May River Golf Club Named South Carolina's Best New Course for 2005

Greenville, SC - January 12, 2006 - May River Golf Club, the Jack Nicklaus-designed course at Palmetto Bluff, is the Best New Course in South Carolina for 2005 as determined by the South Carolina Golf Course Ratings Panel.

Set amid 300-year-old live oaks and brushing the banks of the river for which it is named, May River rated ahead of fellow newcomers, The Members Club at Grande Dunes in Myrtle Beach, and Canongate at Pinecrest in Bluffton. May River Golf Club's win follows that of The Patriot at Grand Harbor on Lake Greenwood in the panel's inaugural year.

The golf course ratings panel is a joint project of SouthCarolina Magazine, a bi-monthly general interest publication celebrating the Palmetto state's people, places, lure and legend, and South Carolina Golf Today, a monthly golf newspaper. The panel's mission is to promote greater interest and awareness of all that is good about the game in the Palmetto state, home to well over 400 courses. Golf generates more than $1.5-billion in economic benefit to the state each year*.

"The choice in 2005 was a particularly challenging one," the panel's executive director, Michael Whitaker, says. "Each course boasts a distinctly different character, but I think in the end many panelists found it hard to go past the secluded and idyllic setting at May River. It is one of those courses where golfers should revel in the experience regardless of how they play."

A par 72 layout, the May River Golf Club course stretches 7,100 yards and is the result of multiple drafts to find the ultimate routing. Nicklaus, the developers and local authorities went to painstaking lengths to maintain ancient trees and minimize any impact on the river system. The course also features a new paspalum grass on tees and fairways that is heat and salt tolerant, requiring less water. Even the sand in the bunkers is special. Nicklaus introduced sand with an angular grain from Ohio promoting adhesion that reduces maintenance after coastal storms.

The course's wide fairways and landing areas are inviting, but the test is finding the right place for the best approach to the green. Most holes feature large run-off or chipping areas around the Champion bermudagrass greens. The course is set amid a 22,000-acre property outside Bluffton that features a small village, limited housing and an extensive nature reserve.

The Members Club at Grande Dunes is a fine addition to the array of golf along the Grand Strand. Architects Nick Price and Craig Schreiner designed a course to satisfy repeat member play, round after round. Price and Schreiner deliberately set out to make the course enjoyable rather than punitive, a shift in emphasis from many courses designed in the '90s.

While The Members Club is high-end luxury, Canongate at Pinecrest caters to a niche that golf has tended to under-serve in recent decades… affordable private golf. Membership fees at the Rocky Roquemore-designed course make the privileges of a private club available to many who might otherwise find Hilton Head's breadth of high-end facilities out of reach.

For more information on the South Carolina Golf Course Ratings Panel contact its Executive Director, Michael Whitaker via email at mikew@scgolfpanel.org.

* Source: South Carolina Department of Parks, Recreation and Tourism.

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