The Midway Par 3 golf course in Myrtle Beach will see new life soon
The Midway Par 3 golf course across from the Myrtle Beach International Airport is expected to reopen this fall for the first time since 2017.
Horry County Council members met Tuesday to hear about the leasing of the course to a business willing to keep it as a short course with 18 par-3 holes.
Atlantic Golf Management is taking over operation of the 34-acre property. The company has been operating Whispering Pines Golf Club near Myrtle Beach International Airport since November 2014 after being awarded the management contract from the City of Myrtle Beach.
It is led by managing partner Chip Smith, the former managing partner of TPC Myrtle Beach.
Smith said Horry County put the lease out for bid in early May and his company was the winning bidder and signed a five-year lease agreement on Monday with an additional five-year option. “So we hope to be here at least 10 years,” Smith said.
Atlantic Golf is already renovating the course for a hopeful opening in mid- to late September. The course will have both mats and natural grass 419 Bermudagrass tee boxes, and TifEagle ultradwarf Bermuda greens. “We’ll have excellent putting surfaces,” Smith said.
More than 50 dump truck loads of dirt and material to build tee boxes has been delivered.
Midway’s layout and atmosphere will be inspired by The Cradle, a nine-hole short course at Pinehurst Resort that has been wildly popular. “We think there’s a missing link right now after what Pinehurst has done with The Cradle. That’s kind of what we’re looking at,” Smith said. “We think there’s a market here for this.”
The course will be lighted and open after dark. There will be wireless music on light poles, a selection of craft and draft beer, and drink holders on tees and greens.
“We’re trying to make it a little more of a fun atmosphere than the traditional golf round. With it being lighted, hopefully our spring and fall golfers will want to come out and have a little fun after their 18 holes,” Smith said. “I don’t think we have the market with the aging population of playing 36 [holes per day] anymore like we used to have, so we think we might have an alternative for them to come play a few more holes.
“We could have some fun out here.”
Changes and further improvements to the course are planned by next summer.
Midway will reopen with existing bunkers on holes, and Smith plans to move more dirt and create natural waste areas with ornamental grasses along the periphery of holes.
The Horry County Department of Airports purchased the course last year in an effort to buy buffer lands around the landing strip. At the time, airport staff said new, large construction would be kept off the property.
Atlantic Golf also owns and operates a pair of courses in Brunswick County, North Carolina.
It purchased the 27-hole Brunswick Plantation in Calabash in February 2018 and Cape Fear National in Leland last October, and it also operates the private Wellington National in Wellington, Florida.
Atlantic Golf will pay the county a yearly fee, according to the contract, plus a percentage of gross profits over $750,000.
The longer the course operates, the more fees Atlantic Golf will have to give the county in rent and from gross profits.
Horry County Council will have to approve the contract at its next full meeting for it to become official.
This story was originally published June 30, 2020 at 3:22 PM.
