Four Grand Strand courses among Golf Magazine’s top 100 public layouts

Golf Magazine unveiled its biennial list of America’s “Top 100 You Can Play 2016/2017” a ranking of the nation’s best public-access courses, in its September issue and four Grand Strand layouts made the cut.

Two are in the top 40.

Caledonia Golf & Fish Club in Pawleys Island, a 6,526-yard par-70 designed by Mike Strantz, is No. 29 after being at No. 27 in the 2014 ranking. The Dunes Golf and Beach Club, a 7,370-yard par-72 designed by Robert Trent Jones, has moved up three spots since the last ranking to No. 39.

Both True Blue Golf Club, another Strantz design that is a 7,126-yard par-72, and the Davis Love III-designed course at Barefoot Resort, a par-72 that measures 7,047 yards, maintained their rankings from 2014 at Nos. 77 and 85, respectively.

The magazine also named the top 20 course you can play in South Carolina and the Strand dominated the list with six courses in the top 10 and 13 in the top 20.

On the S.C. state list are No. 3 Caledonia, The Dunes Club (4), True Blue Golf Club (6), Barefoot Resort Love (7), Tidewater Plantation & Golf Club (8), TPC Myrtle Beach (10), Barefoot Resort Fazio (12), Grande Dunes Resort Course (13), Barefoot Resort Dye (14), Myrtle Beach National King’s North (15), Heritage Club (17), Pawleys Plantation (18) and Legends Resort’s Heathland Course.

Among the top 20 courses in North Carolina, Leopard’s Chase at Ocean Ridge Plantation in Sunset Beach is No. 9, Tiger’s Eye at Ocean Ridge is No. 12, Rivers Edge Golf Club in Shallotte is No. 16 and Cape Fear National in Leland is No. 18.

Tim Cate, whose office is at Ocean Ridge, designed Leopard’s Chase, Tiger’s Eye and Cape Fear National, and Rivers Edge is an Arnold Palmer design.

This story was originally published August 15, 2016 at 6:58 PM with the headline "Four Grand Strand courses among Golf Magazine’s top 100 public layouts."