Myrtle Beach Grande Dunes golf course reopens after major renovations

Twenty-one years after it first opened, the Grande Dunes Resort golf course got a major face lift this summer.

The course reopened Thursday after closing four months ago for renovations that included a complete overhaul of the greens and putting surfaces to restore them to their original state. The improvements also included upgrades to the golf hazards along the course and renovations to the clubhouse for guests.

“Myrtle Beach is known as a golf capital of the world, and it is important to our community that we continue to reinvest in our properties, so that people will see the quality of the product,” said Steve Mays, president of Founders Group International, which owns the course.

The Grande Dunes Resort Course is one of the most recognizable in the region, with five holes along the Intracoastal Waterway. Mays declined to share what Founders Group spent on the renovations but called the upgrades a “significant investment.”

Here are some of the biggest changes.

• Planting of new, high-quality grasses across the complex.

• Restoring the putting greens to their original size, including reclaiming nearly 40,000 square feet that had been lost over the years. The golf hazards were also restored.

• A new restaurant in the clubhouse, more outdoor seating and a larger pro shop.

The four-month effort brought back the original architect of the course John A. Harvey.

“What drove Myrtle Beach golf to what it is today and especially during the ‘80s and ‘90s were new golf courses opening all the time,” Mays said. “Every year there were one or two open for a number of years. Obviously, we don’t have that anymore, but as us and other companies around our community continue to invest in these (existing) properties and make changes and tweaks, it gives new things for our golfers to see.”

The decision to renovate this course is part of a chain of such improvements across Founders Group International’s 21 Myrtle Beach golf courses. Other places to receive similar attention in recent years include Pine Lakes, Aberdeen Country Club, River Hills, Tradition Club and the PineHills and Palmetto courses at Myrtlewood.

“There’s a lot of golf destinations around the country, and Myrtle Beach is really the pulse of golf travel,” Mays said. “We have to make sure that we have the product out there that’s going to entice people to come and continue to come. Reinvesting — by providing new things for golfers to see — it’s going to continue to encourage tourism in our area.”