Whispering Pines Golf Club is getting a face lift.
The course, which is owned by the city of Myrtle Beach and managed by Atlantic Golf Management, is scheduled to close for renovations at the end of play on May 23 and reopen on Sept. 1.
Tees, greens and fairways will all be regrassed.
Greens will be Sunday ultradwarf Bermudagrass, while tees and fairways will be Bimini Bermuda, which is a strand that is newer to the area and is being grown at a turf farm in Camden. Bimini is considered drought tolerant and durable, perhaps more than 419 Bermuda, which is on most Grand Strand fairways.
Bimini is installed at a course Atlantic Golf owns and operates in Florida.
“We’ve used it in Florida and have been very pleased with it,” said Atlantic Golf managing partner Chip Smith. “Once we saw a farm growing it in South Carolina, we decided after watching it for a year that it would be the right choice for us.”
Other area courses that feature Sunday Bermuda on greens include Myrtewood Golf Club’s PineHills and Palmetto courses, Shaftesbury Glen Golf & Fish Club, Rivers Edge Golf Club, Tradition Club, Arcadian Shores Golf Club, International Club of Myrtle Beach, and Diamondback Golf Club.
The fairways will be leveled and smoothed with a bulldozer as well.
“It’s a rough ride on some of the fairways, and that’s just from age,” Smith said.
A few hundred trees are targeted to be removed, and about 150 already have been to allow for more light and air flow around greens.
Many bunkers are being redone with new drainage and sand to complete a full bunker renovation that began a couple years ago, and the parking lot will be repaved.
This will be the third phase of the renovation project that was approved by the city on Oct. 22.
The first two phases were completed this winter. They consisted of replacing the irrigation pump in a new pumphouse building, and repairing irrigation lines and replacing all irrigation heads with improved technology.
The city approved $1.5 million for the renovations and Smith said he will pay any overages, but doesn’t expect to.
“We ended up getting a lot for our money,” Smith said.
Smith said his company’s profit-sharing with the city includes paying into a capital project fund that allows for special projects like this year’s renovations.
He said the course, which had been in the red for a few years before his company was contracted to manage it in October 2014, has been profitable every year beginning in 2015.
“We’ve not had a loss any year since we’ve had it,” Smith said.
Improvements have been made periodically. Whispering Pines’ cart paths were redone a couple years ago.
The course was previously part of the Myrtle Beach Air Force Base.
Nine holes of the course were built in 1962 by military personnel. In 1986, the Texas design firm of Finger, Dye and Spann added nine holes and renovated the previous nine, creating the nearly 6,800-yard, par-72 course that exists today.
The city received permission to operate the course in 1993 and claimed the property in September 2001 from the Department of the Interior through a quitclaim deed, with the stipulation it continue to be used for recreation.
Atlantic Golf Management also manages The Aero Club Short Course 18-hole par-3 layout near the airport, as well as a course in Florida and one in West Virginia.
In 2022, Atlantic Golf sold Brunswick County courses Brunswick Plantation and Cape Fear National to Heritage Golf Group.
Smith said it’s possible his management company could add courses in the area.
“We always keep our eyes open, but we kind of go about it a little bit methodically and try to make good moves instead of just making moves,” said Smith, a former owner of TPC Myrtle Beach.
