This year, for the first time in 20 years, there will not be a new golf course opening at Myrtle Beach, S. C.

The Grand Strand, which features anywhere from 105 to 120 courses -- depending on how you define the geographic area -- will stand pat for 2002. And, there may be no more new courses for 2003, either.

Why no new courses?

It's basically a matter of economics and demographics.

More than 3,000 new golf courses were built in America in the 1990s as developers took a gamble on the fact that millions of Baby Boomers were retiring and for many golf was their favorite pasttime.

But some areas of the country, such as Myrtle Beach and South Florida, have found themselves apparently temporarily overbuilt on golf courses.

Myrtle Beach seems to be at a temporary golf saturation point. There are so many courses the market has thinned to the point that everyone suffers to some degree. Total golf rounds at Myrtle Beach dropped about 5,000 in 2001 compared to 2000. Myrtle Beach actually lost one course about a year ago when the Gator Hole golf course was bulldozed to make way for a new Home Depot.

Myrtle Beach has had 20 new courses open over the past three years (and 86 new courses since 1982).

"Anyone building (a new golf course at Myrtle Beach) now would need to go see a psychiartist," said Ken Folkes, who manages 12 Myrtle Beach golf properties. "I think it will be a long time before someone builds another course."

Golf's potential for a new development surge seems to lie in home sales. Many developers build golf courses as loss-leaders, reaping big profits on sales of homes next to the golf courses. If the economy improves, a new Baby Boomer building boom could result, tied to golf course development, say experts.

I recently had a chance to play several of the newest courses at Myrtle Beach (Shaftesbery Glen, Barefoot Bay's Love and Norman Courses and the World Tour). Shaftesbury Glen is off the beaten path, close to Conway and North Myrtle Beach. The course opened in the fall of 2001 and is in great shape already, but its a very plain vanilla track with basically flat greens and no interesting signature holes. It is a rather nondescript, boring layout.

In contrast, the Barefoot Bay courses (Dye, Fazio, Norman, Love) are beautiful layouts with lots of interesting holes, split fairways, great water challenges, multi-level greens, etc. Another great-looking new course, which I walked a few holes but did not get a chance to play, is the 36-hole Grande Dunes. This is about as close to a Scottish-style seaside links course as you will ever see in the U. S. (and they have a beautiful ornate arched highway bridge over the Intercoastal Waterway from U. S. 17 and fantastic new clubhouse, too).

So long, golf building boom. But hello business vitality.

While golf course development seems to be on temporary hold in Myrtle Beach, other development is still going full speed ahead. The Myrtle Beach area continues to add shopping and entertainment venues at a rapid rate.

Some of the bigger entertainment venues include such things as the Carolina Opry, Alabama Theater, Palace Theater, Medieval Times (a fun hoot of a show), Legends in Concert, Dixie Stampede, Ice Castle Theater, etc.

Forbes Magazine rates Myrtle Beach the 29th Best Place for Business among the nation's top 234 metro areas (second only to Raleigh-Durham in the Carolinas). The summer of 2002 will also see the opening of the new Tanger Outlet Center, a $48 million open-air mall with 75 stores (the area already has more than 2,000 retail outlets).

The restaurant growth in Myrtle Beach has been amazing. The metro area's restaurant growth is nine times faster than the national average and twice as fast as its nearest competitor (Flagstaff, Ariz.), says Restaurant Business Magazine. And, Nation's Restaurant News termed Myrtle Beach one of the 50 hot spots for development.

Already easily the golf capital of the world (with more per-capita golf courses than anywhere), Myrtle Beach gets about four million visitors a year. The city in February 2003 will see the new 400-room, 12-story Radisson Hotel open next to the Convention Center.

Also, work is underway on widening several new highways and the building of several new roads, including the six-lane Carolinas Bay Parkway. The completed four-lane Conway Bypass has already helped get motorists in and out of the beach area must faster, avoiding the traffic clogging in Conway. The new Interstate 73 will eventually be built all the way to the beach, but that likely will be years down the road.

All this and the nation's second most popular beach (more than 60 miles long), too (Destin, Fla., is No. 1), and third-best shopping area, according to Southern Living Magazine reader ratings.

This story was published on 16 May 2002.