This past week I was able to get out and play the Wachesaw Plantation Club (Tom Fazio, circa 1986) in Murrells Inlet, SC.
It was a very interesting course for the lowlands around Myrtle Beach and what I found particularly interesting was that it differed considerably from Tom Fazio's general style. In the "Confidential Guide", Tom Doak gave it a "6" and called it basically as good as anything in the area, and I'd have to agree.
Many of the holes feature convex features that truly contrasted with a "framing" approach that Fazio is generally known for. The course also featured a number of classically inspired holes such as the almost reverse redanish par three 17th, the tiny green on the par five 8th, the heavily contoured fairways (and general lack of parallel mounding) on most holes, the punchbowl green of the driveable 14th par four with the green obscured by Mae West mounding, the blind approaches resulting from being on the wrong part of the fairway, the artistic "waste areas" on a number of holes that featured almost Pete Dye-like shelving and fall offs, with large expanses of sand, and the greens which featured more in terms of overally slope than heavy internal contouring.
It had me wondering if perhaps Mike Strantz was involved? I know he was working in the general area for Tom Fazio at that time and he later worked at the Legends for Larry Young before building Caledonia and True Blue.
Does anyone know if he was an associate onsite at Wachesaw Plantation Club? In any case, the course is probably as strategically interesting as any I've seen from Tom Fazio and it's worth a visit.