Crow Creek Golf Club (Calabash, NC on 02/25/18)

After a somewhat relaxing evening on Saturday I was up early for the hour drive south to my Sunday courses. I ended up staying in Wilmington on Saturday night since it was easier to find a hotel there. Myrtle must have had some events this weekend as many hotels were booked! Oh, and in case you find yourself in Wilmington and looking for some seafood, I’d recommend checking out Fish Bites! I had some good grouper and a couple sides there.

When I was making tee times for this trip one of the things that I wanted was an early morning time for Sunday’s first round. I read Crow Creek was in great shape and they had tee times starting at 7:30. Plus, it was $49. That’s all I needed to hear and how I made my decision to play here! I saw there was a twosome at 7:30 so I took the 7:39 time hoping that they might let me through so I could get to my afternoon course earlier.

Well, that hope never materialized as it was busy when I rolled into the parking lot! The cart guys eventually got it sorted out and I joined a local twosome, who were pretty good fun and we paired well. A foursome was the first group off at 7:30 and then we were second up. Behind us was a twosome so there was a breakdown somewhere as we were all bunched up! We trailed the foursome around the front, playing in under two hours. Typical pace for Myrtle Beach in my experience.

The foursome let us play through on the 10th, but it didn’t do any good! The back nine was stacked with foursomes and we could see one on the 10th green when teeing off. But, packing everyone in seems to be the spirit of Myrtle Beach golf! Having the second tee time of the day and taking four hours to play is my only complaint about Crow Creek.

I found a ton to like about Crow Creek and wouldn’t hesitate recommending it if you are in the North Myrtle area! The ranger that I mentioned in my last post said he played at Crow Creek recently and that it was in awesome shape. Sure enough, the course was pristine! Enjoying the course on a near perfect morning helped the cause, no doubt. It was 60 degrees early and just got warmer as the day went along.

The course had the lushish (did I just create a word?) overseed that I’ve ever seen! The grass lining the road on the drive to the clubhouse was a deep green color and that was the same for the fairways and tees. The dark green gave the course a perfect winter look with dormant bermuda rough. That is the reason I drove so far to golf on a weekend, I so love overseeded fairways in the winter! I had one perfect lie after another in the fairway and could take a nice chunk of turf. I hit more solid iron shots from these fairways than I have in pretty much all my winter rounds so far this year.

It almost seemed as if the course was closed for play and the fairways just grew and were cut. And, you know what?! I think that is the exact reason the fairways are so nice right now. Crow Creek closed last summer to replace the greens and make some other improvements. It reopened in October, so the fairways had lots of time to grow without any play! The greens were smooth, a touch slow, and firmer – all things you’d expect from newer green complexes. The sand was also an excellent consistency and you could play whatever shot you wanted from it.

Rick Robbins designed the course and it is the first time that I’ve paid attention to his name. Come to find out I’ve played five of his other courses, and I have mixed opinions. As far as the design goes at Crow Creek, I loved it! The design is simple and effective. It isn’t a very elaborate design as condos overshadow the back nine, but it allowed me to enjoy the day while still having a couple knee knocker shots.

The biggest challenge at Crow Creek is going to be the distance. I played the blue tees which are 72.1/129/6679 and with softer turf and a coastal breeze it played longer than the yardage. There aren’t any unusually long holes but at the same there aren’t any flip wedge holes, except for maybe the 11th. The next tees down are the whites which play 6,099 yards so Crow Creek would be the perfect candidate for a combo set of tees.

Part of the reason I enjoyed Crow Creek so much is that it is more open than your normal Myrtle Beach golf course. I hit two bad tee shots on the back nine and had a chance to recover on both. You know me, I’ve become all about playability! I noticed drop areas across hazards on the par 3’s, which I think is great.

You can free wheel it around the course and I’d say there are only four holes where things can go terribly wrong. You need to watch out for the 4th, 5th, 8th, and 13th. The 4th and 5th are mid-length par 4’s with water on the right and left sides, respectively. The 4th has what I’ll call a semi-island green so the approach is scary looking, even with the short iron that I had. The 8th is a long par 3 all over water and the 13th is a 142 yard par 3 with a green complex that is similar to the 4th.

The most interesting feature about Crow Creek are all the abrupt ridges and ripples in the greens. Once the greens quicken up, you are going to have trouble stopping some putts and chips! These ridges and ripples create multiple, flatter plateaus so if you end up on the right plateau you can run some putts in. Overall, I had some success putting here as I played half of the break that I read.

If you are looking for a good conditioned mid-level course, then I’d put Crow Creek near the top of your list. It isn’t extravagant, but it is a course for the average golfer. And the course is true to its name – I had a crow make off with the last third of my breakfast, so guard your food!

#1 (366 yard par 4):