Inside a 'Grande' Course Renovation in Myrtle Beach
Grande Dunes was somewhat ahead of the game when ownership decided to refresh one of Myrtle Beach’s premier layouts this spring.
Although architect Roger Rulewich had retired in 2018, his design associate on Grande Dunes Golf Club—A. John Harvey—formed his own firm more than a decade ago and was a logical choice to lead the project, considering he had kept in close contact with Founders Group International director of agronomy Max Morgan over the years.
“Max called and said ‘John you want to become involved?”’ Harvey said. “And even before he finished the sentence I said ‘absolutely.’ It was sort of a rekindling of relationships.”
Having been an integral part of the design of Grande Dunes in 2002, Harvey was in tune with the original idea of how to present golf at this property, which borders the scenic Intracoastal Waterway on five holes.
“The design intent or motif at Grande Dunes was to build the course on a grand scale with wide fairways, large teeing areas, large bunkers and significantly sized greens, averaging 8,800 square feet,” Harvey said. “The large scale of course features and corridor widths allow it to be set-up for tournament events as well as for a beginner. Variety in setup makes for a fun, fair and challenging experience, hopefully for all golfers.”
But over the last two decades some of these design features had “shrunk” because of grass-mowing patterns and various other maintenance reasons, which led Founders Group International president Steve Mays and his team to entertain the idea of renovating Grande Dunes, one of the ownerships 21 golf courses in the thriving Myrtle Beach tourism market.
“This is such a great property, such a unique property, and we knew we weren’t up to the standards that we wanted to be here so it made it an easy call for us,” Mays said of the $1 million renovation efforts.
Behind the 18th green at Grande Dunes.
David Droschak
Like some golf renovation projects, Grande Dunes initially began with resurfacing the greens, but then expanded quickly into thatch removal, bunker, fairway and tee box work, along with an updated and brighter pro shop, bar and restaurant look.
“Roger created these great lacy edge bunkers that really are unique to our market, and we kind of lost some of that through 20 years of maintaining the bunkers, so we wanted to bring that special uniqueness about this property back,” Mays said. “We wanted to get the course back to where it was when it first opened and hopefully not just recapture the vision but enhance that vision that they had 20 years ago. I believe we’ve done that.”
Grande Dunes reopened for play in mid-September, with another four to five weeks scheduled to complete the 15 fairway bunkers around the course. Golfers will see that Harvey reclaimed 40,000 square feet of putting surface and an additional eight acres of closely mowed fairways. The large tee boxes were also reclaimed.
“I feel the large putting surfaces work well at Grande Dunes because of the graceful contours separating pin-positions, offering players the reward for placing the ball in the correct flagstick quadrant while creating an exciting roller coaster feel on long putts for mishit approach shots,” Harvey said.
The massive 16th green is a perfect example. It was originally built and subsequently reclaimed to 9,900 square feet and about 65 yards from front-to-back. “Before we started renovations, the putting surface had shrunk down to about 6,600 square feet,” Harvey said
One of the newer golf features is a large bunker and closely mowed area that borders a scenic pond behind the 18th green. The feature wasn’t part of the original design and really doesn’t come into play—except to those at the bar sipping on their favorite cocktail.
“My favorite part happened by accident,” Mays said of the 2,000 square foot bunker. "John said we really need to create a cool feature out on the back of the 18th green, and we ended up with that bunker that looks great. It really was based on John looking out the window of the clubhouse that was cut out and he said ‘man it would be great to do that.’ That’s my favorite part now, sitting at the bar and knowing that was really done and designed for visual impact and the great view.”
“I’m a big advocate and strong proponent for the optics of golf, even from an entrance road or clubhouse area because many people will see those features—some of which may not even be in play—but the aesthetics of the contrast with sand the surrounding turf is very important to me,” added Harvey.
Mays said the vision and strategy of Founders Group International over the past 4-5 years has been to touch as many of its golf properties as possible. So far, Grande Dunes is among about 10 assets in which greens, bunkers or clubhouses have been renovated.
“We really want to re-invigorate all of our golf courses to make sure they are up to the standards that we want them to be,” Mays said. “It’s great for Founders Group because what built Myrtle Beach golf was new golf courses—new things through the 1980s and ‘90s. Every time you turned around there was a new golf course, and then in the early 2000s that all stopped, and as the golf industry changed golf courses started closing here. For us to remain competitive as a destination we’ve got to continue to invest in these properties and for a long time that didn’t happen.
“Now, Founders Group is kind of leading the way and others in the market are either doing it or getting ready to do it too, to make sure Myrtle Beach remains a premium golf destination. I always feel like we’re the pulse of the golf travel industry and there has been a lot happening over the past 20 years in terms of great U.S. golf destinations, and we have to make sure Myrtle Beach also stays at that level.”