Dunes Club is a Top 100 Golf Course and So Much More

The Robert Trent Jones Sr. design opened in 1948, making it just the second Myrtle Beach golf course to do so, and attracted the spotlight to a burgeoning destination. 

In a game that reveres tradition, the Dunes Club brought immediate credibility to Myrtle Beach, ultimately spurring the area’s emergence as golf’s premier destination. The layout, regarded as one of RTJ’s finest, has been superb since the moment it opened.

Playing along ocean dunes that provide uncommon, natural elevation changes, the front nine is is an inland test. The fairways are wide, as they are throughout the course, giving players a chance to swing away, but the Myrtle Beach golf course rewards precision, particularly on the flawless greens complexes. 

The opening side is capped by the par 3, 140-yard (from white tees) ninth hole, which features a green flanked by bunkers and a distant view of the Atlantic Ocean, setting the stage for the course’s most dramatic stretch. 

View the 380-yard Par 4 11the hole:

The Dunes Golf & Beach Club goes from very, very good to great on the back nine, highlighted by Alligator Alley – holes 11 through 13. That famed stretch plays along Lake Singleton and the swash from the nearby Atlantic Ocean, highlighted by the par 5 13th, otherwise known as Waterloo.

Myrtle Beach’s most iconic hole, Waterloo is a dogleg right that makes a 90-degree turn around Lake Singleton. As challenging as the water (and the alligators often sunning themselves) may seem, the hole doesn’t begin until players get to the multi-tiered green. Individually the 11th, 12th, 13th, 16th or 18th could be a “signature hole,” but at the Dunes Club they form the heart of one of America’s best courses. 

The layout’s impact on the area goes beyond rounds played. 

The Dunes Club has hosted the 1962 U.S. Women’s Open, the finals of PGA Tour’s Q-School in 1973 (Ben Crenshaw and Gary McCord earned their cards here), six Senior Tour Championships, and the 2016 PGA Professional National Championship. In 2017 the course will host the USGA Women’s 4-Ball Competition. 

When Myrtle Beach was a sleepy beach community, the Dunes Club made the area matter in the eyes of the wider golf world. So before (or after) you enjoy a superior round of golf, take a walk through the clubhouse and soak up a little bit of the course’s rich history.

The Dunes Club – which offers a top 100 experience from golf course to the grill room – has more than earned its place among America’s best golf courses.