Just Got Back From Myrtle (Waterway Hills)

[ragontona]

Was on a budget, so only played two courses in two days... Myrtle Beach National West Course and Waterway Hills. I was very excited to play Waterway, as it's a Robert Trent Jones design, and I had never played one of his courses before.

Disappointment doesn't even begin to describe how I felt afterwards.

My buddy and I had a 1:30 tee time, but another twosome didn't show up, so we got on at 12:52. That was the last nice thing that happened. We started alright, I pulled my five wood into the trees (yup, that's about right). Everything was right on track, though there were little waits at every tee. Then the back nine came, and everything went wrong.

Apparently, Waterway Hills offers Replay Rates for morning golfers, so they find a way to jam more golfers onto an already packed course. After the turn, we found out that we had two SIXSOMES going two groups ahead of us. After a couple of holes on the back nine, we'd drive up to the next tee box to see that the group ahead of us hadn't even teed off yet. It was all very frustrating, and impossible to find a rhythm. Plus, the way the back nine (the Ravine course) is set up, there are multiple instances of adjacent fairways, so it wasn't unusual to have players playing from other fairways several times per hole. Nothing like finally having the group ahead clear out of the way only to have a group two groups behind you hit into your fairway. SEVERAL TIMES PER HOLE. Pissed, tired, and completely out of sync, I ended up shooting a very sloppy 97. Our round that started at 12:52 pm, ended at 6:40 pm in the near dark.

We never once saw a course marshal the entire round. Absolutely no effort to keep pace of play moving along.

And the cherry on the Waterway Hills crapcake was the beer cart girl (or, more accurately, beer cart middle-aged trashy chick who thought Vermont was part of Canada). Yes, she was completely drunk, and would talk loudly while players were trying to tee off after their twenty minute wait.

The course itself was fine. Nothing tricky, greens were tough but fair. That course could be pretty good under a different management team.

So, if any of you are planning a trip to Myrtle this year, avoid Waterway Hills at all costs. That is unless, you've got an entire day to kill.

[gripitandripit]

  ragontona said:

So, if any of you are planning a trip to Myrtle this year, avoid Waterway Hills at all costs. That is unless, you've got an entire day to kill.

The only thing I liked about Waterway Hills was the tram ride across the waterway.

[ragontona]

  gripitandripit said:

The only thing I liked about Waterway Hills was the tram ride across the waterway.

Yeah, and even that was a headache. It was all good riding the tram to the course, but we had to stand in line for a half hour at the end of the round to get back to the parking lot. Not fun.

[flap]

All most got killed the one time I played it.Never went back.