Est. 1966 · Thomas Walker (2008 redesign); Gene Hamm (original 1966 course, as Sea Gull Golf Club)
Why we love this place
Why we love this place: a course with a memory. Founders keeps Gene Hamm's 1966 bones while Thomas Walker's rebuild gives it modern shape and a stroll-friendly rhythm. It's approachable, well-kept Pawleys Island golf, exactly the kind of honest public track we love steering visiting players toward.
Via Founders Club at Pawleys Island (official history)
About Founders Club At Pawleys Island
The Founders Club at Pawleys Island carries two lives. The property first opened in 1966 as the Sea Gull Golf Club, a Gene Hamm design typical of the Grand Strand's early boom era. Four decades on, architect Thomas Walker, a former lead designer for Gary Player, rebuilt the course atop the old routing, reportedly moving hundreds of thousands of cubic yards of soil to give the flat front nine the rolling character of the back. It reopened in 2008 as the semi-private Founders Club, blending subtle mounding, natural sandy areas, and water features into a walkable, public-access layout. The makeover earned Myrtle Beach "Golf Course of the Year" honors in 2011. Today it anchors the Pawleys Island stretch of the Waccamaw and Hammock Coast golf scene.
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