World Amateur Handicap Championship's best golf course: West Course at Myrtle Beach National

MYRTLE BEACH, S.C. – The West Course at Myrtle Beach National isn’t Myrtle Beach’s best golf course. It’s not even MBN’s best course, that’s King’s North next door.

But the West Course is the best course I’ve played in seven rounds of the World Am tournament. Why?

The layout is suited perfectly for this event, notorious for six and sometimes near seven-hour rounds. Today, our round was right about at five hours. You laugh, but that is in fact monumental and easily the fastest round I’ve played so far in the World Am.

The West Course isn’t exactly wide open, but there is little O.B. and no housing lining its holes. There are water hazards but I saw only one ball go in today in our group. From the tips, where we played, the course was about 6,700 yards, so in damp conditions like it’s been this week, where your drives roll about six inches, it’s still plenty challenging. Aside from kind of a joke par-5 that was only 440 yards at River’s Edge, I haven’t seen anyone reach one in two all week thanks to soggy conditions.

Both those courses are also difficult to play the first time around, especially River’s Edge. The West Course however shows you everything from the tee. You don’t stand on any tees thinking “What the…???”

Our flight’s previous two courses, River’s Edge and Wachesaw East, are both built in golf communities and have loads of water hazards and O.B. The result is a lot of re-teeing, arguing over where to drop, looking for lost balls, scoring 10s, 14s and other unfathomable numbers. That equals a lot of driving up to a tee box and seeing not one group, but two groups on the tee ahead of you. In humid, August heat, it’s not pleasant.

But at West today, not once did we get to a tee box where another group was on the tee. I don’t think it’s coincidence myself and others shot far better today than yesterday. The course is a little easier, sure, but when you can hit shots without waiting, it makes a big difference.

I would imagine other courses that get a lot of applause from World Am golfers for their pace of play are the PineHills at Myrtlewood, Shaftesbury Glen and Waterway Hills, and maybe even Caledonia.