The reason that Farmstead will be a hit among the beach’s 120 some odd golf courses: the par six. The thing that will set Farmstead apart from other courses in Brunswick County: the par six. The one thing that golfers will remember about Farmstead long after they return to Akron, Ohio, Syracuse, New York, or Bensalem, Pennsylvania: the par six.

“It is simply the most incredible feature on the golf course, and I never realized its mystique until I played it,” GM Stanzel says.

Without the 767-yard 18th hole that actually begins in South Carolina and ends in North Carolina, Farmstead Golf Links would still be one of the better inland golf tracks in the North Strand. With the 18th, it could become the stuff of legend. After all, where else in the greater Myrtle Beach area can you pound a 243-yard drive down the middle of the fairway, arrive at your ball, and see a placard buried in the ground that reads: 525 (yards) to go ?

“I think it’s a hole that people will be talking about throughout the region,” Stanzel says. “Not just because it looks immense, but because it brings some new elements of course management into the game. Here’s a hole that if you don’t play it smart, the number you write down could constitute a major part of your scorecard.”

It would be easy to dismiss this four-shotter as being gimmicky. Opening a new course in Myrtle Beach’s saturated golf market is a risky business, and every facility is looking to one up the other with some type of marketing hook.

“The idea for the par six first came up in 1995,” McLamb says. “I liked the idea from a promotional standpoint. It wasn’t part of the original plan, but . . . I wanted to set Farmstead apart.”

In mid 1990’s, McLamb acquired the last parcel of land needed to support his 480-acre dream course, and he called upon Byrd, whom he had worked with at Brunswick Plantation and Meadowlands, to design the layout. In October of 2001, Farmstead opened its doors to reveal a wide-open, 7242-yard golf course that has quickly become a favorite among the locals.

“This course blends playability and challenge like few other golf courses that I have played, Stanzel says. If you want to play from the tips, it will challenge you, but with a slope of 135 it’s not going to beat you up all day.”

Unlike many modern course designs, Byrd does not display a penchant for the reachable par four at Farmstead. Even players opting for the white tees will find the shortest two-shotter to be the 313-yard fifth, and seven of the remaining eight par fours play longer than 350 yards. According to Stanzel, however, its Farmstead’s par threes, not the knee-knocking par fours, that will stick in players’ heads.

“When I play, I always find that I reminisce about the par three and par fives,” Stanzel says. “Other than the par six, the par threes here are what really set this course apart. The 12th hole is one of the most unique par threes in this area and one of the prettiest holes I have ever seen. There are seven or eight different tee boxes, so it can be a different hole almost every time you play it.”

And Farmstead can be a different course every time you play it, depending on the prevailing winds. If the stiff coastal breezes are in your face on the 223-yard par three sixth hole, you could find yourself pulling a three wood. If they’re at your back, a five-iron might suffice.

Hitting into the wind on the 446-yard, par four second hole feels a little too much like work. But uncork a 250-plus yard drive on the par five, ninth hole past the signature Byrd oak tree stuck in the middle of the fairway and you’ll feel like you got some retribution.

“Wind or no wind, the key to this golf course is hitting it straight,” Stanzel says. This may not seem like the case, because the course is wide-open and the landing areas are huge. But miss a fairway and you are stuck in the love grass and you really don’t have a reasonable play.

On a crisp, clear, January afternoon, standing on the tee box at the par six 18th and eyeing Farmstead’s 8000 square foot Georgian clubhouse off in the distance is a surreal experience. Almost a half-mile of real estate sits between your tee shot at 767 yards, and your first cold drink at the 19th hole. “That feeling is so incredible that it will bring people back to this golf course,” Stanzel says.

No doubt, it will. But so will the revolutionary Tif Eagle Bermuda greens, already proven to roll as fast and true as their bentgrass cousins, or the historical 150-year-old cemetery on the far side of the pond on the seventh hole, or the fact that you get to hit your tee shot over the North Carolina, South Carolina border. “Well, if you hit it like you are supposed to you’ll cross the border,” chides W.J.’s daughter Teresa McLamb.

Farmstead doesn’t have the coastal, marshland setting of Rivers Edge, Marsh Harbor, or Oyster Bay, but it does display the clever inland routing and attention to aesthetic detail of Crow Creek and The Thistle. Overall, the course is an excellent blend of gently rolling terrain, crisp bunker lines, and native grasses, and Byrd’s minimalist layout is the perfect prescription for the McLamb’s former farmland.

"I think we’ll compete with any course around here, and we’ve entered the market as a non-surcharge course so we are affordable to a large percentage of the golfing population," says Teresa McLamb.

For tee times, call 910-575-7999.