This is the fifth and final installment of course reviews from our 2015 Myrtle Beach trip. We played Possum Trot in North Myrtle Beach, SC on Tuesday, June 9, 2015. Possum Trot was the first course on the Glens package that included Shaftesbury Glen, Glen Dornoch, and Heather Glen. The course has that muni look and feel and I would advise playing it first or last in your line-up depending on whether you like to ease into your week or finish on a soft note. We had it second behind Tidewater and definitely felt the drop in class. In retrospect, I probably would have scheduled Possum Trot last in a six day trip because the urge to replay at this course wasn’t that great, and after 11 rounds in six days, neither is your energy level.
The strength of Possum Trot is in the par threes. There are some beauties and the 13th (last photo below) is the best and brings back an awesome memory because I hit my best shot of the trip here (4-iron from 199 yards to one foot). The surfaces are all Bermuda and the greens were running smooth and medium slow except for #6, 7, and 8. This group is in a low area on the front nine and had been under stress. Aerated and chewed up, these three were barely playable and badly in need of better air circulation. Playing conditions on the rest of the course were decent, but the concrete on the cart paths was crumbling in several spots and was in need of some serious repair.
In our morning round, we played the white tees, If you are driving it well, it felt like you could overpower the course which I did, even though I’m not a big hitter. I had a lot of wedges into the par-4s and counted numerous scoring opportunities on my way to a 1-over 73. In the afternoon we replayed from the blue tees from 600+ yards back and got rained on a bit, and the course played considerably more difficult.
Value (3.0 out of 5.0)
Again, excellent value as part of the overall Glens package, but the conditions on this track were not up to snuff or at least to the other Glen courses standards. Also, when we checked in, the pro shop gave us three baskets of balls to share between six golfers, which I thought was odd since balls were included as part of the package. Couldn’t tell if this was a nickle and dime job or just an oversight.
Facilities (2.5 out of 5.0)
The course works from a no-frills very small clubhouse that’s essentially a pro-shop snack bar combo. The bag drop area was a little cramped and chaotic when we arrived because the morning men’s group was arriving as well, and they didn’t seem to have enough staff to unload cars and load carts. There is an all grass driving range and putting green with ample room to work on each, and a smaller putting green next to the first tee for those waiting in the queue. The overall rating is reflective of a mid to lower class facility, across-the-board.
Customer Experience (3.0 out of 5.0)
Once we were loaded, the starter was organized and got us off without issue. For those of us that replayed in the afternoon, we had our pick of tee times and the course emptied out fast after the men’s group had concluded play.
One of the guys in our group (Mike) is an ardent animal lover and was feeding a squirrel peanuts as we worked our way around the morning round. This little guy followed us to the clubhouse and observed the pocket that Mike stored his peanuts in and actually chewed a hole in his golf bag to get at the stash while we were breaking for lunch. We came out and Mike was not too pleased about the hole in his bag, and that one of the cart guys had witnessed the whole fiasco and not taken any steps to shoo the animal away, and was actually laughing with amusement. Well, this was probably half Mike’s fault, but he didn’t appreciate the non-assistance from the staff member.
We played the white tees at 6,343 yards and par of 72 with a course rating of 70.4/118. Possum Trot is best used as a warm-up course for your golf trip, or if you are into playing middle to top-tier courses, you could skip this one. It was a fun day, but I’d hesitate to return because of the conditioning issues with greens 6-8, and there are several better alternatives on the north end of the Strand.
Overall Rating (2.75 out of 5.0)
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