<img decoding="async" alt="Jack Nicklaus Pawleys Plantation Golf Club" src="/media/images/Nicklaus_Marsh_600x30011.png" style="width: 600px;height: 300px" />
Story by Ian Guerin
MYRTLE BEACH, S.C. | Jack Nicklaus had not one, but two cracks at getting it right with a Grand Strand golf course design when he spent some significant time here back in the late 1980s. 
The first project was <a href="https://www.mbn.com/courses/pawleys-plantation">Pawleys Plantation Golf &amp; Country Club</a>, followed virtually days later by <a href="https://www.mbn.com/courses/long-bay-golf-club">Long Bay Golf Club</a>. Images of him adorn both to this day. More importantly, his design footprints do, too.
Nicklaus was, in his own words, a technician on the course during his playing days. As such, he took that same skill set to how he laid out courses, especially during the end of his competitive playing career &#8211; when he unveiled both Long Bay and Pawleys Plantation. Translation: He didn’t think golf should be easy, and he wanted players to work for every number they wrote down on the scorecard.
We’ve taken a few notes from the Golden Bear over the years, and we’re going to show how each of them are displayed at his two Myrtle Beach-area layouts.
PRECISION
Nicklaus believes that golf isn’t supposed to be a power game. He all but mocked how technology has watered down real strength during his trip her in the fall of 2018. As such, the attentions to details usually present themselves on his courses.
At Long Bay, we see that in the Par 4 No. 16. A massive waste bunker cuts the hole in half, all the while it doglegs slightly to the right.<img decoding="async" alt="" src="/media/images/Jack_at_PAPL_2_600x300.png" style="width: 300px;height: 150px;float: right" />
Hop down to Pawleys Island and you see that maybe no better anywhere else on the Strand than on his 16th hole at <a href="https://www.mbn.com/courses/pawleys-plantation">Pawleys Plantation</a>. There’s a wide landing area off the tee, but that’s where the friendly confines end. It’s followed up by a dogleg left, an unplayable natural grass and marsh area and then a large waste bunker that envelops the green.
BUNKERING
Nicklaus has been typecast as a bunker-heavy designer, and it’s not a coincidence why. During his playing career, he realized he could use them as a pathway of sorts to the green. He wants you to do the same.
We’ve already mentioned how he did that at <a href="https://www.mbn.com/courses/long-bay-golf-club">Long Bay</a>, but that’s just the beginning of what he did in Longs. On the Par 4, 315-yarder here, he designed what may be the ultimate bunker-important hole in our local view. All that tuning-fork shaped sand frames the entire fairway and even cuts off the green from the rest of the playing surface. And while not as extreme at Pawleys Plantation, he did use it time and again in slightly smaller doses. Nos. 1-4 all start you off with elongated waste bunkers that steer you right into the putting surface. We see it again on No. 8, No. 12 and once more on the finisher.
RESPECTING NATURE<img decoding="async" alt="Pawleys Plantation 13th Hole" src="/media/images/pawleys_social_soundoff_600x30011.png" style="width: 300px;height: 150px;float: right" />
Long Bay’s salute to the land Nicklaus was given takes only a crooked look upward. It is there that you’re going to see three blends of trees that often aren’t available on a single course. Maples, pines and oaks merge in the peripheral throughout. Much like the bunkers, they frame many of the holes and keep a soil-embedded system going for generations to come.
The Shortest Par 5 on the Grand Strand wasn’t simply some gimmicky hole that Nicklaus threw out there at <a href="https://www.mbn.com/courses/pawleys-plantation">Pawleys Plantation</a>. On a par 3 that plays less than 100 yards for the vast majority of players, that island green was positioned so to not disturb nature any more than humanly possible. Beyond it is marshland leading you right up to the brink of the Atlantic.
Ian Guerin has been covering sports and golf in South Carolina since 2004. His game has ebbed and flowed like the Atlantic, but he&#8217;s never had to explain to his kids why his round won&#8217;t be televised. You can follow along with the day-to-day conversation on Twitter <a href="https://twitter.com/iguerin" target="_blank" rel="noopener">@iguerin</a>

Long Bay And Pawleys Plantation: Nicklaus’ Two Myrtle Beach Designs Steeped In His Axioms

Courses in this Article

Pawleys Plantation Golf & Country Club

Long Bay Golf Club

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