This old North Myrtle Beach golf course is under new management. See what’s changing
At nearly 50 years old, Azalea Sands Golf Club in North Myrtle Beach is under new management that is renovating the clubhouse and parts of the golf course.
The owners and management at Eagle Nest Golf Club in Little River took over operations at Azalea Sands on March 5, and are working to maintain a high level of playing conditions including adding sand to bunkers this summer.
“You look at a facility like Azalea Sands that has been a staple on the north end for this long, we just want to bring it back to its days of glory,” said Jim Kane, director of operations over both Eagle Nest and Azalea Sands.
Eagle Nest is owned by the family of Rick Elliott of Elliott Realty, who knows Azalea Sands’ ownership group. “I think they were looking for a new direction for the golf course,” Kane said.
Azalea Sands is a straightforward 6,902-yard Gene Hamm design that opened in 1972 and is on the low end of green fees in the Myrtle Beach market.
It has had an interesting existence over the past several years as the site of some test runs under the past management of East Coast Golf Management.
The course was the home to the Kilted Caddy Club – and later Thee DH Caddy Club for a short time after a trademark infringement lawsuit by the Tilted Kilt – from 2014 until its closing in January 2017. The food and beverage business featured an all-female staff of caddies, bartenders and beverage cart servers.
Late in 2014, the course experimented with holes that were 8 inches in diameter – nearly double the size of the standard 4.25-inch cups – but that was fairly short-lived.
The clubhouse, including a restaurant and lounge area that was built to house the Kilted Caddy Club, was flooded with several feet of water this past winter when a pipe burst.
The clubhouse is being renovated and will include a restaurant and sports bar that will have hours that extend beyond the golf club hours to serve area residents, Kane said. The clubhouse also has an outdoor cement patio with tables.
“The availability for amenities back there are fantastic,” Kane said. “The space is great. It overlooks the golf course so we’re going to put a lot of effort into that.”
Travis Raynor, who was an assistant pro at Eagle Nest, is the new head pro at Azalea Sands.
The course’s greens feature TifDwarf, an older form of Bermudagrass that precedes the proliferation of ultradwarfs that have become popular on the Strand.
Because the fairways weren’t overseeded, Kane said that allowed the new operators to immediately spray weeds and improve conditions in early March.
“That gave us a blank canvas to go in there and do our thing,” Kane said. “A lot of what we’re trying to do on the golf course side of it is get the place cleaned up . . . We’re going to get the best turfgrass conditions for our local players.”
In the next couple summers at Eagle Nest, Kane said a new driving range and practice area is being built, bunkers will be renovated and the 18th green will be rebuilt with a stacked sod pot bunker and new putting surface.
Over the past year, the 17th green and practice putting green were redone and new back “Perch” tees were built to make Eagle Nest the longest golf course in the state at more than 8,000 yards.
“The golf course is in fantastic shape and all the efforts we’ve put in have really paid off,” Kane said.
Varner assists juniors
The Carolinas Golf Foundation has partnered with PGA Tour player Harold Varner III and his HV3 Foundation to make impacting contributions to junior golf in the Carolinas.
Through donations made by the HV3 Foundation, the Youth on Course Carolinas program will be able to subsidize more than 1,000 rounds of golf for junior golfers.
Varner, one of the few black players on the PGA Tour in recent years, grew up in Gastonia, N.C., and graduated from East Carolina in 2012.
“I just know when I was growing up, I didn’t have much but I had a lot of accessibility,” Varner said in a CGA release. “Youth on Course is a great avenue to grow the game because they are giving access to junior golfers to courses they wouldn’t be able to play otherwise. I’m so pumped to be a part of this initiative along with the Carolinas Golf Association. It’s good to know that there are people out there working to grow the game the right way.”
The HV3 Foundation will also fund the CGA’s entry fee assistance program, which provides free entry for junior golfers in financial need to play in CGA and Tarheel Youth Golf Association (TYGA) events.
This story was originally published May 7, 2019 at 7:00 PM.
