Myrtle Beach Golf Courses Which Favor Accuracy Over Driver

There are seventy-eight Myrtle Beach golf courses which offer a multitude of experiences for the local and traveler alike. Some are grip-it-and-rip-it courses and others favor accuracy and planning over bombing drives.

In a previous golf blog, Golf for Beginners examined several golf shots players need to score low, from the approach shot to the putt, which accounts for about half of your score. Now that you are mastering the shots which will help lower your score, it is time to put it all together on the golf course.

This blog will help you select the best Myrtle Beach golf courses that benefit from the exactness of skill.

Read: 3 Smart Ways to Lower Your Golf Score

Before I begin, let me ask your thoughts on this...is the drive overrated?

The legendary Ben Hogan said no and maintained that the first shot you take will determine what is to follow on each hole but a drive doesn't necessarily commence with a driver. There are par 3's as well as dogleg holes where a driver would be ineffective or a deterrent for most golfers.

Blackmoor, a Gary Player signature golf course in Myrtle Beach, is probably one of the most well-known dogleg courses;  it delights players with six angled doglegs, so a driver is not necessarily your friend. Hole 5, a par-4, is the first dogleg hole you will attack at Blackmoor and, although you may need a driver off of the tee, you have to plan your strategy well so that you are in a position to get onto the green.

Litchfield Golf and Country Club is another course where you will use most clubs in your bag. Eight (some say twelve ?) doglegs span this track and accuracy off of the tee is most important to scoring well. This low country favorite also features tight fairways so sharpen up those irons as you will be playing target golf for most of this round.

Southcreek Golf Course, one of three Myrtle Beach National courses, is a shorter, shotmaker's course.  Waste bunkers are also in play here in addition to the doglegs so you have to navigate through a variety of challenges, considering all clubs in your bag. Short doesn't necessarily mean easy!

So now that we have given you a few golf courses with doglegs which favor accuracy, it is time to dust off those irons and start planning your shots to get on the green in the least number of strokes. That is the way to score better in golf!

Do you prefer doglegs or grip-it-and-rip-it golf courses? Let us know on Twitter @Golf4Beginners and in the comments section of this golf blog.

photo: LitchfieldGolf.com

The Golf Shots You Need To Practice to Score Low

To score well, there are some golf shots that are just more essential to learn than others - ones you need to practice to lower your handicap and make you want to come back to the course time and again.

Legendary golfer Ben Hogan believed that your shot off of the tee was the most important shot in golf,

"You've got to hit the fairway before you have a good chance of putting the ball close to the pin. You can be the greatest iron player in the world, but if you're in the boondocks it won't do you any good."

Players like Dustin Johnson rely on their long drives to move them down the fairway and into position for an easier approach shot. At the 2018 WGC-Dell Match Play event, DJ smashed a drive a quarter of a mile (although it included hitting a cart path, this was still a "wow" moment).

Some golfers would argue that the most important golf shot in your bag is the approach shot because, if executed properly, you can get on the green in regulation and make possible birdie or par.

Other golf gurus, such as Dave Pelz, state that it isn't your putting which should consume your focus but, rather, you should work on your wedges, "Putting is not the most important part of the game – it’s your wedge game. Putting is the second most important because you do it half the time."

PGAprofessional.com states, on the flip side, that the "importance of putting cannot be overemphasized",

"If there are 18 holes on a golf course and each green is worth two putts that means that par for putting is 36. The majority of 18-hole golf courses are par 72. That means that half of par is putting."

Read: Three Smart Ways to Lower Your Golf Score

One question to consider is..."What is more important for your game... to start each hole well or to finish strong?"

As for my own personal game, I add strokes to my round on my approach shots and through lack of feel on the greens - hybrid clubs, mid-irons and putting are where I need to strengthen my game.

Titleist believes that hitting greens in regulation is a basic statistic which players should track, "golfers play more shots to the green than from the tee. The higher the score, the more shots that have been hit to the green."

Everyone's golf game is different and we all have our "pain points", so, it is necessary to practice all shots in your bag, identify weaknesses in your game, decide where you need work and focus on those shots.

What are the shots you need to practice? Comment at the bottom of our Golf for Beginners golf blog and tag us on Twitter @Golf4Beginners.