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Santee-Cooper-area Golf CoursesThe Santee-Cooper area
(including Orangeburg, Santee, Sumter, Manning and Moncks Corner) is
defined by two large bodies of water: Lake Marion and Lake Moultrie. The
area is home to some fine golf courses. The recreational atmosphere
extends to golf. A number of snowbirds from northern climes come here from
February through May as an alternative to Myrtle Beach and Florida. This
may explain why Santee-Cooper is surprisingly rich in quality golf
courses--and why you'll find plenty of golf-package experts offering
excellent winter and spring deals.
We didn't see a bad course around here. The immediate area around
Sumter, about an hour east of Columbia, is particularly strong. Why?
Perhaps it's the presence of Shawn Weatherly, the 1980 Miss Universe.
Perhaps it's the presence of Shaw Air Force Base. Or perhaps it's the
water. Who knows.
Overall, you'll find courses from the modern to the traditional and
back again. Spend a long weekend in the area playing golf; you won't be
disappointed.
Packages are available through the Santee-Cooper Counties Promotion
Commission, P.O. Drawer 40, Santee, South Carolina 29142, (803) 854-2131. Beech Creek Golf Club Beech Creek opened in 1990. James Goodson designed the course, which today is part of a residential development. The course is well-maintained and somewhat flat. Bermudagrass 419 covers the fairways, and putting surfaces are tifdwarf. You'll find plenty of variety on this well-designed modern course. Fairways vary from tight to expansive, and greens vary in size and shape. You'll also find mounds, out-of-bounds, water, pot bunkers and other trappings of the contemporary layout that's popular with the top brass. No. 9 is a fun way to end the front nine before heading for the hot dog stand. It's a 530-yard par 5 with water all along the left side of the fairway; just avoid the wet stuff and the two small bunkers front right and back left of the green, and you'll be putting for birdie. Beech Creek is popular with members of the armed forces stationed at Shaw Air Force Base. The track is one of a host of fine courses in the surprisingly golf-rich Sumter area. For $30 or less per round, including cart, the course is also a fine value. Amenities at Beech Creek include a practice green, practice range, pro shop, snack bar, yardage book and rental clubs. Walking is restricted on weekends. Approximate cost, including cart, is $20 weekdays, $27 weekends. Calhoun Country Club The front nine at Calhoun Country Club opened in 1959, and the back nine opened a year later. Ashby Gressette designed the course that's a little less than 30 miles southeast of Columbia. Bermudagrass covers the fairways and greens. The layout winds through some fine woodlands, providing a peaceful country setting. The front nine is open and includes some wide fairways. The course narrows on the back nine. At Calhoun Country Club, we found a fun and relatively straightforward course with plenty of elevation changes. The greens are mostly flat and slightly sloped; some are elevated and bunkered. Water comes into play on some holes, but overall, the course is not overly penal. Low to mid-handicappers should head straight to the tips. On some of the tee shots, you'll be guiding the ball through a chute. The atmosphere at Calhoun is friendly and relaxed. However, if you're looking for an intense round, Calhoun's design is strong and varied enough to provide a solid test. The hardest, yet prettiest, hole on the course is No. 6, a reachable par 5 that's just 463 yards yet still an easy bogey. Perhaps everyone starts thinking about the scenery instead of the hole and starts to whiff. Amenities at Calhoun include a practice green, practice range, pro shop, men's locker room and snack bar. The course is walkable weekdays; some restrictions apply on weekends. You can book anytime. Approximate cost, including cart, is $20 on weekdays and $25 on weekdays--an excellent value. Crystal Lakes Golf Course Crystal Lakes is Sumter's muni. The Eddie Riccoboni-designed track opened in 1990. Bermudagrass covers the fairways and greens. Just a smooth 3-iron from Shaw Air Force Base, you'll find Crystal Lakes, a small, well-designed nine-hole course that is popular with local golfers. (Yes, we know the true nine-hole course is an anomaly in this book, but this one is a great golfing deal for 18 holes, especially for beginning players.) If your backswing is interrupted by the sonic boom of an F-15 practicing low-altitude bombing runs, it's OK to take a mulligan. Aeronautics aside, you'll find an aquatic environment on the first four holes. No. 1 is a par 3 over water "infested" by