The reimagining of the front nine on King’s North at Myrtle Beach National in South Carolina, USA is progressing on schedule as the course targets an early October reopening.
Architect Brandon Johnson of Johnson Golf Design is overseeing the two-year, two-part project – the back nine will be overhauled next summer – that will transform the experience on the Arnold Palmer design.
King’s North closed in June to begin the project and the course’s greens have all been restored to their original size and in some cases expanded, claiming an additional 30,000 square feet of putting surface. The greens have been sprigged with TifEagle bermudagrass and are growing to schedule with a month remaining before the layout reopens.
“The greens are going to be a lot bigger,” said Johnson, who worked for Arnold Palmer Design for 17 years before launching out on his own. “It was fun discovering a lot of the old, original green boundaries; you kind of see where things might have been and then you start peeling back layers and go, ‘Oh, there was green over there.’ We were able to smooth the contours we rediscovered and there is a nice roll and flow to the new greens.”
With work on the greens and the surrounding areas largely complete, Johnson and his team are focused on the continuing renovation of the front nine bunkers, which will add to the strategic value of a course golfers have long flocked to.
“Between widening fairways, opening up the front of some of the greens so you can play the ball on the ground, and tweaking angles of the bunkers, there are going to be some new strategic locations that will present some fun riddles for players to solve,” Johnson said.
Johnson is also leaning into the already rugged aesthetic King’s North enjoys, expanding the layout’s waste bunkers to showcase the area’s naturally, sandy soil.
“We are excited to welcome golfers back to King’s North in October, so they can enjoy the rare opportunity to experience an architect’s vision for a reimagined layout at the halfway point,” said Steve Mays, president of Founders Group International. “Brandon’s work will help recapture the magic of Arnold Palmer’s original design, while incorporating his own vision for one of the Myrtle Beach area’s iconic courses, and the buzz surrounding the reopening is already building.”
King’s North was last renovated in 1996 when Palmer oversaw a complete redesign of what was previously called the North Course. The layout shot to the top of the list of Myrtle Beach’s best designs and was ranked among America’s 100 Greatest Public Courses by Golf Digest.
The renovation of King’s North is the latest in a string of investments by Founders Golf in its portfolio of courses. In the summer of 2023, FGI commissioned a comprehensive greens, bunkers and clubhouse restoration project at Pawleys Plantation, highlighting the company’s commitment to providing the best golf vacation experience possible.
FGI owns 21 Myrtle Beach area courses and has undertaken significant capital improvement projects on 12 of them in recent years, including Grande Dunes, Pine Lakes and TPC Myrtle Beach.