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<p><em>Story by Chris King &amp; Ian Guerin</em></p>
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<p>With 90 courses, not including a few who fell by the wayside over the years, South Carolina’s Grand Strand has seven figures worth of visitors who are all talking and spreading the word.</p>
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<p>The Myrtle Beach golf market is strong, indeed.</p>
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<p>But it’s also a bastion of rumor mills that are often laughable and definitely not true. Our resident experts, Chris King and Ian Guerin, had a great time discussing some of their favorites they’ve heard throughout the years, dispelling them all one by one.</p>
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<p>They might have had a little too much fun.</p>
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<figure class="alignright size-large is-resized"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="1024" height="575" src="https://admin.mbn.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/DJI_0090-1024x575.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-10510" style="object-fit:cover;width:325px;height:200px" srcset="https://admin.mbn.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/DJI_0090-1024x575.jpg 1024w, https://admin.mbn.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/DJI_0090-300x169.jpg 300w, https://admin.mbn.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/DJI_0090-768x432.jpg 768w, https://admin.mbn.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/DJI_0090-1536x863.jpg 1536w, https://admin.mbn.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/DJI_0090-2048x1151.jpg 2048w" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></figure></div>

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<p><strong>Ian Guerin:</strong> I’m showing my recency bias here, but after seeing a social media post go far and wide over the weekend, I&#8217;ll never stop laughing at the idea that the “ruins” at <a href="https://www.mbn.com/course/love-at-barefoot-resort">Barefoot Resort’s Love Course</a> were some centuries-old structure. It&#8217;s a fun story, but it’s definitely not true. Us locals have known for some time that Davis Love III designed and erected the brick and stone “remains” as a visually appealing effort to help the course stand apart from its Barefoot neighbors, not to mention the rest of its nearby competition. From hearing that this was a Civil War-era home destroyed in the Battle of Myrtle Beach (definitely not a thing) to this being the original clubhouse (the course opened in 2000), the stories seem to get better with time.</p>
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<p><strong>Chris King:</strong> That&#8217;s always a good one, and it&#8217;s not going away any time soon, as I recently had to break it to someone that they were faux ruins! Most of the rumors you hear revolve around courses closing or even reopening. One of my favorites is the intrigue that surrounds Marsh Harbour, a Dan Maples design that was once one of the area&#8217;s prettiest and most popular layouts. Even 20 years after it closed, people still talk about the course and its mysterious property owner Ladane Williamson, who was once rumored to be living onsite. You still occasionally hear talk about someone buying and reopening the course. Let me dispel that rumor for the few remaining hopefuls: Marsh Harbour is gone forever. </p>
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<p><strong>IG:</strong> The hope attached to course closings is always “This isn’t permanent. Something else will come along or they’ll change their minds.” It extends even after homes have replaced fairways and roads have replaced cart paths. I get the sentiment, sure, but folks filling in the blanks is sort of the crux of this whole thing, right? People believed Wicked Stick was on the verge of re-opening its doors any day now because they left the netting up around the driving range for years before eventually taking it all down. But since it was off a busy stretch off U.S. 17 just south of Myrtle Beach, there was a constant reminder for folks driving by it every day.</p>
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<figure class="alignright size-full is-resized"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="866" height="643" src="https://admin.mbn.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/World-Am.png" alt="" class="wp-image-10511" style="object-fit:cover;width:325px;height:200px" srcset="https://admin.mbn.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/World-Am.png 866w, https://admin.mbn.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/World-Am-300x223.png 300w, https://admin.mbn.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/World-Am-768x570.png 768w" sizes="(max-width: 866px) 100vw, 866px" /></figure></div>

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<p><strong>CK:</strong>  For me the craziest rumor/question I get doesn&#8217;t involve a golf course but an event. I&#8217;m always shocked when someone asks me about the <a href="https://myrtlebeachworldamateur.com/">World Amateur Handicap Championship</a> moving to a different locale. For those that might not be familiar with the World Am, it&#8217;s a 3,200-player, 72-hole, net stroke play golf tournament that attracts players from all 50 states and more than 20 different countries. People will ask, &#8220;I&#8217;ve heard the World Am is moving next year, is that true?&#8221; My immediate response is, &#8220;Who told you that and why would you ever believe a word they say?&#8221; The World Am is a Myrtle Beach event. That would be like moving The Masters from Augusta! If someone ever brings this up to you, tell them they are crazy. There is a much better chance Marsh Harbour and Wicked Stick will reopen!</p>
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<p><strong>IG:</strong> Exactly. We’re sure to see rumors gain traction with the <a href="https://myrtlebeachclassic.com/">Myrtle Beach Classic</a>, too. The area’s first-ever PGA Tour event and first major professional tournament in more than two decades will stoke the fill-in-the-gap flames because it’s an easy talking point. But as I learned early in my college journalism, even if your mother says she loves you, check it out. It’s led me to discover real facts about our local courses and events, and &#8211; because I’m such a swell guy &#8211; dispel some of the myths about Grand Strand golf over the years. Like folks do with the Love ruins or events or course closings, there’s also a clear misunderstanding of the market in general. So many courses means so many different approaches to the business model. From tee time rates to how busy a bag drop is and what that means for your round to pace of play, the market itself is very much a living, breathing entity.</p>
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<figure class="alignright size-large is-resized"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="1024" height="768" src="https://admin.mbn.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/TPC-Myrtle-Beach-ND-1024x768.jpeg" alt="" class="wp-image-10513" style="object-fit:cover;width:325px;height:200px" srcset="https://admin.mbn.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/TPC-Myrtle-Beach-ND-1024x768.jpeg 1024w, https://admin.mbn.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/TPC-Myrtle-Beach-ND-300x225.jpeg 300w, https://admin.mbn.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/TPC-Myrtle-Beach-ND-768x576.jpeg 768w, https://admin.mbn.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/TPC-Myrtle-Beach-ND-1536x1152.jpeg 1536w, https://admin.mbn.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/TPC-Myrtle-Beach-ND-2048x1536.jpeg 2048w" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></figure></div>

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<p><strong>CK:</strong> Right. While we all think of the Myrtle Beach golf community of being a monolith, the reality is, it&#8217;s a collection of relatively small businesses that when taken together create the game&#8217;s most popular destination. While rumors are occasionally harmful, for the most part they are easily dispelled &#8211; unless you are among the tin foil hat wearing crowd &#8211; and there is a positive to them in that they are a reflection of the passion people have.</p>
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<p><strong>IG:</strong> We see that on the flip side, too. Folks bump into a celebrity athlete or musician or something one time on a course and they start to believe it will happen every time and start keeping their eyes peeled. Heck, my daughter still mentions the time I “played golf with Darius Rucker” when he was a hole behind me and we never got within 600 yards of each other. The rumors and innuendo can be fun. And, like you said, if rumors aren’t being spread it’s because no one cares.</p>
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