one alligator. Otherwise, Crystal Lakes is a fun, low-pressure, flat, walkable, user-friendly golf course that is challenging enough to entertain the mid- to low handicapper. That player will shoot for birdie on the 475 yard, par 5 No. 4, which should be reachable, especially in summer, when the fairways get as hard as the runways at Shaw. After your round, if you're not too frazzled by the reptile, bunkers and low-flying, first-strike aircraft, you can relax with a jovial round of darts in the game room adjacent to the pro shop. Amenities include a practice range, putting green, pro shop, snack bar and rental clubs. You can (and should) walk this course anytime. Approximate cost for 18 holes, including cart, is $14. You can walk 18 holes for $6 on weekdays. Hillcrest Golf and Tennis Club The golf course at Hillcrest Golf and Tennis Club opened in 1972. Russell Breeden designed the primarily flat track. Trees define the fairways, and water comes into play on a few holes but rarely poses a serious threat. Hillcrest is owned by the City of Orangeburg, about 35 miles south of Columbia. Wouldn't it be nice if every town in North and South Carolina could boast a solid, well-designed muni like Hillcrest? We found a well-kept, well-marked, relatively straightforward course with plenty of variety and fun. Off the tee, the course is basically wide-open, with the occasional raised bunker lurking in the fairway. As you might expect with a Russell Breeden design, the greens are predominantly midsize--undulating but fair--with a couple of bunkers protecting the putting surface. The key to scoring well here is solidly hit, accurate approach shots. The straight, par 4 No. 18 is a fun way to end the round--just a short 373 yards from the tips, and a good chance to end the round with a well-deserved birdie before heading off for an equally well-deserved hot dog all the way (no onions). Amenities include a practice green, practice range, pro shop, locker room, snack bar and rental clubs. The course is walkable anytime. You can book anytime too. Approximate cost, including cart, is $23 weekdays, $25 weekends. Lake Marion Golf Course Lake Marion Golf Course opened in 1979 and is part of the Santee-Cooper Resort easily accessible from I-95. Eddie Riccoboni designed the course. Bermudagrass covers the greens and fairways. Pine trees border most holes, and water comes into play quite a bit. At Lake Marion, we enjoyed a wonderful, friendly golf course and staff with an understated charm usually found only at country club and private courses. This definitely is one of the must-play courses in this area and will be well worth the trip (the yardage book gives the distance from Chicago: 919 miles). Majestic pine trees frame equally majestic golf holes that offer both challenge and visual appeal. Design-wise, the brilliance of this traditional layout lies in the strategic placement of bunkers. Just one or two bunkers per hole are enough to guard the midsize to large greens. You'll have to think here and play sound, smart golf. You'll also have a lot of fun driving the ball from some of Lake Marion's elevated tees. Play your cards right on the greens and you'll make some birdies. This is the type of golf course that's fun to play more than once. Be sure to purchase the witty, entertaining and thoroughly useful yardage book. You'll definitely need it on the very first hole, a 502-yard par 5 with a pond immediately in front of the large green. It's early in the round--will you have the guts to go for it? Amenities at Lake Marion include a practice green, practice range, extensive pro shop, locker room, snack bar, occasional beverage cart and rental clubs. You need to use a cart to play. Approximate cost, including cart, is $40 weekdays and weekends. Lakewood Links Golf Club Lakewood Links opened in 1989 and is part of a residential development. Common bermudagrass covers the fairways, and 328 bermudagrass is used on the greens. Porter Gibson designed the course. Houses and pine trees border the holes, and water comes into play on 11 of them. Lakewood Links, as its name implies, is a sort of links-style course with all the trappings of a modern layout built in tandem with a residential development. We found mounds; large, multilevel undulating greens; bunkers around the greens and in the fairways; out-of-bounds terrifyingly near the middle of the fairway; more mounds; and significant distances from tees to greens. The course is especially narrow on the back nine, so if you choose to break out your 300cc titanium-head driver, make sure you bang it down the middle, otherwise you might be in for a long day. The par 4 10th hole is 461 yards from the back tees and 