Having undergone a $2.2 million renovation package that removed trees, updated bunkers and implemented Champion UltraDwarf greens, River Oaks Golf Plantation has increased play five-fold from several years back, and for good reason. Locals have returned to River Oaks in droves, taking advantage of the three nines – Bear, Otter and Fox – on the Gene Hamm and Tom Jackson design. The course recently received an overall rating of 5.8 from reviewers at Myrtle Beach Golf Insider, with even higher marks for staff, grill and pro shop.
Those renovations are apparent, and they’ve added a playability factor here. The 4,600 or so trees that were removed opened up the course, and in burying some of the remaining stumps, it left a mounding effect on several of the holes, adding to the 6,300 yards (white tees) or 6,800 (championship tees) any combination of the three nines averages out to play. Players can pull out the driver on every par 4 and par 5 hole, and the openness of the course allows for a forgiving feel off the tee. No. 1 on Otter is a perfect example. The par-5, 524-yard hole has water lining the left of the fairway, but the landing area is wide and the a true roll can leave most average hitters going for the green on the second shot. The Fox nine opens in similar fashion. The 536-yard par 5 has one of the widest fairways on the course, before closing up near a green protected by four bunkers. The closing hole on Bear is true to that nine’s name. The 547-yard requires a monster tee shot before bending around a small lake on the approach.
Located just outside Myrtle Beach city limits off U.S. 501, River Oaks Golf Plantation sits just moments from the heart of the Grand Strand and Myrtle Beach International Airport.
Course was well maintained. Staff was pleasant. Enjoyed the round. My only complaint would be that we didn’t see the beverage cart until our 16th hole.
William
Date Played: 04/06/2024
1000
First time playing, pleasantly surprised by the layout. Course in good condition, greens are very undulating and can be tricky to putt. Good mix of holes when playing the blue tees (these are one set up from the back tees) Friendly staff, nice day
John
Date Played: 05/11/2023
1000
Fantastic
Tony
Date Played: 03/15/2023
1000
Nice setting and location. Good course to play Tee boxes and greens in great shape. The rough has not grown in at this time
David
Date Played: 03/10/2023
1000
Pretty good experience.
John
Date Played: 10/27/2022
1000
Fun course. Challenging, yet forgiving. Greens and fairways were in good shape.
RAY
Date Played: 05/11/2021
1000
played 05/11, had a great experience. Played 05/14 had a 5 and a half hour round. Enough said.
Richard
Date Played: 04/26/2021
1000
Very good
Tom
Date Played: 04/15/2021
1000
Very player friendly course.
Lonnie
Date Played: 04/08/2021
1000
Not up to speed for this time of year
Linda
Date Played: 03/26/2021
1000
Very nice course would certainly golf there again.
Matt
Date Played: 03/24/2021
1000
Awesome. Perfect way to end the our golf trip. Very friendly
Dennis
Date Played: 02/16/2021
1000
Like the layout. Quite wet due to recent rain events
David
Date Played: 10/16/2020
1000
A pretty good course that is a good value, overall. Unfortunately, they had booked too many groups the day we played, so there were two other groups waiting to tee of as our tee time came and went. I complained to the starter, who explained "we get busy in the afternoon. Waiting an extra 30 minutes isn't too bad." I told him I had reserved the tee time 6 months ago for my out of town group and did not share his view. He tried to "help" by switching us to a different tee, where only one group was waiting to tee off. Sadly, it was a very water logged course, from an earlier rain. So , the reasons to play River Oaks are a good location, and a layout and conditions that are a little better than it's price suggests. But you should also expect a slow round, due to overbooking and lack of rangers to keep things moving.
Kenneth
Date Played: 07/05/2020
1000
Greens were ok Slow!
Brian
Date Played: 05/21/2020
1000
Very nice course for the price
Eric
Date Played: 03/12/2020
1000
Suprisingly lush and well kept All the tee boxes were in good shape the fairways were all grass and greens rolled and looked smooth
Paul
Date Played: 09/11/2019
1000
Was not impressed. Played the Bear 9. Did not appear to be maintained beyond minimum level.
Steve
Date Played: 07/26/2019
1000
Conditions in need of improvement. Not what it used to be.
