35-year-old Myrtle Beach-area course begins restoration

Pawleys Plantation Golf & Country Club in Pawleys Island, South Carolina, closed May 22 for a greens and bunker restoration and a clubhouse redesign, Founders Group International announced. The course is a Jack Nicklaus design.
FGI is working with Nicklaus Design associate Troy Vincent, who will be leading the four-month project. The course, which features six back-nine holes playing along a tidal marsh, will reopen in late-September.
The restoration will modernize Pawleys Plantation, upgrading the layout that has been there since its opening in 1988 while maintaining Nicklaus’ original layout. The project’s highlights include:

• Every greens complex and the surrounding fringe will be stripped, tilled and restored to its original specifications. Putting surfaces will expand from 78,600 square feet to 117,000 square feet, a 48 percent increase. 
• The new greens will feature TifEagle Bermudagrass, an ultradwarf strain used at the Grande Dunes Resort Course. 
• In addition to the greens restoration, all bunkers will be reconstructed and the sprawling bunkers on Nos. 1, 2, 3, 4, 7, 8, 10, 12, 16 and 18 will be replaced by smaller fairway bunkers, native areas and expanded fairways.
• In addition to around a dozen new native areas, there will be strategic tree removal that improves course conditioning. 

“Founders Group International has made reinvesting in our golf courses a top priority, and I couldn’t be more excited about the work Troy Vincent and the Nicklaus Design are going to do at Pawleys Plantation,” FGI President Steve Mays said. “Pawleys Plantation has long been one of the Myrtle Beach area’s premier courses, and this project will provide the layout a much more contemporary feel while remaining true to Jack’s vision for a classic Lowcountry golf course.” 

Founders Group International owns 21 Myrtle Beach golf courses and has reinvested in its courses in recent years. FGI has also undertaken capital improvement projects at Grande Dunes Resort Course, TPC Myrtle Beach, Pine Lakes, Aberdeen Country Club, River Hills, Tradition Club, and the PineHills and Palmetto courses at Myrtlewood over the last five years.

“I’m excited," Vincent said. “I like Pawleys Plantation and I really enjoy working with the Founders Group International team. We are looking forward to putting the course back on the map. For so many years, Pawleys was recognized at the state and national levels and hopefully we can get it back to where we feel it deserves to be.” 

Chris Allen is Pawleys Plantation’s superintendent.