Indian Wells is a Myrtle Beach Golf Favorite

The name Indian Wells has a coast-to-coast connection with golfers.

Many are familiar with the Indian Wells located in California: the resort hotel founded by legendary entertainers Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz in the ‘50s whose course eventually became the annual host for the PGA Tour’s Bob Hope Chrysler Classic.

But the Myrtle Beach golf scene has its own Indian Wells: the one designed by architect Gene Hamm in 1984, renovated by Hamm in 2002 and two years later named Myrtle Beach Area Golf Course Owners Association Golf Course of the Year.

For our purpose, let’s meet the East Coast’s Indian Wells.

Located in Garden City on Hwy 17, Indian Wells Golf Club is among the courses credited for making Myrtle Beach a golf vacation Mecca. Indian Wells is a less than 15-minute commute for players wanting to get in a quick 18 upon arrival into the Myrtle Beach International Airport. It’s a longtime favorite because of solid playing conditions and player-friendly challenges from holes 1-18.

In 2002, Hamm’s intention was to do a widespread landscape renovation and new bunkering. Indian Wells flip flopped the nines. So what used to be No. 9, is now Indian Wells’ closing hole and is fittingly the course’s signature test.  The 18th can be stretched 410 yards where accuracy is the key to par. In other words, avoid bunkers protecting both sides of the fairway and an inviting lake.

Hamm, a disciple of famed architect Robert Trent Jones, designed Myrtle Beach golf favorites Azalea Sands Golf Club and Beachwood Golf Club.

Only three holes at Indian Wells are absent of water. It’s a shot-maker’s paradise as players also have to navigate around tall pines, even some smack dab in the middle of fairways.

The 6,624-yard course is managed by the Classic Golf Group, who also oversees the Grand Strand’s Black Bear Golf Club, Burning Ridge Golf Club and Founders Club at Pawleys Island, all Myrtle Beach trip favorites.