Myrtle Beach is the self-described Golf Capital of the World, and unlike most destinations that lean on one or two headliners, the Grand Strand backs it up with nearly a hundred courses within an hour's drive. The challenge isn't finding a tee time — it's choosing the right ones. These five are all genuinely open to visitors, each designed by a name you know, and each delivers something you can't get anywhere else on the coast.
1. The Dunes Golf & Beach Club
The Dunes Club is the course that put Myrtle Beach on the golf map. A Robert Trent Jones Sr. design that opened in 1948, it is the area's second-oldest course and remains its most historically significant, having hosted the U.S. Women's Open, six Senior PGA Tour Championships, and the PGA Tour Q-School finals — plus, in 2024, the first-ever PGA Tour event on the Grand Strand, the ONEFlight Myrtle Beach Classic. It sits among Golf Digest's 100 Greatest Public Courses and Golfweek's 2026 Top 100 Best Courses You Can Play.
The stretch you'll tell friends about is Alligator Alley, holes 11 through 13, capped by Waterloo — the par-5 13th that bends around Lake Singleton and has been ranked among the 100 best holes in America. This is the course to build a trip around: book it early, since it's the most requested tee time in town, and request a morning slot so the sea breeze is still gentle.
Caledonia, Dunes Club Among Golfweek's 2026 Top 100 Best Courses You Can Play ↗
Dunes Club, Caledonia Ranked Among America's 100 Greatest Public Courses ↗
2. Caledonia Golf & Fish Club
Caledonia was the first solo design of the late Mike Strantz, and it launched him into golf's highest tier. Set on the grounds of a centuries-old rice plantation in Pawleys Island, it squeezes a full championship layout onto little more than 100 acres of lowcountry land draped in live oaks and Spanish moss. The experience starts before you reach the first tee: the half-mile drive in, framed by an alley of soaring oaks, is routinely called the most dramatic entrance in golf. The 18th, a forced carry over water to a green shadowed by an antebellum-style clubhouse, is one of the game's great finishing holes.
Caledonia pairs perfectly with its sister course, True Blue — also a Strantz design — so book them back-to-back for the area's best one-two punch of contrasting architecture. Tee times here sell out early, so reserve well ahead of your trip, and plan a slow lunch on the clubhouse deck, where a gallery of golfers watches every approach into 18.
Caledonia, Dunes Club Among Golfweek's 2026 Top 100 Best Courses You Can Play ↗
Five Golf Courses That Remind You Why Myrtle Beach is Golf's Greatest Trip ↗
3. King's North at Myrtle Beach National
King's North is Arnold Palmer's lasting gift to the Grand Strand. Opened in 1973 and fully redesigned by Palmer in 1996, it once sat on Golf Digest's 100 Greatest Public Courses list and still earns 4.5 stars in the magazine's Places to Play. The headliner is the par-5 6th, 'The Gambler': two fairways off the tee, one a risky island strip that turns the hole into a reachable par 4 if the gamble pays off. The island-green 12th — guarded by bunkers shaped like the state of South Carolina — and an 18th escorted by more than 40 bunkers round out the most theatrical finishers on the beach.
King's North is one of three Palmer layouts at Myrtle Beach National, so it's the ideal anchor for a stay-and-play day at a single facility — add SouthCreek or the West Course for a second loop without moving the car. The Gambler suits aggressive players who love a risk-reward decision, while the generous forward tees keep it fun for higher handicaps.
Myrtle Beach National: King's North | Golf Digest Course Page ↗
King's North at Myrtle Beach National — PlayGolfMyrtleBeach.com ↗
4. Tidewater Golf Club
Tidewater is the only course in history to be named Best New Public Course in America by both Golf Magazine and Golf Digest, and Ken Tomlinson's 1990 design in North Myrtle Beach still shows why. Perched on a peninsula bluff between Cherry Grove Inlet and the Intracoastal Waterway, it packs nine waterside holes into a par-72 layout with Atlantic views that golfers describe as the 'Pebble Beach of the East.' Golf Digest ranked it 38th among America's 100 Greatest Public Courses for 2025–'26, and a full bunker renovation was completed in 2025.
Signature moments come early: holes 3, 4, 12, and 13 all run along the Cherry Grove marsh, with the par-3 12th carrying saltwater marsh to a bunker-flanked green. Book a weekday or afternoon tee time for a more relaxed pace, and note that the marshes add real strategic teeth — bring extra balls and plan your tee shots off the bunkers, not over them.
Tidewater Golf Club | Golf Digest Course Page ↗
The Crown Jewels: Premium & Nationally Ranked Courses — North Myrtle Beach Vacations ↗
5. TPC Myrtle Beach
TPC Myrtle Beach is the Grand Strand's only course to earn 5 stars from Golf Digest, and it plays like it. The 1999 Tom Fazio design — with tour pro Lanny Wadkins as player consultant — was built to host the Senior Tour Championship and has since hosted the Dustin Johnson World Junior Golf Championship. Fazio threaded the layout through towering pines, red oaks, and Lowcountry wetlands, with numerous water hazards, forced carries, and strategic trees making it a genuine championship test at a 145 slope.
This is the 'one serious round of the week' course: it's where the low handicaps in your group get their challenge, while multiple tee sets keep it fair for everyone else. The Dustin Johnson School of Golf is based here, so consider pairing the round with a lesson to fix whatever the course exposes. The clubhouse grille overlooks the 18th green and makes a natural 19th hole.
This guide was created with AI assistance using the linked sources. Course access, rates, and conditions can change; confirm details directly before booking.