River Club Golf

As out of place as a “no swimsuit” advisory may seem at other courses, it’s quite apropos for the aptly named River Club. The Tom Jackson Signature Course includes ponds and streams – some man-made and other pre-existing to River Club’s 1985 opening – on 14 of the 18 holes. And its presence will directly impact club selection on as many as eight holes of this par-72, 6,700-yard track.

It requires a distinct precision-heavy strategy to the round. But also consider it further evidence that the Pawleys Island course and member of the famed Waccamaw Golf Trail is every bit of a true plantation design. The former rice estate, which recently earned 4.5 Stars from Golf Digest’s “Places to Play”, has also been outfitted with sand traps numbering in the triple digits. Packaged with the water, and the apparel regulations don’t seem so silly anymore.