Whispering Pines Golf Course — Local services in Myrtle Beach

If you’re a golfer who has ever dreamed about stepping off the plane and right on to the golf course, Whispering Pines Golf Course in Myrtle Beach, SC can come as close as any club in America at making your dream come true. In fact course owner Chip Smith has pictures of golfers lugging their golf bags and luggage across the street to play a round golf course.

The golf course at Whispering Pines is a challenging as it is beautiful to look at. The course has been carved out of over 200 acres of mature hardwood and towering pine trees. The course originally opened in 1963 and was redesigned by Texas architects Finger, Dye and Spann in1983.

If you like to see mother nature at her best, this is the place for you! In 1998, Whispering Pines was designated a “Certified Audubon Cooperative Sanctuary” by Audubon International. At the time, they were only the 3rd course in South Carolina to achieve this honor.

For several years, conditions at Whispering Pines deteriorated and the course lost many of their regular players. In 2015, Atlantic Golf Management – who was the previous operators of TPC Myrtle Beach – stepped up and assumed management of the course. Atlantic has made many improvements, including better conditioning of the course, and have plans for many more.

You’ll find tree-lined fairways, strategically placed lakes, and well undulated TifEagle greens await your arrival at Whispering Pines. Although it’s located across the street from the airport less than five minutes from the heartbeat of the Myrtle Beach oceanfront, Whispering Pines offers golfers tranquility. There are no homes on the course; so no backyards or windows to worry about. It’s just you, mother nature and the occasional fighter jet buzzing overhead!

Whispering Pines has some impressive practice facilities including a full-length driving range; a chipping area and practice putting green. You can hit a few balls to get loose before your round or hit a few buckets and work on different aspects of your game so you’ll be ready for your next round. In case you can’t figure things out on your own, golf lessons for all skill levels at the Whispering Pines Golf Academy.

Unlike many green grass golf pro shops that have given in to the big box golf retailers, the pro shop at Whispering Pines carries a good selection of golf apparel from such well-known companies as Antigua, Callaway, Divots and more. They also have the latest shoes from Nike and Callaway and the prices on the equipment they stock will match or many cases beat the big box outlets. Whispering Pines pro shop also stacks a wide selection of balls, gloves and accessories. Equipment and accessory brands include Adams, Titleist, Callaway, Cleveland, Nike, Wilson, and more.

One thing you’ll notice at Whispering Pines is the size of the greens; for the most part they are small and elevated; a double whammy for many! This places a premium on accuracy on your approach shot. During your round, it’s not uncommon to see military jets doing some practice runs or flying over information. After all, the Myrtle Beach airport was once an Air Force base and the golf course was previously known as Myrtle Beach AFB Golf Club.

With an above average course rating of 70.9 and a slope of 128 from the White Tees, Whispering Pines offers most golfers a good challenge, with no gimmicks. As you stand on the tee, what you see is what you get, all you have to do is hit the shots and make the putts! It’s a great place to get in the first or last round of your Myrtle Beach...

I came to Myrtle Beach with my father-in-law from out of town, decided to hit up a course and WP was the closest to our condo. We're by no means pros or play super often but were looking for a place to have a fun morning. I read up on their course and rules online and booked. No issues with booking.

We arrived that morning for our 7:56 AM tee time. We went inside and paid. The gentleman behind the counter was kind and polite. We went back outside to get a cart and were told by the cart attendants that we each needed a bag of clubs. The two of us share one set of clubs and have never been told we each need a set apiece. The clubhouse had sets available to rent for $25. I originally was annoyed by this but after getting home and doing some research, this apparently is common golfing etiquette that I just had never heard before. Regardless, it would've been nice to hear that on the website.

Once we were carted and ready to go, the two of us were paired up with another pair of golfers. The two that we were paired with were super nice, so no issues there. We then headed to the first tee (on time), where the four of us waited behind a twosome and a foursome who were teeing off and waiting to tee off. We eventually teed off about 15-20 min past our tee time. That was slightly irritating; what's the point of signing up for a tee time if we're not going to start on time?

Regardless, we teed off and started our round. We played through the front 9 and the four of us were having a great time. Some of the other reviews mentioned the course being dry or mediocre... the course played fine for us and I saw no issues.

We grabbed some drinks from the clubhouse then headed to the back 9. We played through the 10th hole and were met at the 11th tee by a club attendant in a cart. He said that we were playing too slow and were causing the players behind us to get backed up. His paraphrased words were that we had played 7 holes in 2 hours. At that point it was about 11:15. From there he drove us about halfway down the 11th hole and had us drop there to play the rest of the hole. We finished that hole and decided to leave from there.

By no means were we lollygagging. We were teeing off, driving right up to our ball and hitting. There was no stopping. Maybe it took us longer because we didn't start on time? Perhaps we were slowed down by being put into a foursome that we didn't ask for? Nothing against the people we were with - they were fun and super nice, but when you add more people to the group your game is just going to take longer. We have never been told we were taking too long on a golf course.

We returned the clubs and cart, and the rest of the staff seemed as if we were inconveniencing them and appeared rude. However I will concede that we could have simply been frustrated with our treatment previously so our view of the course was skewed by that point.

Some other reviewers on here referred to the staff as "uppity" or that their noses were raised to them. I can see what they mean by that. If you're a golfer who doesn't play often except occasionally to have fun (like me), I would not recommend this course. Their game/golfer management was very poor. The night before we went golfing we went to a driving range to practice and I had much more fun there than I did at this...

The very nice course layout was made hard to appreciate by a staff that seemed annoyed to have golfers play it. I arrived in town on Saturday June 1st, 2019 just in time to get a nice relaxing 9 holes in. I called ahead and was told to head out and play. The course was wide open. I arrived at 6. Sunset was set for 8:30, so I was excited to play a laid back 9 holes. The pro shop attendant soon told me “the snack bar person already left and the starter is gonna be upset to see a golfer so late”. I had called 15 minutes earlier to make sure it was good to come out. The starter proceeded to beg me to play my 9 holes in “record time” because he told his wife he would be able to leave at 7. I was dumbfounded, as I have worked at courses my whole life and we would never ask a player to try to finish 1.5 hours before sunset so staff could get home. Very unprofessional. He then pressured me 2 more times (even with a weird and firm pat on the shoulder) before I tee’d off making sure I knows how important it was to get done fast.

Two days passed and I came back for another 9 with my wife and dad since it was the closest course to where we were staying. We tee’d off at 2:30 on Tuesday June 4. The snack bar person eventually was torn away from her phone to come serve us and was generally unpleasant, telling us she was leaving soon and was doing us a favor to not hold our license for a cooler. We were greeted outside by the same starter from a few days earlier, who immediately told me to make sure to throw any trash out on the course, because he had already emptied the trash cans by the starting tees and didn’t want to have to do it again! What!!! How lazy is that. It was 2:30 in the afternoon. That is a terrible thing to ask any time, but the mid afternoon time frame made it even more odd.

Overall, I will just say that a pretty nice course is only as good as the staff that welcomes you to it. Do better,...