Not a uniformly great week for the golf-course-designin' Joneses

[Tim Gavrich]

RTJ Sr.'s Waterway Hills Golf Course in Myrtle Beach will close at the end of the month. For those who have been to the area, it's the one with the gondola ride across the Intracoastal Waterway to the first tee.


http://www.myrtlebeachonline.com/sports/golf/article24829375.html


Waterway Hills is/was one of the few remaining Myrtle Beach-area courses without housing all over the place. I never did play WH, but it's a shame that L-Star would rather than close it than try and figure out a way to make it work. Nevertheless, there are still more courses in the area than it can handle, so contraction in the abstract is warranted.


The only remaining RTJ Sr. course in the area is the Dunes Golf & Beach Club. It's also worth noting that four (!) Rees Jones- designed courses have closed in the area in recent years:
 
- Robbers Roost
- Gator Hole
- Belle Terre
- Wild Wing - Falcon

[Michael Whitaker]

The only Rees Jones course remaining in MB is Arcadian Shores... one of his early efforts (the 1st?) and a good layout. It was supposed to have a major renovation. Did that ever happen?

[Mark Pritchett]

Mike,


Didn't Rees do the original routing for Tidewater?  If so, is the current routing pretty much the same. 


Mark

[Michael Whitaker]

According to Rees he did the routing and was then stiffed by Tomlinson, who finished the course himself. As far as I know it is Rees' routing.

[Mark Pritchett]

Thanks Mike, I thought I remembered something to that effect. 

[Jeff_Brauer]

I always needle Rees that the kept the "good course" at Wild Wing, the Nelson/Brauer designed Avocet.  Rees being the classy guy he is, he always takes it graciously and has even gone out of his way to mention it to others.

[Tim Gavrich]

The only Rees Jones course remaining in MB is Arcadian Shores... one of his early efforts (the 1st?) and a good layout. It was supposed to have a major renovation. Did that ever happen?

It would be cool to see a renovation/restoration effort at Arcadian, but I have no idea whether that's in the cards now, given the massive shakeup in the ownership of it and many other area courses. I think they removed a few hundred trees, at the very least.

I believe there are still two "full" Rees courses on the Grand Strand - besides Arcadian, one of the three courses up at Sea Trail on the NC side, is his. But still, two for six may be an okay day on the baseball diamond, but it's not much good in golf.

[Eric Strulowitz]

Sad, have played that course many times.

Not a great track by any stretch, but was fun and very affordable.  Just good basic golf.

[Michael Whitaker]

The only Rees Jones course remaining in MB is Arcadian Shores... one of his early efforts (the 1st?) and a good layout. It was supposed to have a major renovation. Did that ever happen?

It would be cool to see a renovation/restoration effort at Arcadian, but I have no idea whether that's in the cards now, given the massive shakeup in the ownership of it and many other area courses. I think they removed a few hundred trees, at the very least.

I believe there are still two "full" Rees courses on the Grand Strand - besides Arcadian, one of the three courses up at Sea Trail on the NC side, is his. But still, two for six may be an okay day on the baseball diamond, but it's not much good in golf.

I don't usually think about the NC courses... you know why... so I forgot about Sea Trail.