Best Myrtle Beach Golf Courses:  Dunes Club Named Myrtle Beach Golf Course of the Year

Myrtle Beach’s most revered golf course has received one of the area’s most prestigious honors.

The Dunes Golf & Beach Club has been named the Myrtle Beach Area Golf Course Owners Association’s 2012 Course of the Year.

The MBAGCOA evaluates Golf Course of the Year nominees on four criteria: exceptional quality of the golf course, exceptional quality of the ownership and management, outstanding contribution to the community, and significant contribution to the game. By virtue of winning the award, Dunes Club becomes a candidate for state and potentially national honors.

“We are thrilled to be recognized as Course of the Year in the Myrtle Beach area,” said Dennis Nicholl, Dunes Club head professional. “To be selected from among so many fine golf courses in this area is truly an honor. We look forward to representing the Myrtle Beach golf industry as we advance to the state and national levels.”

The award is another in a long list of accolades for the Dunes Club. Golf Digest, Golf Magazine and Golfweek have long ranked the Robert Trent Jones, Sr. design among America’s top 100 public courses. The Grand Strand’s second oldest layout, the Dunes Club has also hosted some of golf’s most prestigious events, including the U.S. Women’s Open, six Senior PGA Tour Championships, and the finals of the PGA Tour’s Q-School.

The 13th hole, known has Waterloo, is the Dunes Club’s signature hole and the memorable crescendo of a three-hole stretch known as Alligator Alley. The par 5, which plays around Lake Singleton, has been featured on the pages of Golf Digest and hailed by the likes of World Golf Hall of Famer Dan Jenkins.

The 11th and 12th holes, both of which play along the swash from the nearby Atlantic Ocean, complete Alligator Alley, one of the finest stretches of golf in the nation.

The Dunes Club opened in 1949 and gave Myrtle Beach national cache as the area grew into America’s most popular golf destination, but the course’s value to the Grand Strand extends beyond national recognition.

The Dunes Club has been a bedrock of the community since its opening, hosting countless charity events and junior golf outings. The course also serves as the home course for the boys and girls golf teams at Myrtle Beach High School.

At the heart of the course’s engagement with the community are its ownership and a thriving membership.

The National Golf Course Owners Association implemented the award in 1996 and the MBAGCOA has since nominated courses from the Myrtle Beach area. Past recipients of the award include Founders Club (2011), Sandpiper Bay (2010) Shaftesbury Glen (2009), Grande Dunes (2008), Wachesaw Plantation East (2007), Burning Ridge (2006), TPC of Myrtle Beach (2005), Indian Wells Golf Club (2004), World Tour Golf Links (2003), Wild Wing Plantation (2002), Blackmoor (2001), Tradition Golf Club (2000), Bay Tree Golf Plantation (1999), Arrowhead Country Club (1998) and Myrtle Beach National’s King’s North (1996). Five of the Myrtle Beach regional winners – Burning Ridge, TPC, Wild Wing, Tradition, Arrowhead and King’s North – also captured the state award. World Tour was named as the national “Golf Course of the Year.”