18 Holes! In the heart of East Coast golf courses, this area finally has an 18 hole course.
Baskets are in the good shape and the tee signs are good.
Concrete tee pads were good.
Even though a wooded course, there are 3 Par 4s and 3 Par 5s. Nice to have some distance on a course like this.
Pretty good variety of left and right holes.

#1 is a pretty short simple opening hole.
While most of the course flow was good, I could not find the path to #16 and had to skip it, when I ended up at the tee for 17.
#18 - if the designers wanted score separation on the closing hole, I think they will get it here.
#18 finishes with a long walk back to the parking and #1.

It was great to see an 18 hole course open in the Myrtle Beach area (I can't believe its been 6 years), the area has 50+ ball golf courses but only a few nine hole DG courses before this one. Great for this huge East Coast tourist destination.
It is set in a nice park, with the first hole right near the entrance. Doesn't appear to have much interference with other park users.
The fairways have been cleared pretty well and continue to get beaten in and the roughs are not very punishing. The front nine is mostly Par 3s with a couple of Par 4s thrown in for challenge. #2 is mostly open, but you don't get another open hole until #10.
#11 was my favorite, the tee shot follows an ample fairway, then your drive has to go right, through a clearing in the trees, over a small ditch to the basket still 100 ft or so away.
#13 was a Par 5 much like #12 at Castle Hayne, tee shot has to be placed just right, to make the 90 degree turn in the fairway, this one to the left.
Sorry I missed #16, but that was probably on me.
I did not like the way this course ended, and I really wanted to drop my rating because of 17 and 18. #17 is a fairly short Par 3, sharp right turn, with two drainage ditches pretty much making up the fairway. If these are filled with water, would not be a fun hole to play.
#18 - a Par 5, 600+ ft hole, with heavy woods down the left, a fairly steep embarkment on the right, and oh yea, a narrow fairway. If you can thread one, two, three down this fairway, you're probably going to pick up strokes on whoever you are playing. It felt very forced, just to get you heading back in the direction of the parking lot.
After playing it, you then have a 1000 ft (?) walk back to the parking lot, across (around) the soccer field. One of the reasons I play DG is to get the exercise, and since I was the only one in the park the day I played, I used the walk back for field work. But most days this would just be a long walk, in the hot sun, to get back to your car.

If you're a fan of Myrtle Beach, there's a good chance you're a golfer. For disc golfers though, it's a slightly different story. Unfortunately, the disc golf options near the Grand Strand are very limited. I have now played the 3 most established and popular courses near Myrtle (I say "near" because none of the 3 are actually in Myrtle Beach...you have to drive a good half hour, or more, depending on where you're staying). (I've noticed a couple of new 9-holers in Conway, but we'll see if they catch on or not.) So, if you're visiting Myrtle and want the best use of your available time for disc golf, here are my definitive rankings:

1. Socastee (far and away the best)
2. Coastal Carolina (fun 9-holer that is scenic with no risk of losing discs)
3. Tupelo Bay (the worst of the 3 and the only one that costs money)

To me, it's a no-brainer: Socastee is the only 18-hole course, first of all. Unlike Tupelo Bay, it's free. Tupelo Bay and Coastal are mostly wide open and not particularly interesting or challenging. Socastee is a legitimate wooded course with several par 4's and 5's, good variety, dual tees for intermediate and advanced players, and not too overgrown. (I've seen previous reviews where perhaps the course wasn't in as good of shape. When I played, it was fine.)

+ Easy navigation.

+ Good baskets.

+ The tees were adequate.

+ The park has good restrooms and other amenities, such as soccer fields and a remote controlled car race track.

+ I loved the challenge of the par 4's and 5's. Some of them were tweener holes (3.5 or 4.5), but I like the set-up with sharp-turning fairways and landing zones. Good course design.

+ The 2nd hole is a narrow fairway with trees to the left and a chain-link fence, ditch, and road to the right. My drive didn't finish enough and I landed outside the fence. In my mind, I was already docking Socastee on my rating for forcing me to climb a fence to get my disc. But when I got up to the basket, there is an open gate for inaccurate disc golfers such as myself. Good thinking!

+ Not any elevation, but they elevated some baskets and used boulders and ridges to create some faster greens.

+ This is Carolina Scramble golf: wooded, tight fairways. With that comes some underbrush. This is always the big question for me when I play new courses. Is it going to be a goat ranch or not? This one isn't bad. There is some underbrush, but when I played it was under control.

