Caledonia

Caledonia was the standout course on my one previous trip to Myrtle Beach in 2007 that also included the Heathland and Moorland at the Legends (both pretty good I thought) and the Fazio course at the Barefoot Resort (blandest Fazio course that I’ve played). I returned to Myrtle Beach in spring 2021 to cross off all the other courses that interested me (The Dunes, True Blue, Tidewater, the other Barefoot courses) and I was curious if Caledonia would retain its place at the top of the list and perhaps more contentiously, whether it would compete favorably with the top public courses from my home state of Michigan. I’m pretty comfortable in saying that it’s the best (at least public) course in Myrtle Beach but while it’s a very good course with a lot of strengths, I think that a few of my Michigan favorites (Greywalls, Forest Dunes, The Loop) come out just ahead.

First of all, this is a course with some serious strengths. The routing is very tight and walkable. It’s also an outstanding piece of landscape architecture; Strantz’s shaping, waste bunkers, and ponds blend beautifully into the landscape of mature live oaks and ponds. This is one of the best looking courses that I’ve seen—and it certainly looks older than its age of just 25 years. The course is still in its youth but has the look of an older, wiser man.

And the landscape architecture doesn’t just have an aesthetic function. The shaping, bunkers, and ponds create a course of great strategic interest and variety. A hole like the par 3 sixth is beautiful but also very interesting because the bunkers narrow the green and make a shot played to the back more risky while a shot to the front of the green is much easier. But if the pin is in the back, that leaves a long putt across a heavily rolling green. And that’s another of the course’s strengths—the green contours are excellent.

My primary issue with the course is that the green complexes are quite severe—very small and typically with steep drop-offs immediately at the sides. To be fair, there are a few greens that are larger and more receptive (7,8), but the small, severe greens make this course very difficult for someone who isn’t on with their irons. It’s a fairly short course (~6,500 yards but par 70) so you might say that these elements fit together…and moreover that they fit with the general intimate aesthetic of the whole place. But—and this is consistent with a lot of the better modern courses that I’ve seen—I think that I’d prefer it if Strantz had toned down the edges of a few of these greens a bit, especially given how small and narrow many of them are.


​The short par 4 first is across the entrance drive on land that Strantz apparently asked the owner to acquire before he could feel confident that there was enough land here to build 18 holes. It’s a tight-looking driving hole with bunkers to about 215 on the left and picking up at about 260 on the right, but the gap between them should leave plenty of room. The green is elevated but a bit larger and more circular than most others.

The opening drive. Although it doesn't look it, there's 40-50 yards of bunkerless fairway between the first bunkers on the left and the second on the right.

The approach to the elevated, fairly round green.

Two is a beautiful long par 5 with a waste area running up the right side and a bunker about 270 out on the left. This drive is fairly typical for the course—there’s a premium on a straight ball here. You probably won’t be able to reach the green in two and the hole is well designed for that—the green is skinny and angled from front-left to back-right. So it’s really important to place your layup up the left side of the fairway, especially if the pin is in the back-right as it was on this day.

Keep your ball up the left side on two to avoid trees and a waste bunker. Aim at the bunker and hit a soft fade if you can reach it.

Not many visual cues on the second but you'll want to play your layup up the left side because...

...the green angles from front-left to back-right around a bunker.

We can see this more clearly from behind the green.

Three is another beautiful hole, this time a medium-length par 3. While of obvious beauty, the real star here is the green, which is deep and gently multi-tiered. There’s also a nice rise at the back-left of the green that you can use to feed your ball to back-right pins. All-in-all, an excellent par 3.

Over a waste bunker to a deep, undulating green on three.

I thought that this green had some of the finest contours on the course.

Four and five are similar par 4s: medium length (400/420) with the primary driving hazard on the right and very elevated greens. Four is a gentle dogleg right with a green that angles front-right to back-left. It’s probably best to aim at or just left of the mound behind the green because over the green to the right is dead and there’s less room there than it looks. The only good miss on five is just short of the green in the apron. I found this green a little too built-up but the fact that it’s fairly wide does complement the course’s other, narrower greens.

Don't cut too much off the right side on four because the waste bunker encroaches and you can have tree trouble on your second.

The trouble up the right is more obvious on five.

This pin is on the far right edge of the fourth green and you want to be left of it.

Because as we can see from just short/right of the green, the green is shallow here and there's a steep drop off just over the back.

The whole fifth green is built up and the only good miss is just short.

The aforementioned par 3 sixth is one of those narrower greens holes. Strantz did a beautiful job here with the shaping and the bunkering. But you’d better hit a good iron short because there aren’t too many spots around the green here that leave an easy shot.

A deep but narrow green on the par 3 sixth.

And as we can see from the back, heavily contoured too.

The medium-short par 4 seventh is a controversial hole. The controversy is created by a live oak tree about 40 yards short of the green that block the approach to all but its far left side from most of the fairway. I think that works quite well in practice. First of all, if you drive the ball where you’re supposed to—near the junk on the left side—most of the green is pretty accessible. The tree is probably only 30 feet tall and as long as you don’t get greedy and try to drive it too far down the fairway (which also narrows so this isn’t a good idea anyway), you should be able to clear it. And shorter hitters who can clear it can pretty easily go under it. On top of that, the green is very large and receptive, with straight-forward chipping if you miss.

