Course Reviews
| Course Name |
Tidewater Golf Club |
| Location |
Mrytle Beach, South Carolina, USA |
| Comments from Dick Pitsch, Champaign, Illinois, USA |
| A Beautiful course set amoungst the trees with several gorgeous views of the tidewater basin. Many interesting hazards come into play if played from the tips. A must play for any trip to M.B. |
| Comments from Norman Lang, South Carolina, USA |
Tidewater has a beautiful layout and is a fantastic challenge of your golf skills. Slightly inland from the coast, Tidewater uses the wetlands of the South Carolina Low Country as its backdrop. Having read about this course in several golfing publications, my expectations were high for my round. Unfortunately, I regret the $70 spent there last week (8/12/97).
I measure a course by several criteria. Course condition, playability, management, and intangibles. Unfortunately, the bentgrass greens were somewhat spotty. A few had bare patches of an undeterminable nature. Also, though I tried my best to avoid them, I found a bunker or two. Unfortunately, these were not very consistent. Be aware that I am comparing the traps, not the waste bunkers which are numerous. The greenside traps were of two distinctly different consistencies. Some were white course sand that could be played out of with a degree of confidence. About half the traps, however, contained a fine gray-white "silt". This silt caused the ball to plug and blasting out required a full swing a la "John Daly". Even then, striking the sand a half inch further behind the ball than intended would leave you in the trap. This silt looks conspicuously like the silt found on the banks of the "Inter-coastal Waterway." The stuff should be outlawed.
The playability of the course is undeniable. Its challenging. It rewards and punishes. The ruff penalized but recovery is possible. A ball in the woods, however, is A.M.F.
The management at Tidewater does take steps to ensure that you can play a round in 4 1/2 hours. There is a video at the bag drop that warns of slow play and the steps the "player assistants" will take if a warning is not heeded. Also, the tees have handicap ratings to assist a player in making their choice of tees to play from. The video actual says that the pro-shop will assist you in making a tee time at another course is you do not think you can complete your round in 4.5 hours. Also, we had made a tee time for two and showed up with a third which they accommodated without a problem.
The intangibles are where I have some of my biggest complaints with Tidewater. First Tidewater, and seemingly every other course at Myrtle Beach, has their grounds crews out between 9 & 12 mowing, trimming, raking, digging, spraying, etc. This makes no sense since this is peek playing time and darned hot during the summer months. I send a lot of time playing a good public course in High Point, NC. called Jamestowne. The course superintendent and head greenskeeper get the crews out at dawn and the mowing and general maintenance is complete or finishing as the first group tees off before 8:00. Tidewater could and should do the same.
Second, why would any course place only two rakes around a bunker 40 yards long and 20 yards wide? This slows play, it gives lazy players an excuse for "raking" the trap with their feet, and makes the course look cheap. Tidewater needs to spend some money on rakes.
Third, there is not enough water or beverage cart personnel on the course. This may sound silly to some, but it is necessary when playing in heat indexes of 100 degrees.
Lastly, wait a couple of years to go to Tidewater. There is a massive construction boom whose noises permeates your round. The most common sound heard on the course was not the chirp of birds. Rather the rhythmic pounding of hammers set to the contrapuntal beeping of dump trucks and the roaring base of backhoe diesels added an unwelcome distraction.
One man's opinion for what it's worth.
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| Comments from Dan Demaree, Columbus, Ohio, USA |
| I paid $95.00 to play the course on a cool, rainy day and didn't feel shortchanged. The layout is beautiful and challenging without being tricked up. I especially liked the fact there were no out of bounds stakes on the course. If you could find the ball, you could play it. The mostly wooded fairways made it easy to shape shots. It's a great course now that will only get better with time. |
| Comments from Chris Alcivar, Charleston, South Carolina, USA |
| While I found the Tidewater Course extremely challenging, I was dissapointed by the staff at Tidewater. I found them to be inattentive and rude. The folks in the real estate office were very stand offish as they seemed to tell several untruths. I sugges t the management of Tidewater be replaced with reputable people. |
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