The layout at Arcadian Shores Golf Club was the first solo project that Rees Jones undertook when he flew the nest from his father’s design company so it’s something of a sentimental favourite with the esteemed architect.
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The layout at Arcadian Shores Golf Club was the first solo project that Rees Jones undertook when he flew the nest from his father’s design company so it’s something of a sentimental favourite with the esteemed architect.
Arcadian Shores
Many have made a solid living as golf course architects under their famous father’s name, but Rees Jones — perhaps because of a wild hair or perhaps because of his famous feud with his brother — was the first Jones boy to split from father Robert Trent Jones’s design firm. His first project was Arcadian Shores, a public golf option on the north end of Myrtle Beach. A region that was well-saturated with courses even then,
Arcadian works with a long, skinny piece of property that squeezes between housing and a large outlet mall (where you can drop off your husband so that you, a serious golfer, can relax on the course).
Those who have played any number of the layouts Jones has created over the past 40 years will recognize his roots alive and well at Arcadian Shores. The first hole, a par five, plays to perhaps the most well-bunkered green on the course. Although there’s little altitude change to feed Rees’s future heroism, the designer took advantage of an inlet at the south end of the property, where players will need to make a lengthy carry across nearly 75 yards of water to reach the green on this par four.