Course Review: Quirky hole layouts make Blackmoor Golf Club unique

Blackmoor Golf Club is no cookie-cutter layout. It gives you a departure from the norm.

Legend Gary Player used some imaginative design principles on the site of a former rice plantation, incorporating into his layout some blind shots, one hole that can play as a drivable par-4 or one of six dogleg-right holes, a tree that splits a par-4 fairway, and a lot of mounding interspersed with bunkers framing many holes.

“It’s a great track for fun and challenging golf,” said area teaching and touring pro Joe Carbonell of Myrtle Beach, who took part in a review of the course in late August. “It’s a fun, quirky setup for all skill levels. A target golf layout and blind corners are a lot of fun.”

The intricacies keep the 25-year-old course interesting and help make up for a short length of 6,614 yards. “Lower handicaps may find it somewhat easier than other local courses,” Joe said.

Joining me and Joe in the review foursome were Seth Leonard of Conway, a U.S. Army veteran and student with a 28 handicap, and Dawn Norton of Conway, a cosmetologist and bartender with a 34 handicap.

Two of the course’s more unique holes are the par-4 eighth and 16th holes. The eighth can play as a 371-yard sharp dogleg right or a straight 290-yard hole through a fairly narrow chute through trees. “The eighth hole gives the option of going for it for an experienced player or playing it safe,” Seth said.

The 413-yard 16th is another dogleg right around a huge mound that makes the second shot blind, other than an arrow on a large tree behind the green signifying the green’s location. Big hitters may be able to get around the mound to see the green. The fairway is large but water lurks to its left.

Each hole at Blackmoor is set off on its own through thick forest and neighborhoods, and you notice the homes more on the commutes between holes than on the holes themselves.

“The course itself was away from the houses and secluded,” Seth said. “Although there were houses, they were separated from the course by trees so you felt you were on a golf course and not in a neighborhood.”

The course was in good condition for our visit and there were a lot of personal touches with flowers, plant beds and other landscaped areas.

“The staff does a great job caring for the course and it is the most well-marked course I’ve been to lately,” Joe said. “Aesthetically they did a good job here. The flowers are in the right place and everything.”

The course’s established TifEagle ultradwarf Bermudagrass greens are generally flat with a few exceptions and putted true and at a good speed. “The ball stays online and it doesn’t bounce,” Joe said. “This is a good course for customers who like good, flat greens.”

Because of construction for the widening of S.C. 707, the tee box and part of the fairway on the straightforward 412-yard par-4 is being taken over so the hole is temporarily shortened to a par-3 and likely will remain a reworked par-3 in the future.

So the course’s par has been dropped from 72 to 71, and back tee yardage has been reduced to 6,402 yards.

Likes

Dawn found the property to be well maintained and the employees to be cordial and accommodating. “The entire staff was awesome,” she said. “The starter was great and super-knowledgeable and he gave us some good tips and was enthusiastic.”

She also enjoyed the surrounding nature. “I loved the course, it was beautiful, and I loved all the butterflies and dragonflies,” she said.

Blackmoor has some of the area’s best local rates with green fees between $30 and $35, and a walk-in rate that peaks at $89. “It’s worth the rate for a tourist to experience and a great value for locals,” Joe said.

The group liked the overall condition of the course, and Seth particularly liked the condition of the greens and rough. “They keep their greens really nice and the rough is perfect,” Seth said. “The rough was not too difficult for experienced players to get onto the fairways.”

Dislikes

Joe didn’t use many mid-irons because of the shorter length of the course, and prefers courses without housing, though Blackmoor’s homes are seldom on top of fairways. “The houses do take away from the natural beauty of the golf course,” Joe said, “but the houses aren’t as easily hit as they are at some other courses around here.”

Seth found a few holes to be wet, albeit after rain in the days leading up to our round.

Dawn found the first couple holes to be challenging, particularly the punishing bunkers around the greens.

Par-3s

Blackmoor’s par-3s measure between 162 and 200 yards from the tips and between 140 and 170 yards from the white tees. “The challenge is fair on the par-3s and the layouts are gorgeous,” Joe said.

