MYRTLE BEACH, S.C. – This is not the course your uncle, or grandfather, remembers.
Avid golfers who are old enough to have seen their share of full-page magazine ads for courses and resorts over the years will recognize King’s North at Myrtle Beach National. Originally built in the 1970s, it came of age after a 1996 renovation by Arnold Palmer and longtime design associate Francis Duane, who turned bog-standard golf holes into genuine attractions tailor-made for striking aerial photography decades ahead of the contemporary drone-photo craze in golf.
There was “The Gambler” – the par-5 6th hole doglegging hard left around a lake with an island fairway tempting golfers to cut off major yardage and reach the green with two heroic water carries. There was the par-3 12th with its island green and bunkers shaped like the letters “S.C.” But the most over-the-top gimmick hole was the long par-4 18th, “Bullseye,” which all the King’s men littered with 44 bunkers from tee to green…