On the northern end of the Myrtle Beach Golf Trail, the views are wild, the golf is bold, and most stories start with a lost ball. In the latest episode of Traveling Golfer, Real John Daly heads north of the Grand Strand proper — into Calabash and Chilote, North Carolina — for a three-course tour built entirely around River’s Edge, The Pearl, and Meadowlands. If the Trail’s southern stretch gets most of the attention, this episode makes the case that the north end has just as much personality, and arguably more variety per mile.
River’s Edge: Where Arnie Got the Last Laugh
First stop is River’s Edge in Chilote, N.C., an Arnold Palmer design best known for one hole: the par-4 ninth, universally called Arnie’s Revenge. Carved directly out of the marsh, it’s become the course’s defining test — head pro Dan Miller says it’s not uncommon for golfers to leave vowing to come back and “get their revenge” the following year, and more often than not, they don’t.
Miller’s practical advice for first-timers matters more than it sounds like it should: don’t play from the tips. A lot of visiting golfers see the yardage on the card, assume it plays like their home course at the same distance, and get surprised by how much water and trouble Palmer tucked into the layout. On the tour of River’s Edge’s opening hole — a par-4 that Daly compares to Augusta’s understated elegance — Miller walked through club selection and shot shape in real time, and Daly matched him hole for hole for a ho-hum, hard-earned par.
Postround, the food and drink got their own spotlight: a Tuscan chicken panini and Buffalo wings paired with the Trail Transfusion and the aptly named Arnie’s Revenge — a Long Island iced tea that, per Miller’s fair warning, lives up to its namesake. The setting doesn’t hurt either: boats and anglers drift by within view of the back nine, giving the round a genuinely coastal, unhurried feel that’s part of why River’s Edge keeps pulling golfers back.
The Pearl: 27 Holes and Zero Bad Angles
Next, the crew heads to The Pearl in Calabash — 27 holes across three nines, with general manager Trey Ernst serving as both host and comic relief. Despite a tough maintenance year (drought conditions on top of an unusually snowy winter), the course’s condition drew praise on camera, a credit to Ernst’s crew balancing agronomy with a busy tee sheet.
The featured hole, the par-5 seventh on the West nine, is one of the longer holes on the property — a demanding tee shot, a second shot that punishes anything off-line, and a green that slopes back toward the fairway for a natural backstop. Daly found a bunker off the tee, recovered, and closed out a two-putt par on a hole that rewards precision over power.
Ernst’s broader take on the Trail is worth repeating for anyone planning a multi-day trip: the mix of South Carolina and North Carolina courses gives visitors real stylistic range within a single vacation. His own recommendation for golfers staying a week — play the Pearl, then explore nearby options like C-Trail and River’s Edge — reflects exactly how locals treat the Trail: not as one course, but as a rotation.
Meadowlands: The Friendly One With Family Roots
The final stop, Meadowlands, is a family operation in the most literal sense — head pro Jacob McLamb has taken an ownership stake in the course alongside his father and grandfather, and it shows in how the place is run. McLamb pointed to one deliberate design choice that stood out: an additional set of green tees, positioned closer than the standard reds, specifically to give women golfers — and any golfer who wants a shorter, more approachable track — a better path to the green in regulation.
The featured hole, the par-4 second, demands both accuracy and distance: water lines the left off the tee and again short of the green, with bunkers ringing the putting surface. It’s a hole that punishes a mis-hit in either direction, and both host and pro found the fairway before closing out clean pars.
Calabash and Beyond
Between rounds, the episode leans into what makes this stretch of the Trail more than just golf: Calabash’s seafood-capital reputation (fresh shrimp, fried flounder, hush puppies), a waterfront that’s as scenic off the course as any of the three layouts are on it, and the kind of slow-paced coastal evening — sunset cruises, local shops, ice cream — that rounds out a golf trip rather than just filling the hours between tee times.
More of the North End Worth Knowing
River’s Edge, The Pearl, and Meadowlands are the anchor stops in this episode, but they’re far from the only reason to build a trip around the Trail’s northern stretch. Also worth penciling in: Lockwood Folly, a marshland gem with some of the best views in Brunswick County; Sandpiper Bay, a 27-hole layout built for group play; C-Trail, offering three distinct designs including two recently renovated layouts; Crow Creek, known for pristine conditions and wide-open fairways; Glen Dornoch, with dramatic marshland finishing holes; and Diamondback and Crown Park, two laid-back, lower-key tracks that round out the rotation without the crowds.
That range is really the point. The Myrtle Beach Golf Trail spans more than 25 courses across both Carolinas, and the north end alone offers enough stylistic variety — a Palmer classic, a 27-hole resort-style layout, a family-run community course, and a handful of under-the-radar gems — to fill a full week without repeating a single round.
The Takeaway
The northern end of the Myrtle Beach Golf Trail doesn’t get talked about as often as the Trail’s Grand Strand core, but this episode makes a clear case that it should. Three courses, three completely different personalities, and a coastal North Carolina backdrop that turns each round into as much a destination as a game. Add in the seafood, the waterfront, and the family-run hospitality that defines places like Meadowlands, and it’s easy to see why golfers who find this stretch tend to keep coming back to it.
Watch the full episode above, and we’ll see you next time on Traveling Golfer.
