Dunes Golf & Beach Club

Before the Grand Strand had 80-plus courses, before the package deals and the billboard advertisements along Highway 17, there was the Dunes Club. Robert Trent Jones Sr. designed it in 1949 on a stretch of oceanfront land north of what was then a small resort town. Myrtle Beach golf, as an industry and a destination, traces its origin story to this property.

The course has earned the top ranking among Myrtle Beach layouts from Golf Digest, Golf Magazine, and Golfweek. It has hosted multiple PGA Tour events, including iterations of the old Greater Greensboro Open that relocated here in the 1970s and 1980s. The membership rolls have included figures of note in Southern golf for decades. None of which would matter if the course itself had not aged well. It has.

Jones Sr. built his reputation on courses that looked natural but played strategically, and the Dunes Club is a clear expression of that philosophy. The routing moves through coastal dunes, maritime forest, and along Singleton Swash, a tidal creek that comes into play on several holes. The terrain provides enough natural movement to make the architecture feel embedded in the landscape rather than imposed on it. Trees have matured over seven decades, narrowing some corridors and adding strategic value to holes that might have played more openly in 1949.

The course stretches to 7,450 yards from the championship tees, with a slope of 148. Those numbers place it among the longest and most demanding layouts in the region. But the difficulty at the Dunes Club is not merely a function of length. Jones's greens are large by modern standards, shaped with the gentle rolls and shelves that characterized his work. They reward iron play that accounts for slope and pin position. Simply hitting the green is rarely enough; the approach must find the correct quadrant, or the first putt becomes a lag exercise.

The most celebrated hole is "Waterloo," the 13th. A par 5 that doglegs sharply left around Singleton Swash, it asks the player to decide at the tee how much of the water to challenge. The aggressive line shortens the hole significantly but requires carrying the ball over 200 yards of tidal marsh. The conservative play, out to the right, leaves a long third shot to a green that slopes toward the water. It is a strategic puzzle that holds up after repeated play, which is the hallmark of lasting architecture.

But the 13th is not the only hole of consequence. The opening stretch of four holes establishes the course's character immediately. The 1st is a substantial par 4 that plays through a chute of oaks to a well-bunkered green. The 2nd, a par 5, introduces the swash as a lateral hazard. By the time a player reaches the 4th, a long par 3 over sand to an elevated putting surface, the course has communicated its expectations clearly: this is a place for controlled, purposeful golf.

Access to the Dunes Club requires some planning. As a semi-private facility, it is not available through standard online tee-time brokers. Playing access for visitors is typically arranged through affiliated hotels and package providers, or through direct contact with the club. Rates are estimated in the $200 to $300 range depending on season and method of booking. The process is less convenient than booking a public course through GolfNow, but the additional effort is proportional to the quality of the experience.

The clubhouse is a low-slung structure with ocean views, updated over the years but retaining the unhurried atmosphere of a mid-century Southern beach club. The practice facilities include a driving range and putting green. Caddies are not regularly available, and walking is generally limited to member play. The club maintains the course with the care that its ranking demands; conditioning is consistently among the best on the Grand Strand, with greens that run true and fairways that provide clean lies throughout the playing season.

One element worth noting is the club's relationship to its history. The Dunes Club does not commodify its past with excessive signage or museum-style displays. A few photographs in the clubhouse, a tasteful plaque or two. The history is in the routing, in the mature trees that Jones could not have anticipated when he walked the property in the late 1940s, in the way the 13th still generates conversation in the grill room after a round.

For serious golfers visiting Myrtle Beach, the Dunes Club occupies a category of its own. It is not the most accessible course in the area, nor the most convenient to book. It does not offer the resort amenities or the package-deal pricing that define the Grand Strand experience for most visitors. What it offers is a round of golf on a course that has earned its reputation over 75 years, designed by one of the most important architects of the 20th century, maintained to a standard that honors the original intent. That is a different kind of value, and for the right player, it is worth every dollar and every phone call required to secure a tee time.