[rboyce]

Teed off at 7am on the day after two inches of rain in Myrtle. The course drains well and they allowed carts on the fairway by the time we played our second nine. We started on the back, but these pictures are posted in the designed sequence 1-18.

The enormous practice range traces a semicircle from the nearby shelter to the one in the distance.


1st tee - Par four


2nd green - Par four


Lookback from 4th green - Par four


The harmless bunker in the middle of the 5th fairway - Par five


Except when...


6th tee - Par four


7th fairway - Par 4.5? (road hole style)


7th green (slope much?)


7th green part deux


8th tee - Par three


9th bunkers - Par four


Gratuitous GCA bag shot


10th tee - Par four (going back in time to a cloudy morning)


14th fairway - Par four


14th bunker


15th tee - Par four (maybe my fav hole on course)


15th fairway


15th bunker


16th Sideview - Par four (note the safe distance from featured bunker to 16th green on left)


16th sideview closeup


16th fairway (featured bunker a little scarier from this perspective)


16th bunker - one more closeup


17th tee - Par three


17th green - picture doesn't do justice to this huge undulating green. one player 5 putted.


18th tee - Par four


18th fairway


18th bunker


Enjoyed Heathland a lot. Thought the distance from the various tees were as thoughtful as any I've ever seen. Frequently one has to choose between ~7,000 or 6,100. Heathland has much better options and even playing third from the back I used a good variety of clubs. On some courses third from the back leads to driver - soft wedge sequence over and over.

There are some huge undulations on the greens and lots of deep bunkers. Another prominent feature is swales or bunkers between shot and green causing distortion to perceived distance. Some bunkers that looked scary were out of play and others that seemed harmless were in play.

Biggest drawback for me was that the piece of land is not naturally visually interesting. The grown in vegetation on the course provides some nice views though.

Heathland would definitely be in my top 3-5 courses in Myrtle along with True Blue, The Dunes, and Tidewater.

[Paul Carey]

Thanks for the pics.  I will have to make the drive there soon. 

One question?  "harmless bunker" on #5.  Does not look that harmless to me!

[Bill_McBride]

Paul, I think he left out the  emoticon!

[Tom_Doak]

rboyce:  Thanks for the pictures.  It's been several years since I have been there.

I can't believe how the myrtle bushes have grown.  When we built the course it was wide open and Mr. Young got a great deal on a lot of myrtle bushes.  4-5 years after the course opened they started to have an impact -- sort of looked like gorse bushes.  Now they look like TREES -- particularly on #8 and #9.

[rboyce]

Tom,

Funny, because I almost asked the players I was paired with if those bushes were gorse - they had that yellow coloring. The course review on GCA says this about the vegetation...

"Only on the fifth hole do trees have any say in the strategy of how to play a hole. Otherwise, the course is handsomely dotted with seven foot or less low lying scrub." - GCA

But, clearly the vegetation is way over 10-15 feet all over the course. I suspect the disconnect is due to the GCA course review being at least a few years old.

I wish my picture of 17 tee turned out brighter. The 17th along with the 15th were two of my favorites on the course. There must be at least two elephants buried underneath the 17th green.

Is the vegetation in the area in front of the 6th tee supposed to cause a partially blind shot? We weren't sure if that was intentional or just a little overgrown.

Rob

[Tom_Doak]

It's growing.  They've got to cut it back every now and then, I guess they haven't for a while.

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