A Rainy Day at Whispering Pines Golf Course

We gambled against the predictions of rain on the day we were scheduled to play at Whispering Pines Golf Course in Myrtle Beach just north of the airport and unfortunately we lost the bet. It's a shame, because this is probably a great course when you're not being drenched in a sudden downpour. Unlike many of the courses in the area, there are no homes along this golf course, just tall trees, well placed bunkers and some water holes to make it interesting.

From the men's white tees the yardage is 6245 yards with a slope rating of 70.9/192. For the red tees it plays 5176 yards with a slope rating of 70.0/119. If you play the most difficult tees, the yardage is 6771 with a rating of 73.4/131 and the senior tee yardage is 5497 and 66.8/115.
On a sunny day, this would be a fun course--we had to head for the parking lot early when the skies turned black and we knew we were in for it. Should we return next year as planned, I'm sure we'll give this course another try because the opportunity to play without fear of hitting condos and townhouses is rare in a reasonably priced golf course in this town. The only distraction is the noise of the airplanes taking off on a few of the holes that border the airport. But the airport isn't that busy so it's not much of a problem. We enjoyed this course even if we didn't get to finish our game.

Island Green Golf Course

I'm a little late with this one, but last week Don, Gary, Denny and I played the Island Green Golf Course. They had a special rate of $28 to play 18 holes with a riding cart that also included lunch and a beer/fountain drink (more on that later.) We were able to get a late morning tee time, the weather was ideal and our playing? Well, some of it was good, some not so much.

The course plays 6043 yards from the white tees with a slope/rating of 69.1/120. From the red tees the course is 4656 yards long with a course rating of 63.6/108. There are some houses along the course, there are a lot of old growth pines and waste bunkers as well as some deep lipped sand bunkers around the greens. The greens themselves are incredibly fast--none of us ever really adjusted to the speed of the greens and so our putting was rather abysmal.

This is a pretty golf course and the rate of play isn't too bad. When Denny and I played here in the past, you would sometimes see an alligator sunning himself on the island green at hole eighteen. This year he was nowhere to be found. Be advised that you are NOT supposed to stop and eat your free lunch at the turn--it messes up their timing or something. The four of us did stop for lunch and were chastised by the starter when we came out of the clubhouse. Lesson learned. Eat after play.