There were five par-3s for our group with the shortened sixth hole. The 182-yard second hole has a circular flat green with a pot bunker right and four bunkers in mounding behind the green, and the 162-yard fourth hole requires a carry over water to a green that slopes from right to left with a long narrow bunker to its left.

The sixth plays to 200 yards with a green that slopes slightly to the front. “All the par-3s give you a fair chance of getting up and down if you miss the green,” Seth said.

The green on the 166-yard 15th sits in an alcove amongst trees, is fronted by wetlands, has three bunkers front right and slopes from a right-side plateau then flattens. The right side of the green on the 174-yard 17th is hidden from the tee by mounding.

“The par-3s were great,” Dawn said. “The tee shots are fair. These are good holes for mediocre players.”

Par-4s

Four par-4s are more than 400 yards but they peak at 421, and five are 376 yards or less, though the length often includes a dogleg. “I like the challenge of the doglegs,” Dawn said, “but the par-4s are a little difficult for inexperienced players because they were all doglegs.”

The 421-yard first hole requires a carry over wetlands off the tee for all but the red tee, is somewhat narrow with a creek and out-of-bounds stakes right and features an elevated and flat green. The 376-yard fifth is a dogleg left that doesn’t require driver for many, and the 372-yard ninth is straightforward with water and a long bunker to the left off the tee.

The 332-yard 11th has a tree in the left-middle portion of the fairway about 200 yards from the back tee and features a two-tiered green that is higher on the right side. The 390-yard 14th is a funky dogleg right with a bunker to carry on the inside of the dogleg and water behind the fairway that continues along the left side of a green that slopes to the front and has a false front on the right side.

“The par-4s are a good challenge and have very interesting designs,” Joe said.

Par-5s

Both par-5s on the front nine have hazards crossing the fairway deep off the tee – wetlands on the 514-yard third hole and a bunker on the 544-yard seventh – and both on the back nine are doglegs.

“They were open off the tee and you could hit it as far as you wanted to despite the hazards crossing the fairways,” Seth said.

Wetlands cross the fairway about 320 yards from the back tee on the third hole, mounding and rough line the fairway on the second shot and the green is protected by a left bunker.

A waste bunker with some vegetation crosses the fairway again about 320 from the back tee and a 70-yard bunker protects the left side of the fairway to the green on the second shot. The green slopes mildly to the left and front.

The 499-yard dogleg-right 14th had a plateau landing area off the tee then wide open second shot to a green sloping sharply left to right. The 509-yard 18th is a dogleg left containing a long, narrow green with mounding and rough to the left and a bulkheaded pond buffered by a thin bunker to the right.

“The par-5s are reachable to low handicap players but still very challenging,” Joe said. “They are good fun layouts for higher handicap players. The risks are well worth it.”

Favorite holes

All three players enjoyed the split-fairway eighth hole. “The split design makes you think on your plan,” Joe said. It played 278 yards from the red tee. “I liked the choice,” Dawn said.

Joe also enjoyed the par-3 15th, saying “The hole is just gorgeous,” and the 411-yard par-4 10th hole, which is one of the course’s few dogleg lefts and allows aggressive drives to set up shorter iron approaches. A green that slopes mildly to the front is protected by three bunkers and is tucked into trees to the left. “The dogleg is beautifully designed,” Joe said.

The eighth hole played 270 yards from the white tee to reach the green directly. Seth also liked the par-3 fourth hole, which played 140 yards from the white. “The water was a great challenge for any golfer,” he said.

Least favorite holes

Joe found the par-4 first hole to be a little bland. “It’s kind of a flat and boring start, and good for higher handicap players,” he said.

Dawn’s least favorite hole was the par-5 third, which played 415 yards from the red tee and had about a 50-yard carry over wetlands on the second or third shot. “I don’t hit it that great and had to hit across a hazard,” she said.

Seth’s least favorite hole was the 12th, a dogleg-right par-4 that measured 342 yards from the white. The fairway ran out at 230 yards and a player had the option of trying to carry high trees on the inside of the dogleg. The landing area was wetter than on most holes. “It was tough to pick the ball clean off the wet fairway,” Seth said.

This story was originally published September 5, 2015 at 7:43 PM with the headline "Course Review: Quirky hole layouts make Blackmoor Golf Club unique."