Especially from the back tees though, the hole does have an uncomfortable feel. But I don’t think that that’s a bad thing; I think it works pretty well in practice if you’re modest with your drive. I’d need to play it a few more times to feel comfortable (both in how to play it and judge it) but I think that this is one of those controversial holes that comes out on the good side of the divide ‘but is it good/bad?’ divide.

The drive from the back tee on seven is one of the most uncomfortable that I've played. I think that removing some of the junk left of start of the fairway would help make it a bit less awkward without compromising the design of the hole.

But as we can see here, if you're up the left side of the fairway, you can easily avoid the oak tree that blocks much of the green from the right side of the fairway.

The green is also large and receptive with little trouble at the edges. I think that this hole works.

The par 5 eighth is a tough driving hole that doglegs right over a series of fairway bunkers. I got in one of them and let’s just say that the rest of the hole went such that I forgot to take pictures of it. The approach is over a pond to one of the most steeply tiered greens that I’ve seen.

A very tough drive over fairway bunkers on eight.

The approach is over a pond to a steeply tiered green.

Nine is a very short (~120) par 3 that’s also a bit controversial, this time for it’s odd, diagonal, sort-of hourglass shaped green with steep drop-offs all around. One of the issues is that the hole feels shoehorned into the course because the tenth tee is next to the eighth green. The routing would be a bit more coherent if this hole were right behind the eighth green (where the practice green is) and played in the opposite direction. This routing clunkiness involving par 3s has been an issue on all three Strantz courses that I’ve played (this, Tobacco Road, and True Blue).

For some reason Strantz has us walk from the eighth green center-right across the practice area to the ninth tee lower left, play the opposite direction of the tenth, then cross the practice area again to reach the tenth in the lower right. I don't understand why he didn't flip the location of the practice area and the ninth hole.

The flip wedge ninth. You'd better have good distance control with that wedge.

The par 5 tenth was one of the holes that impressed me most the first time I played Caledonia. And it still is. The drive isn’t too complicated—most can just aim at the left bunker or if you can reach it, hit a soft fade off of it—but the rest of the hole is brilliant. The green is blind on the approach but there’s plenty of fairway out to the left, away from the big waste bunker.

But there’s also a big problem if you stray too far from the right fairway bunker—the deepest aspect of the green faces the right side of the fairway and it’s very narrow, meaning that the further left you are with your layup, the more you’re playing into the shallowest aspect of the green. More than most par 5s that I can think of, this one demands precision on the layup because even a 100 yard wedge shot from the fairway is very difficult if you have the wrong angle.

The drive on ten is a bit like the drive on two: aim at the left bunker and hit a gentle fade.

The trouble is up the right on the layup to ten...near where you should hit it.

The further left you are in the layup area...

...the worse the angle of approach.

This is also easy to see from behind the green.

And in the aerial.

The par 3 eleventh features in a lot of Caledonia’s promotional material and it’s not hard to understand why: it’s a beautiful setting with the creek meandering in front of the green. While this hole should only require a short iron, it’s very tricky because the green is quite shallow, especially if the pin is in the front-right like it was for us. There’s a bit more room if the pin is on the left side, but you have to carry more of the creek to get there (and there’s a pond on the left too). Again, quite demanding on the irons, but a good hole.

The promotional-material-worthy eleventh.

From short-right of the green, we can see that, as with several other greens, there isn't much room regardless of where they put the pin.

Twelve is another medium-length (~400 yards) par 4 to a severe green. The fairway is pretty generous for this course and the hole turns right at about 275. The green angles front-left to back-right and is perhaps the shallowest so far. It’s imperative to be up the left side of the fairway to open up the angle here but even if you do that, a slight miss (especially a pull) can leave you with a very difficult third. Unless you’re really on with your irons, it’s probably best to take one club less and play to the front-left of the green.

There's some room to play off the twelfth tee but you want to keep your drive up the left side.

The approach is to another angled...

...shallow green. I think more than just about any other green here, it's best to play conservatively here because misses short right and long left leave very tough pitches.

Thirteen, another fairly short par 4, is one hole that gives you a bit of a taste of what he’d have in store with future courses like Tobacco Road and True Blue. The hole doglegs left around another live oak that’s wider than it is tall. It’s best to play just to its right and like most holes here, 250 off the tee is plenty for a good player. The green is surrounded by a sea of sand although like the first and fifth greens, the green has plenty of width and depth.

The approach to the island thirteenth green.

Like the seventh, the choice of tees really matters on fourteen. From the regular tees, it’s a fairly short par four where you just need to keep it right of the big oak tree on the left. From the back tees, you go 60 yards back across a narrow swinging bridge and have a harrowing drive over water, sand, and alligators with encroaching forest on the right. A drive from here needs to be both long and straight.

