Courtesy of Pine Lakes Country Club
Pine Lakes Country Club closed on April 26 for a greens and bunker
restoration project that will have Myrtle Beach’s first golf course in prime
condition ahead of the area’s peak fall season.
Founders Group International, Pine Lakes’ parent company, has partnered with
Craig Schreiner, ASGCA, ASLA, who spearheaded the course’s 2008-09
renovation, to lead the project. Pine Lakes is scheduled to reopen in early
July.
At the heart of the effort will be the installation of new Sunday Bermudagrass
greens, which will replace paspalum. Sunday Bermudagrass has proven to be a
particularly hearty grass in the Myrtle Beach environment.
The greens will also be restored to their original size, expanding the total
putting surface area from 103,000 square feet to 124,000 square feet, an
increase of 20 percent. The additional size will create more pinnable areas on
numerous greens.
Schreiner is also restoring every bunker on the course with an eye on
improving drainage, playability and returning Pine Lakes to the more natural
look architect Robert White intended. Pine Lakes is installing a
sophisticated new drainage system that will ensure the course’s 26 bunkers
don’t hold water.
“I call this a restoration because they asked me to do the bunkering as well
[as the greens], and that’s where we are restoring an important part of the
architecture - updating it, modernizing it and adding new sand drainage, which
was always lacking here,” Schreiner said. “In terms of the bunkers, the sand
will be a little less obvious and [the faces won’t be as] highly flashed as
grass faces will be more prevalent.”
Pine Lakes was originally designed by White, a native of St. Andrews,
Scotland and the first president of the PGA of America, and the course, along
with its famed clubhouse, is part of the National Registry of Historic Places.
Built along natural dunes less than a mile from the Atlantic Ocean, Pine
Lakes features natural elevation change and a classic design that has long made
it one of the Myrtle Beach area’s most popular courses. Pine Lakes is one of 21
FGI courses.
“Pine Lakes holds a special place in the Myrtle Beach market, and this
project, highlighted by the new Sunday Bermudagrass greens and the bunker
restoration, will ensure the Granddaddy continues to deliver the type of
experience golfers have enjoyed for more than 90 years,” Founders Group
International President Steve Mays said. “This is the first step as we
begin looking forward to the 100-year anniversary of Pine Lakes’ opening and
the birth of Myrtle Beach as a golf destination.”