+ Fun, challenging course.

I was tempted to rate Socastee a 3.5, but I talked myself out of it. I think Socastee is just so much better than the other options in Myrtle Beach, that it feels even better than it actually is. In reality, it's a slightly above average track that's good on the fun and challenge factors, but not an excellent course.

- The 1st hole is a total afterthought. It's 190ish feet from the long and 145ish from the short with scattered trees and no discernible lines to the basket. It totally doesn't fit with the rest of the course.

- There isn't anything especially memorable about the course. Aesthetically, it's average. Upkeep was fine. There wasn't a standout, signature hole for me. 17 of the 18 holes were good, some very good. I don't know if I'd say any of them were phenomenal.

Stacked up against the 100+ courses I've played, Socastee is solidly in the upper third. And as I've stated, compared to the other options in Myrtle Beach, it's the clear winner. Try it out.

Concrete tee pads, nice blue rimmed baskets, slight elevation changes, good range of distances, next tee easy to find. It's nice to have a course that has both open throw areas, to air it out, and wooded areas for more accuracy. I was pleasantly surprised to find the back nine in the natural area, as opposed to just playing around the ball fields..

Hole signage could be updated. I didn't find many cons here other than it may be a little short for more advanced players.

I really enjoyed this course. It has a good mix of open and wooded holes. I played the 18 and then played the front nine again. I scored much better the second time around. There are a couple longer holes on the back nine that you can let it fly on. I will play this course again next time I'm near Myrtle Beach.

The course had very nice discatchers and concrete tee pads on all holes. That alone makes me happy. There was alot of shot shaping and maneuvering through the fairway which provided a nice challenge. The course was well mowed and well kept along the edges, meaning a disc being lost would be hard to do. A good mix of pars, ranging from a 3 to a 5.

The course was pretty repetitive. No open holes. Just technical through the woods. A lot of spiders. Around the teepads I would ever so often find a broken chair or table, and a huge stack of palletes. Not alot of litter, just these large disposed of objects. The walk from hole 18 proved painful in 90 degree heat. No wow factor. I didn't find myself saying that one hole was among the best I have played, which I wanted.

If you are traveling to Myrtle Beach, then play Socastee if you have discs and extra time. Don't go out of your way to play it, but it fit the bill.

-wooded shots with some real technical challenge
-mixture of hole lengths
-some signage
-intelligent use of the space, with very few holes placed without thought
-fairway vegetation seems pretty well maintained
-not too far out for anyone vacationing in Myrtle Beach
-not crowded at all
-nice new baskets

-signage missing in some locations and lacking in all
-tees are mostly gravel, some are better than others
-vegetation off the fairway could be pretty snarly
-during my visit, lots of standing water
-decent amount of bugs

This is a solid course and a good start for the Myrtle Beach area. The holes were interesting and provided technical challenge without being extremely difficult most of the time. The vegetation generally was not a problem unless you strayed from the fairway, and in that case I mostly expect as much. When I was there, there was a considerable amount of standing water. This with the humidity makes for some bugs which weren't so nice, but you're in the middle of the woods. You have to be fairly tolerant of spiders to get through all the paths. In my opinion, this course makes great use of the beautiful forests I see all throughout South Carolina. One of the greatest indicators for me of a well-done course is one that makes use of the unique landscape of the area, whatever that may be.

My biggest gripe would be the signage- some holes had signs left over from a tournament in January 2014 but some of these are gone and the ones that are still around only give a hole number, length, and par. There is no map of the hole or permanent sign. Such improvements would be a great addition to this course. Navigation was fairly intuitive but not completely clear at some points, so a map online or near the course entrance would be an improvement as well. Also, the tees were mostly gravel, but at least were pretty uniform for most holes. There was at least one hole that because of lack of signage and clear tees I wasn't sure where to begin.

The flip side of this is that all of the baskets were pristine. Some elevation or added length could really make this course exciting, but I think with the space allotted a good course was assembled. For me, it is good, but not quite great. If you are in the area, it is absolutely worth trying out, especially since there isn't a ton else really close.

Socastee Recreational Park is basically the only 18 hole option for disc golf in the Myrtle Beach area, and features a variety of generally well-designed holes ranging from 137 to 760 feet from the white tees. This course is clearly designed to be difficult, and it largely succeeds in walking the fine line between challenge and frustration. Most holes play in an "open woods" style, featuring light to medium obstacles in the fairway, with heavy rough (more on that below). This style is a hallmark of many beloved courses, and Socastee wears it well.