420 yards from the men's, yet the fairway at the 175-yard marker is just 25 yards wide. Therein lies the challenge of this course. You'll be entertained by the par 3s here. The course also features a significant number of doglegs. Visually, the course is quite appealing. The numerous ponds are so packed with lilies, Monet would have felt like he was at home in Giverny. Amenities at Lakewood include a practice green, practice range, extensive pro shop, locker room, snack bar, occasional beverage cart and rental clubs. Use a cart to play here. Approximate cost, including cart, is $25 weekdays, $30 weekends. Pineview Pineview, formerly known as Pineland Plantation, opened in 1968 in Gable, about 15 miles east of Sumter. Bermudagrass covers the greens and fairways. The Russell Breeden-designed layout is primarily flat and set in a pine forest. Recent renovations are finished at Pineview, and many improvements have been made, including a new clubhouse. The course includes all the classic Breeden touches: runway tee boxes, the occasional mound, slightly raised greens, one or two bunkers per green and putting surfaces that are more sloped than undulating. You won't encounter a lot of trouble off the tee, so if you're playing from the tips, go ahead and take out the big stick. Just make sure you put yourself in a good spot for your second shot. Water comes into play on 11 holes including No. 4 (the No. 1 handicap), where there's a pond right in the middle of the fairway. The 18th is another water hole--a muscular 565 yards from the tips. All you have to do is traverse a stream and a pond and you're on the green--a classic birdie hole with awful possibilities should you stray from the required line. Amenities at Pineview include a practice green, practice range, pro shop, snack bar and bar. You can walk anytime on weekdays and after 2 PM on weekends. Approximate cost, including cart, is $26 weekdays, $33 weekends. Pocalla Springs Country Club The course at Pocalla Springs Country Club, an Eddie Riccoboni design, opened in 1955. Bermudagrass covers the fairways and greens. This layout winds along primarily flat ground dotted with live oaks. Pocalla Springs is a mature course that's popular with local golfers. You might look at the yardage from the back tees, giggle and think this is a silly track designed for "Oh honey, I'm hot today!" old-timers. Think again. According to the locals, Pocalla Springs' tight fairways, large greenside bunkers and hard, smallish greens will flat out "eat your lunch." For golfers used to over-watered bentgrass greens that will hold a sculled 3-iron, the greens here will come as a surprise, particularly when a well-struck 9-iron lands delicately on the green and bounces as if it had hit the cart path. You'll find five par 3s here. In fact, you'll come face to face with one of them as you drive up to the clubhouse. The 14th is just 127 yards from the back tees, and each of the bunkers that surround and front the green seems larger than the green itself, which is not much larger than a hot tub. Get the ball safely on the green and your birdie putt from the edge might be one of the shortest of your golfing life. Miss the green and you'd better know how to chip or use your sand wedge. You might want to pack away your driver in favor of a fourth wedge! Amenities include a practice green, practice range, pro shop, bar, restaurant, beverage cart and rental clubs. Approximate cost, including cart, is $20. Santee National Golf Club Santee National opened in 1989 and is part of an upscale residential development called Chapel Creek Plantation. Porter Gibson designed the course. Bermudagrass covers the fairways and greens. Most holes are bordered by trees. Water, wasteland and creeks frequently come into play. At Santee National, we found a modern yet fair course with outstanding variety. The front nine is relatively open; the back nine is more wooded and undulating than the front, which is fairly flat. The variety at Santee National makes it difficult to characterize the fairways and greens as large, medium or small; you'll see it all here. Big hitters off the tee will enjoy the lack of serious trouble spots adjacent to the fairways. Because Santee National is modern, you'll find lots of mounds. No. 2 is a good par 5, a three-shotter for most at 520 yards from the tips. The biggest potential problem here is a pond about 100 yards from the elevated green. Amenities at Santee National include a practice green, practice range, pro shop, bar, restaurant, beverage cart and rental clubs. Only members can walk. Approximate greens fees, including cart, are $40 weekdays and weekends
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