Canadian Jack Youngberg stood on a tee at Heather Glen Golf Links, playing a layout once named “Best New Public Course in America” by Golf Digest for the second time that day, and hammered his drive into a piece of wood yards in front of him. The ball bounded backwards into the air and continued to travel – eventually landing behind Youngberg and his cohorts.
“He could’ve reached out and caught it,” said Doug Thomson, one of Youngberg’s playing partners. “All three of us were on the ground in tears. It was absolutely the most priceless thing I’ve ever seen on a golf course. Beautiful.
“He said a bad word and just started laughing. (Youngberg) hit the ball after I hit my tee shot from where it lay. It was brutal.”
Priceless. Beautiful. Laughter. It was everything that is great about a Myrtle Beach golf trip encapsulated in a single (albeit bad) shot.
Youngberg and Thomson were joined on the trip by Doug Mullally and Clark Spencer, and all of them live in the Toronto area. For Spencer, who won a four-night, five-round trip from GolfScene, it was his first visit to Myrtle Beach. For the playing partners he brought along, it was their first visit in many years and the Grand Strand didn’t disappoint.
“These are nice golf courses, they really are special,” Mullally said. “I hadn’t been here in 25 years. (We had a) beautiful time.”
The raucous quartet, who seemed to take equal enjoyment in the area’s abundant nightlife, didn’t settle for a mere five rounds. Knowing the brutal Canadian winter would make immediate opportunities to play sporadic, at best, the group played 36 holes day.
“Apart from the golf, the people down here are just extremely friendly,” Youngberg said. “Everything has just been magical. I’d give it a 10. I’d come back here for sure ... I don’t think I’ve got a bad thing to say about the golf down here.”
In addition to Heather Glen, the quartet also played Possum Trot, River Hills, Shaftesbury Glen and Glen Dornoch, a course none of them will forget anytime soon.
“I’d say here at Glen Dornoch (is the highlight),” Spencer said. “It’s just absolutely beautiful. The courses are great.”
A much more unexpected highlight for Spencer and his friends was their means of transportation. Direct flight service into Myrtle Beach hasn’t always been abundant, but that has changed in recent years. Direct Air, a Myrtle Beach-based airline, now offers non-stop flight service from Niagara Falls and Plattsburgh, N.Y., making travel from Toronto and Montreal much easier and more cost efficient than it has been in the past.
“I didn’t realize Niagara Falls had that airport,” Youngberg said. “It’s just hassle free. It’s a lot easer than going out of Pierson in Toronto. I’d recommend it to anybody. That’s the great thing, straight down here no hassle. You are off the plane and you are here (in less than two hours).”
Great golf and easy travel made for another memorable Myrtle Beach golf trip.
“The constant jibber-jabber of two-on-two team play,” Mullally said what he will remember about the trip. “There has been a lot of golf talk around the greens, that is what makes it special with four pals.”
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