Scott
Date Played: 06/06/2019
1000
fairways and greens nice. not quite as good looking compared to most courses there
Andy
Date Played: 04/19/2019
1000
Poor service
Brad
Date Played: 04/17/2019
1000
Great coarse
Brad
Date Played: 04/17/2019
1000
Great course
Paul
Date Played: 10/03/2018
1000
3 different 9 hole layouts make it fun, will be back soon
Ted
Date Played: 08/30/2018
1000
Played Otter to The Bear Course. The Otter Nine is in good shape Tee to Green. The Bear Nine has many bad spots on most of the greens. Very challenging course especially with the high rough.
Peggy
Date Played: 07/31/2018
1000
Great time!
Kyle
Date Played: 07/18/2018
1000
Definitely great course for the price. They are working on a few of the greens, but overall course in great shape.
Anthony
Date Played: 05/09/2018
1000
Great staff...friendly & knowledgeable!! Played twice in same day!! Great course conditions!! Will definitely be back to play again!! Thank you
Anthony
Date Played: 05/08/2018
1000
Course in decent shape. Friendly staff. Thanks
Stan
Date Played: 11/24/2017
1000
We all enjoyed the round. Pro shop, snack bar and course staff were very friendly and professional. With tee choice the the layout is a challenging but not a grind for weekend players and a test for more skilled players. Had rained and course held up well. Greens are small but rolled smoothly. I will play again and recommend to friends.
Judy
Date Played: 08/03/2015
1000
This course is in horrible shape. Around the greens was the only place that had been watered. The fairways were like concrete, and the rough had clumps of crabgrass sticking out. It was like the maintenance crew was on vacation. Tee boxes were so hard I thought I would sprain my hand putting the tee in. Clubhouse is nothing to write home about. People were very rude. It was very disappointing, as when we booked it 2 weeks before, it had a 8.5 rating, and great reviews. Now, I wouldn't even give it a 4.
Bruce
Date Played: 07/18/2015
1000
Fun course. Conditions are very good for the price paid.
Kenneth
Date Played: 06/29/2015
1000
Greens in awful shape ... played with my son who is 14 ...
Charles
Date Played: 05/06/2015
1000
Pace of play was great.
Logan
Date Played: 04/26/2015
1000
I had a good experience and the staff was great.
Brian
Date Played: 04/12/2015
1000
Only good thing about River Oaks was the bag drop, the guy was very nice. Greens were in bad shape, pro shop had nothing and unfriendly. I would never go back even if it was free.
Philip
Date Played: 03/19/2015
1000
Enjoyed playing this course. It was in good condition.
Kevin
Date Played: 06/02/2014
1000
Course - especially the greens were in terrible condition. The course should not even be open - I am a local and likely will not be back anytime soon. I felt cheated of my money.
Carlos
Date Played: 06/03/2013
1000
Bunkers not maintained. Playing behind a fivesome. I did not like the manner in which I was ask if I wanted to join another party.
Cecil
Date Played: 10/10/2012
1000
Average.
Bill
Date Played: 07/19/2012
1000
Played yesterday and would do so again. Great price to play a pretty challenging course with good fairways and generally good greens.
Mike
Date Played: 05/16/2012
1000
Good staff, course condition bad.
Chris
Date Played: 04/06/2012
1000
Not bad for the money. Got a great deal on a platinum card. $55 for two rounds at River Oaks, and then significant savings at other affiliated courses for the remainder of the year. First 9 played the Otter 9. Tees were in really good shape, as were the fairways. Rough had not turned green yet, but greens already had a few burnt spots on them. Played the Bear 9 for the back. Again, tees and fairways were in good shape, but the greens had a lot of sand on most of them. Otter 9 was pretty wide open and not as challenging except for a couple of holes near the end that had pretty tough doglegs. Bear 9 was much tougher with more water and much tighter.
Peter
Date Played: 02/25/2012
1000
Terrible condition. Bare spots and patches all over. Dog track - $20 course at best.
James
Date Played: 02/21/2012
1000
Well maintained, very enjoyable.
