The toughest course in the Myrtle Beach-Conway-North Myrtle Beach, SC metro area is Dunes Golf & Beach Club, at slope 148 — ahead of Long Bay Club at slope 146 and TPC of Myrtle Beach at slope 146.
All 28 courses in the area with a USGA slope rating for its men’s tees are ranked below, along with 5 more lists: hardest from the tips, longest, widest tee spread, oldest, highest above sea level.
Myrtle Beach-Conway-North Myrtle Beach, SC is a metro area as the U.S. Office of Management and Budget delineates it — the boundary is theirs, not ours. Each list counts only the courses in the area that publish that figure, so the totals differ between them. Slope and course rating measure difficulty, not quality — nothing here ranks how good a course is.
Toughest test
— the top 25 of 28 courses with a USGA slope rating for its men’s tees
The highest USGA slope rating published for any of the men’s tee sets. Slope rates difficulty for a bogey golfer relative to a scratch golfer — a rated figure issued by the golf association, not an opinion about the course. Men’s ratings only, because a tee is rated separately for men and for women and the two scales do not compare; a course rated only for women is not in the running rather than converted.
Hardest from the tips
— the top 25 of 28 courses with a USGA course rating for its men’s tees
The highest USGA course rating published for any of the men’s tee sets — the score a scratch golfer is expected to shoot. Men’s ratings only, for the same reason as slope: the men’s and women’s ratings of one tee are different measurements. It measures difficulty and nothing else; it is not a quality score and never orders these pages by how good a course is.
Longest
— the top 25 of 38 courses with a published scorecard
The longest tee set the course publishes, in yards from the tips. Compared against every course that publishes a scorecard — length is a measurement, not a verdict on the golf.
Widest tee spread
— the top 25 of 37 courses with two or more tee sets of different lengths
| # | Course | Widest tee spread |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Prestwick Country Club | 2,462 yds between tees |
| 2 | Tidewater Golf Club | 2,396 yds between tees |
| 3 | Grande Dunes Resort Course | 2,265 yds between tees |
| 4 | Burning Ridge Golf Course | 2,256 yds between tees |
| 5 | Barefoot Resort Golf Norman Course | 2,177 yds between tees |
| 6 | River Oaks Golf Club | 2,130 yds between tees |
| 7 | Long Bay Club | 2,081 yds between tees |
| 8 | Dunes Golf & Beach Club | 2,060 yds between tees |
| 9 | Cypress Waterway at Arrowhead Country Club | 2,040 yds between tees |
| 10 | International Club of Myrtle Beach | 2,019 yds between tees |
| 11 | Barefoot Resort Golf Fazio Course | 1,986 yds between tees |
| 12 | Lakes Waterway at Arrowhead Country Club | 1,965 yds between tees |
| 13 | Shaftesbury Glen Golf Fish Club | 1,959 yds between tees |
| 14 | Legends Golf Resort Moorland Course | 1,944 yds between tees |
| 15 | River Hills Golf Country Club | 1,939 yds between tees |
| 16 | Wachesaw Plantation East | 1,938 yds between tees |
| 17 | Lakes Cypress at Arrowhead Country Club | 1,885 yds between tees |
| 18 | Glen Dornoch Waterway Golf Links | 1,848 yds between tees |
| 19 | Myrtlewood Golf Club | 1,839 yds between tees |
| 19 | Palmetto at Myrtlewood Golf Club | 1,839 yds between tees |
| 21 | TPC of Myrtle Beach | 1,832 yds between tees |
| 22 | Indigo Creek Golf Club | 1,824 yds between tees |
| 23 | Blackmoor Golf Club | 1,807 yds between tees |
| 24 | Eagle Nest Golf Club | 1,796 yds between tees |
| 25 | Barefoot Resort Golf Love Course | 1,757 yds between tees |
Yards between the longest and shortest published tee sets — how far the course moves to fit a different player. Courses publishing a single tee set are not in the running, because one set is an unmeasured spread rather than a narrow one.
Oldest
— the top 25 of 30 courses with an opening year
The year the course opened, as published. Ranked oldest first. An opening year is not a design credit and not a renovation date — a course that opened in 1921 and was rebuilt in 1998 still opened in 1921.
Highest above sea level
— the top 25 of 40 courses with a coordinate we could sample
| # | Course | Highest above sea level |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | River Hills Golf Country Club | 45 ft |
| 2 | Burning Ridge Golf Course | 44 ft |
| 3 | Harbour View Golf Complex | 40 ft |
| 3 | Legends Golf Resort Moorland Course | 40 ft |
| 3 | Long Bay Club | 40 ft |
| 3 | The Wizard Golf Course | 40 ft |
| 7 | Barefoot Resort Golf Love Course | 39 ft |
| 7 | Eagle Nest Golf Club | 39 ft |
| 9 | Myrtle Beach National Golf Club South Creek Course | 38 ft |
| 10 | Barefoot Resort Golf Fazio Course | 36 ft |
| 10 | Grande Dunes Resort Course | 36 ft |
| 12 | Barefoot Resort Golf Norman Course | 33 ft |
| 13 | Glen Dornoch Waterway Golf Links | 31 ft |
| 13 | World Tour Golf Links | 31 ft |
| 15 | Colonial Charters Golf Club | 29 ft |
| 16 | Arcadian Shores Golf Club | 26 ft |
| 16 | Beachwood Golf Club | 26 ft |
| 18 | Dunes Golf & Beach Club | 23 ft |
| 19 | Azalea Sands Golf Course | 22 ft |
| 19 | Lakes Waterway at Arrowhead Country Club | 22 ft |
| 19 | Whispering Pines Golf Course | 22 ft |
| 22 | Indigo Creek Golf Club | 21 ft |
| 22 | River Oaks Golf Club | 21 ft |
| 22 | Shaftesbury Glen Golf Fish Club | 21 ft |
| 22 | The Valley at Eastport Golf Club | 21 ft |
Height above sea level at the course’s own published coordinate, sampled from the USGS 3DEP elevation model. THIS IS A FIGURE WE DERIVED, not one the course publishes — anybody can re-query the same public dataset at the same coordinate and get the same number, but no scorecard states it. Because every course carries a coordinate, this is the only board here whose field is nearly the whole database rather than the courses that publish a particular figure. Elevation changes how far a ball carries; it says nothing about whether a course is good.