Some of you are badly underrating True Blue, IMHO. Not to overvalue rankings, but it actually ranks higher in the most recent Top 100 Public courses list. I like Caledonia better for the scenery and the traditional feel, but it is a close, close call. TB is a great golf course, and in many ways more memorable than Caledonia. Certainly on a second play, you will recall more of your previous round at TB that Caledonia.
I would also disagree with those who consider TB too severe for high handicappers. I have scored better at TB both years, once playing TB first, once playing Caledonia first. I played all 4 rounds with the same high-handicapper, and he didn't do appreciably better or worse on either course.
TB is classic Strantz, in that it APPEARS visually much, much harder than it is, as Bill Gayne explains above. This is very much the case at Tobacco Rd. and Tot Hill Farms, for instance. Caledonia is NOT typical of Strantz in that it is very straightforward and traditional; the fact that he designed two great but totally different courses across the street from each other is great proof of Strantz' genius.
If you don't think TB is a great course, you need to play it again! Just pick a different set of tees!
The back set is 7000, but the second set is still 6800, which at the coast is far too long for most. The third set is 6400, and plays longer. My guess is that most people automatically go to the second set out of habit and/or ego, and just can't handle that yardage. Caledonia, by contrast, is only 6500 from the tips, and 6100 from the second set. My guess is that the 700 yd difference between the second set of tees accounts for at least 6 strokes on your round. (What would most of us make on a 700 yd. par 5?)
By any reasonable standard, TB is among the top public access courses in the country, much less at Myrtle Beach.