Jerry
Date Played: 10/26/2011
1000
Not the worst course I have played. Greens and fairways were OK. Pace of play was slow, but could have been worse. Improvements appear to be in the works. I'll probably give River Oaks another shot in a year.
Ron
Date Played: 09/27/2011
1000
Greens sand dressed with a dump truck! Made them hard to putt and lessened enjoyment especially in the rain. Putted sticky balls - they got larger the further they had to roll. Nice older-style course.
Barry
Date Played: 06/28/2011
1000
Course in good shape - enjoyable round - very limited yardage markers - had 150 in the fairway and sometimes we found the 100 marker - nothing on the sprinkler heads.
Rich
Date Played: 05/16/2011
1000
Cart path only when we played. Course does not drain well. No carts allowed to the range. Had to walk from parking lot (about 100 to 125-yard walk). Play extremely slow. No rangering going on at all. Should cost less for the quality.
John
Date Played: 05/04/2011
1000
Look, for the money not a bad course. Played this course on Sunday, May 1. People were very friendly.
Lloyd
Date Played: 04/16/2011
1000
Nice.
Patrick
Date Played: 07/12/2010
1000
This course is an absolute value for the price. The course was in great shape and the staff was absolutely wonderful.
Art
Date Played: 06/05/2010
1000
The renovations to Fox + Otter removed a lot of trees and rebuilt the bunkers. The bunkers are very nice now. However, this is still a dumpy course, at the bottom end of MB. It might have some potential to get up to average, if they spend a lot more $. It's an OK course for a local's or sr. cheap rate, but don't bring your annual group there!
Michael
Date Played: 05/05/2010
1000
(No comments offered).
Gilles
Date Played: 05/01/2010
1000
Greens in poor condition, no indication to reach hole # 1 on the blue course, no starter and too many foursomes at same time on tee off.
Carl
Date Played: 11/11/2009
1000
Over seeded & wet so most courses were cart path only. My party played 2 courses before I got there, Possum Trot & River Oaks. We will never go back to River Oaks. Very poor condition.
Alex
Date Played: 10/10/2009
1000
This was the worst round of golf I have ever played. Apparently, they had overbooked the course for some reason. Our tee time was scheduled for 1:30 but we got there early and were able to go a few minutes after 1. We played the first 4 holes in around 35 minutes, but when we got to hole number 5 we had to wait almost 20 minutes to tee off. Holes 5-9 took over 2 hours to play. That means that a round of golf at River Oaks would have taken me between 5 and 6 hours to finish. I was so disgusted about the idea of spending 6 hours on a course that I quit after the first 9. We then went into the clubhouse to see if there was anything we could do, maybe get a voucher or something to come back and play at a later time, but we were told that since we booked online we were not able to receive any help. The excuse we got when we went in was that it was the busiest day of the year. October 8th 2009 ... not Memorial Day, Labor Day, the 4th of July, or any other holiday. If they knew that this was the busiest day of the year, which I don't believe, shouldn't they have been prepared to handle the crowd? As a result of my experience I will never play at River Oaks again and since I can't get any help for any problem that I have because I book online, I will seriously think twice before I use this site again.
Jim
Date Played: 09/22/2009
1000
Course was in really poor shape. Not a course that I would ever play again.
Jose
Date Played: 04/16/2009
1000
Nice course.
Eric
Date Played: 04/14/2009
1000
The course was a pleasure to play, but the carts and the clubhouse need to be updated. Other than that we had a nice day. We would play again.
Frances
Date Played: 03/21/2009
1000
We found the River Oaks course to be in very rough shape - lots of brown spots and bare grass on the tee blocks and fairways. It had rained heavily a couple of days before we played - some of the sand traps were still full of water and the sand was packed and gritty in all the bunkers. There are too many hugh bunkers on the course - especially around the greens. Most of the greens are very small. All in all, we would rate this course a 3 out of 10.
Betty
Date Played: 02/23/2009
1000
Nice golf course. Need more restroom facilities.
Pete
Date Played: 02/10/2009
1000
Fun course & close to the airport. Our guys play there for the afternoon round as soon as we land. Don't go in expecting to play TPC Sawgrass, but it's a great little layout and good way to work the cobwebs off the game.
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