As usual with a Tom Doak design, this course had some width and a good variety of holes. Although the starter told me this was a links course (I chuckled), it was very soft despite no rain in the area for 2 weeks. I could see this style of design working well on firm fescues but not in Myrtle Beach.

There were some very nice holes amongst the trees early, especially the 2nd, but when you stand on the wide open 4th tee, its hard to tell which hole to aim down. There was little to no definition, so it was a bit of hit and hope. I thing this area of the course would benefit from some tree planting, I cant remember many of the holes from this area of the course, they all looked similar. The 5th was a beautiful par 5 trough the trees but the little center line bunker was horrible - I did not see any benefit to picking a side to miss it. The 6th has a bunker protruding up in front of the green that looks exactly like something from Walton Heath. The only other holes that stood out were 13 and 18.

Although there were some very nice holes, I found the holes built on uninteresting terrain to be dreary. Doak is a minimalist by design but I wish he would move more dirt to give some of those holes more character. I would rate this course a 4 on the Doak scale. If you want to see how a wide strategic course should be designed, pop down the road to True Blue which is on another level.

I look forward to playing the Moorland course next, I've been told its the best of the 3 at the resort.