Navigation is fairly intuitive with some diverging paths, but following the one more traveled puts you at the correct hole with relative ease. When I played, temporary tee signs were still in place from a recent tournament, giving what seemed to be accurate hole lengths. A permanent installation of signs with this feature would benefit the course greatly.

All 18 holes play to newer blue Innova baskets that show no signs of wear, vandalism, or other disrepair.

The bugs have been talked about at length by other reviewers, but I played my rounds in the cold, so I can't speak to that. I can mention the disc- and player-eating rough, which makes any recovery shot a cruel misadventure. From a strategic standpoint, it is the most difficult rough I've ever encountered. Like most rec players, I'm typically of a "play it as it lies" mindset, but there were multiple times I had to give myself an OB penalty because it was better than a tomahawk attempt through the overgrown wilderness. Players should watch for occasional thorns, and watch their step as holes are often obscured by ground cover.

Some of the par 4 & 5 holes (chiefly 13 & 16) seem to be simply mowed out of the woods with no fairway obstacles until the approach shot. I had enough trouble keeping my discs out of the aforementioned rough, but this design element got rather tiresome after a while. I'm personally not a fan of length for the sake of length, and in my opinion almost all long holes at Socastee fit this bill.

Tee pads are natural, and are a type of thick sand. Okay for a forehander like me who only needs a limited run-up, but may be difficult to use for backhand players.

Many holes contained a lot of debris, both natural and manmade (the Hole 5 boat!). While this doesn't make the course feel trashy per se, it certainly doesn't give off a well-manicured vibe. Many lies can be a difficult play for those in tennis shoes because of the natural debris (downed limbs, trees, earthy low spots, exposed roots).

If you're vacationing in Myrtle Beach and can't travel as far as Wilmington or Charleston, this is about all you've got in the way of serious disc golf. Luckily, it's not too bad of a course to be stuck with. Although it can be difficult to the point of frustration due to the jungle-thick rough, it's still a round of disc that requires thought and strategy to often satisfying results.

nice location, plenty of parking, nice layout, challenging, unique pin placement, Variety of holes.

Hardly any signage, however we were able to navigate using common sense. If more people would come out and support this course im sure it will become a great one. To my knowledge there are only a handful of folks playing as well as doing maintenance. Come on people lets get out there and support this course! 18 is very straight and tight do not do what i did and hook one off to the right lol. The thick woods and ridge are hard to navigate.

If I lived in the area I would love to help with the signage among other things. We all should give this course some play time as it will help get things going there. If you are in the myrtle beach area, you should give it a try.

I really liked this course, not too much walking, easy to find next tee pad. Has a great layout on the front 9 holes. Great technical course, must play for locals and tourists.

The back 9 holes too long, not easy to find next tee pads on some holes. Very wet on back nine.

Other reviews said they saw snakes. Didn't see any when I played, but a tick found me. So check everyone over when finished playing. I suggest playing the front 9 twice.

Long holes. Only wooded course in the area. Not crowded

Still needs signage, but myself and some others have put up some directional signs at each hole. Kudos to the guys building this course, it is much needed around here and much appreciated.

if you roll like i do this is one of the best courses in the mb area

it looks as if they bush hoged the woods but they left ALL if the trees
Not well marked

this would be a nice course if there were marked tees and signs to next tee

Holes 1-4 and 6-9 marked with temp. tee signs and formal baskets. No tee sign for #5 and no basket either, although the mounting bracket in the ground is there. Holes are mostly par 3 with one par 4. Still very rough and many trees protecting the holes.

Baskets for 10, 11 and 12 exist (across the road from the front 9), but no tees marked and "fairway" for 12 is very, very rough. Found a basket marked #15, but never found a tee, and never found baskets for 13 and 14. Gave up after than, not sure how many other holes have been roughed out.

There is a new practice putting basket behind the park office building, just inside the gate. Hole 1 begins just across the main entry road from the park office building. This has the makings of a challenging, thread-the-needle course but needs finishing and needs more player traffic.

holes are very diverse. lots of lefty friendly stuff. only 10 of the holes are playable but IMO they are some of the best holes that are playable in the myrtle beach area.
Is on a public park so has great acess to vending machines, bathrooms etc

not completed. 10 holes are playable at the moment