Review: True Blue Golf Club (Part 2)

It's time to check out the back nine at True Blue, go here to see the front.

The tenth hole isn't quite as gigantic as the first in terms of length, but when it comes to sheer area of fairway, I'm not sure there's a hole outside St. Andrews that can match this one. It's not too often a fairway that starts out 50 yards wide gets wider, but that's precisely what happens here. Beyond 250 yards or so, once you clear the massive waste bunker, the fairway nearly doubles in width. And while it tempting to utilize the entirety of this enormous fairway, you have to keep in mind that this is a 600-yard par 5 that doglegs sharply right. Play safely out to the left and you'll have a very, very long second shot, potentially even bringing a line of diagonal cross bunkers about 150-200 yards out. You're better off challenging the trees and bunkering in the corner of the dogleg; do that, followed by a solid lay-up to the left side of the fairway, and you'll have a relatively simple wedge third. The green is angled from left to right and is quite narrow, placed between two large bunkers.

The tenth hole.

Approaching the tenth green.

The tenth green.

The eleventh hole is a solid if not particularly revolutionary mid-length par 3. The green is alone in a sea of sand and is tilted fairly significantly from back to front. It's a perfectly reasonable hole, but definitely the least noteworthy of True Blue's five par 3s.

The eleventh hole.

The eleventh green.

The twelfth hole is a mid-length par 4 bending slightly right around a long waste bunker. There's a lot of room left, but if you take this safer route, you'll have a longer second shot playing over a massive bunker. Take the aggressive route, and you won't have to carry that greenside bunker. The green is fairly narrow and sloped pretty significantly from back to front.

The twelfth hole.

The twelfth green.

The thirteenth hole is about the same length as the previous hole and also plays to a very wide fairway. However, a large chunk of that fairway is blind from the tee, so many golfers will be drawn out right, potentially catching the corner of a bunker that eats into the fairway in the landing area. There's more room left than it looks, and so long as you carry the waste bunker, you'll get a big bounce toward the middle of the fairway. However, if you do find the sand on either side, there's a good chance you won't be able to get to the green in two, as more sand fronts the green. No bouncing shots up into this one. The green itself is fairly flat, so if you do hit a solid drive, this hole becomes a good birdie opportunity.

The thirteenth hole.

Approaching the thirteenth green.

The thirteenth green.

The fourteenth hole is more than a little reminiscent of the twelfth hole at Royal New Kent, though I definitely wouldn't call it a copy. This hole is 160 yards, 65 yards shorter than its cousin up north, and the green is angled so that the long axis is perpendicular with the line of play. So, this green ends up being 50-60 yards wide and 10-20 yards deep. But both greens also have significant bunkering all around, and funnily enough, both represent hiccups in the routing. The tee here is quite close to the fifteenth tee, and the hole is pointed in precisely the opposite direction of the next hole. I think even the thirteenth green is closer to the fifteenth tee than this green. 

Of course, with this hole having such a wildly shaped green, you would expect the contours within it to be equally extreme. And you'd basically be correct. This is not an easy green to putt, especially if you have to make your way through the narrow section connecting the two larger portions of the green. You can easily end up with a hundred-foot putt traversing several different breaks. Three putting is a massive threat. So, in the end, I do like this hole a lot, I just wish it felt more connected with the rest of the routing. 

The fourteenth hole.

The fifteenth hole is, in the same spirit as the first and tenth, a massive, sprawling par 5 playing just over 600 yards. The fairway meanders back and forth around enormous waste bunkers lining both sides of this hole, providing endlessly interesting little nooks and crannies and angles. It's both easy to hit this fairway and extremely difficult to find the best line. The same goes for the second shot, through there is less sand if you lay up down the right side. The green is shallow, wide, and elevated above the surrounding fairway, especially if you approach from the right. Getting a 50-yard pitch to stop on this green requires precision, so you may be better off leaving a full 100-yard wedge for the third.

The fifteenth hole.

The fifteenth green.

The sixteenth hole plays 210 yards with water all along the right side, along with a long and tall beach-style bunker that actually wraps all the way around the large, heavily undulating green. I honestly do like it as an individual hole, but we haven't seen water at True Blue since the fourth, so this feels a little incongruous. Also, while this hole is good, the sixteenth heralds a rather weak finish.

The sixteenth hole.

The seventeenth hole is a long, 450-yard par 4 that can technically play straight if you play boldly along the water line into a section of fairway jutting out into the lake. However, while this does shorten the hole, the angle is actually worse than if you play safely out left. Sure, playing safely leaves you a longer second, but the water is much less directly in your line. Just be careful of a small nook about 250 yards out where the sand angles into the fairway, and you'll be fine. The green here is pretty large and forgiving, not having any huge slopes or breaks to it. If you hit the green in regulation, you should make a par.

The seventeenth hole.

The seventeenth green.

The eighteenth hole is slightly shorter than the last hole at 435 yards, but it plays essentially the same. Water left, wide fairway in the middle, waste bunker right. This time though, the green isn't quite so pedestrian. Two large ridges dominate the right half of the green, meaning that approach shots that miss right – the obvious place to bail out – will have incredibly delicate chip shots to a green running away with water beyond. It's honestly better to just be aggressive and play right for the flag here.

The eighteenth green. Somehow, despite standing on the tee for several minutes, I didn't take a picture from there. There was water and sand involved.

Overall, I found True Blue to be a pretty good golf course, but not quite at the level of Royal New Kent. The massive waste bunkers do their best, and they are very effective hazards, but this course is just at a disadvantage when it comes to topography. Also, the finish is worse here, since True Blue has two mediocre, water-filled long par 4s to end the round instead of just one. True Blue does have the advantage of possessing a routing one might feasibly walk, but since this is still Myrtle Beach, I'm sure very few people, if any, walk this course. I also think True Blue has a very strong set of par 5s. The first, tenth, and fifteenth holes are simply colossi on an epic scale, the fourth is of course the fascinating fishhook, and the ninth possesses some really cool greenside bunkering.

True Blue does have another weakness, compared with Royal New Kent, and that's price. Royal New Kent wasn't exactly a bargain, yet a round there is half the price of one here. True Blue costs over $150 per person, and that's simply way too much for what it offers. I think this course falls into the category of "I'm glad I played it, but I'm not really interested in paying to play it again."