to supplement the private ones.  The renowned Caledonia Golf & Fish Club is in Pawleys Island, along with its companion course, True Blue, both designs by the late Mike Strantz.  They could not be more different.  Caledonia effects a bit of Augusta National with azaleas and other flora in profusion; True Blue has an abundance of sand off the fairways and around the greens, a desert-like course in the Low Country that is vintage Strantz, which is to say "muscular."  Nearby is Heritage Golf Club, more of a parkland style course that is always in peak shape.  And coming later this summer is the redone Sea Gull Golf Club, renamed The Founders Club, whose distinctive notes will likely revolve around the significant mounding we saw in the early stages of reconstruction.  And if all that is not enough variety for you, Litchfield and Murrells Inlet add another seven courses, including Willbrook, The Tradition, The River Club, Litchfield Golf Club, Wachesaw East, Blackmoor and TPC of Myrtle Beach.  And for a wondrous if expensive day trip of golf, Kiawah Island and the Ocean Course are about 90 minutes away.   

    Although there are many art galleries in the Pawleys Island and Georgetown areas, and Charleston is within 70 minutes or so, the area is a little short on culture and entertainment, except for the excellent restaurants.  Shopping, though, is ample enough for any but those who crave Nordstrom nearby.  A large number of outlet stores are available within a half hour.  Myrtle Beach airport, with non-stop service to Washington, Charlotte, the New York airports and a few other northern cities, is within 40 minutes.  Much of a couple's social life in the area will revolve around the clubhouse and friends' homes in the communities.

    We have excellent real estate contacts in the Myrtle Beach area who are familiar with all the golf communities.  One of our pre-qualified agents can help you cut through all the marketing hype and see any houses you want...at no cost or obligation to you.  Contact us if we can help.

    We celebrate our son Tim's high school graduation today, so I am taking a day off from golf.  It seems appropriate to offer the best advice to graduates I have read, a piece written almost 10 years ago and attributed, falsely, as a commencement address at MIT by the late author Kurt Vonnegut.  It actually was written by a columnist in Chicago, Mary Schmich. Congratulations to Tim and all other grads.

    Ladies and gentlemen of the class of '97: wear sunscreen.  If I could offer you only one tip for the future, sunscreen would be it.  The long-term benefits of sunscreen have been proved by scientists, whereas the rest of my advice has no basis more reliable than my own meandering experience.  I will dispense this advice now.
    Enjoy the power and beauty of your youth.  Oh, never mind.  You will not understand the power and beauty of your youth until they've faded.  But trust me, in 20 years, you'll look back at photos of yourself and recall in a way you can't grasp now how much possibility lay before you and how fabulous you really looked.  You are not as fat as you imagine.  
    Don't worry about the future.  Or worry, but know that worrying is as effective as trying to solve an algebra equation by chewing bubble gum.  The real troubles in your life are apt to be things that never crossed your worried mind, the kind that blindside you at 4 pm on some idle Tuesday.

    Do one thing every day that scares you.

    Sing.

    Don't be reckless with other people's hearts.  Don't put up with people who are reckless with yours.

    Floss.

    Don't waste your time on jealousy.  Sometimes you're ahead, sometimes you're behind.  The race is long and, in the end, it's only with yourself. Remember compliments you receive.  Forget the insults.  If you succeed in doing this, tell me how.

    Keep your old love letters.  Throw away your old bank statements. Stretch. Don't feel guilty if you don't know what you want to do with your life. The most interesting people I know didn't know at 22 what they wanted to do with their lives.  Some of the most interesting 40-year-olds I know still don't.

    Get plenty of calcium.  Be kind to your knees. You'll miss them when they're gone.

    Maybe you'll marry, maybe you won't.  Maybe you'll have children, maybe you won't.  Maybe you'll divorce at 40, maybe you'll dance the funky chicken on your 75th wedding anniversary.  Whatever you do, don't congratulate yourself too much, or berate yourself either.  Your choices are half chance; so are everybody else's.

    Enjoy your body.  Use it every way you can.  Don't be afraid of it or of what other people think of it.  It's the greatest instrument you'll ever own.  Dance, even if you have nowhere to do it but your living room.

    Read the directions, even if you don't follow them. Do not read beauty magazines. They will only make you feel ugly. Get to know your parents.  You never know when they'll be gone for good.  Be nice to your siblings.  They're your best link to your past and the people most likely to stick with you in the future. Understand that friends come and go, but with a precious few you should hold on. 

    Work hard to bridge the gaps in geography and lifestyle, because the older you get, the more you need the people who knew you when you were young. Live in New York City once, but leave before it makes you hard.  Live in Northern California once, but leave before it makes you soft.    

    Travel.

    Accept certain inalienable truths: prices will rise. Politicians will philander. You, too, will get old.  And when you do, you'll fantasize that when you were young, prices were reasonable, politicians were noble, and children respected their elders.  Respect your elders. Don't expect anyone else to support you.  Maybe you have a trust fund. Maybe you'll have a wealthy spouse.  But you never know when either one might run out.

    Don't mess too much with your hair or by the time you're 40 it will look 85.  Be careful whose advice you buy, but be patient with those who supply it. Advice is a form of nostalgia.  Dispensing it is a way of fishing the past from the disposal, wiping it off, painting over the ugly parts and recycling it for more than it's worth.

    But trust me on the sunscreen.