Fourteen is a very difficult drive from the back tees over carnivorous reptiles and bunkers.

My drive was straight but not long so I had to play over the big oak tree that sits in the left waste bunker a few dozen yards short of the green. I was far enough back where I could do this…but my 7-iron looked like it carried the top branches by about 2 feet. The best angle into this green is from the center of the fairway, just right of the line of the tree. The green is deep and undulating, but also receptive. Overall I think that it’s a very good hole but unless you can comfortably drive it >275, I’d suggest staying on the cart path side of the bridge.

Here's a good place to drive it on fourteen. Unfortunately I couldn't reach it from the back tees and had to go over the tree on the left, which I just barely carried.

A very nice looking green complex with a horizontal dip in the middle.

Fifteen begins a very tough closing stretch. Regardless of which set of tees you play, it’s the course’s longest par 4, doglegging left around a long waste bunker. It’s crucial that you keep your drive up the left side here because while there’s plenty of room right, this leaves a very long approach to a narrow green entrance that’s well-protected by bunkers.

You need to be long and close to the waste bunker on the left on fifteen. Tough driving hole.

The very long approach from the right side of the fairway.

I wasn’t a huge fan of the aesthetic aspect of the shaping around the green but it serves a purpose: the mound behind the green contains accurate approaches. But if you get off line, you’re either shooting out of a deep bunker or the ball will likely roll of the edge of the green. Pin-high left or right are both fine, though.

A lot of shaping around the fifteenth green, but at least it serves a purpose.

While shorter than fifteen, the par 4 sixteenth is probably even tougher. It starts with a drive where the fairway narrows to about 30 yards at 240 from the back tees between trees right and a fairway bunker left. But you need to challenge this gap because it’s important to get distance on your drive. That’s because the approach is all-carry over a pond to another shallow (but receptive) green. Our four ball managed to play this hole without putting a ball in the water…which I’d imagine is about 3 balls in the water less than the average four ball here.

A very tough drive on sixteen between fairway bunkers left and trees right.

And maybe an even tougher approach.

On the par 3 seventeenth, the choice of tees again makes a big difference. From the regular tees, it’s only about 150 yards to a green that from this distance is pretty large. From the back tees, it’s 180 yards to a green that looks far less inviting. Like several other greens, the green drops off on all sides here and there’s a pretty good likelihood that someone in your group will go back-and-forth across the green here (unfortunately in our case, that was me). I don’t mind the hole but I think that it’s a bit severe for anything more than about an 8-iron so move up to the set of tees where you can hit that or less.

If you find yourself hitting anything longer than an 8-iron on seventeen, move up a set of tees. Misses anywhere other than short are no good.

The last hole is a perfect setting for a last hole, overlooking a large marsh and featuring a heroic approach over a tributary to the Waccamaw River that flows to the ocean just beyond the marsh. The tributary has been expanded to a pond which also makes for a difficult drive. It’s only about 250 to the end of the fairway from the back tees and the water is tight up the right side. There’s a temptation to lay back but it’s important to have a short shot to this green, which is one of the shallowest and steepest on the course. The closer you get to the end of the fairway, the better angle you have down the green.

The drive on eighteen is tough because the water cuts into the fairway less than 200 yards out. Make sure that you know the distance to the end of the fairway so that you don't go through it into more water.

The tough approach off a short drive.

And the much easier approach off a perfect drive. Try to keep your ball right of the pin if it's on the front of the green because this section pitches severely left-to-right.

Of all of the courses that I’ve played in recent years, Caledonia is the one where I’d most need to make another trip or two around to make a confident judgment of it. It’s a complicated course, although it’s not visually complicated the way that Strantz’s other courses like Tobacco Road and True Blue are. I appreciated the relative lack of visual fussiness. And as my review has highlighted, there’s a ton of variety in the course. My takeaway so far is that there are too many narrow greens with too steep of drop-offs at the edges but as I’ve shown, not every green is like that. Several are very receptive and some of the greens with steep drop-offs are not narrow. The green contours themselves are very well done.

And as is obvious from my pictures, it’s a beautiful course, perfectly fitting its low country surrounding. I’ve seen very few courses that meld with the landscape so well and Strantz is to be commended for that. If you’ve played some of his other courses, you’ll be surprised at how restrained Strantz was in the features that he created on this course. That plus the fact that the course is very well-thought-out from a golfing perspective, with lots of interesting angles and a variety of challenges for those who don’t leave themselves in the best places make this I think the best (and my favorite) of the three Strantz courses that I’ve played. The course is on a very small piece of property and Strantz got about as much out of it as you could want.

Compared to the much more expansive Tobacco Road and True Blue, I wonder if the constraints here may have caused Strantz to tone things down in a way that ultimately benefitted the course. Or it may just have been that this was his first course and he didn’t want to do anything too wild before he had established himself. In any case, it’s a shame that Strantz didn’t leave us a few more courses because he was a truly original thinker who had a flair for the dramatic but could also tone things down without sacrificing any interest, which Caledonia proves.