"To be successful in this business, you have to pick good projects that allow you a chance to show what you can do.".......

   The "business," in this case, is golf course architecture. And though the words could come from Tom Fazio, Pete Dye or any of a number of big-name designers, they were spoken by Clyde Johnston.
     Not that Johnston's isn't a "name," mind you. The 40-something-year-old architect has been working in "this business" for more than 20 years, 12 as a senior architect for Willard Byrd and 10 more on his own.
  Certainly, Johnston has paid his dues in a most competitive field. It's a safe bet, though, the two players in any foursome won't recognize the name.
      But that's about to change. At least, that's the bet of brothers Paul and Jack Himmelsbach, and Crit Gore.
     More than just your average threesome of golf enthusiasts, this trio of Grand Strand businessmen are the owners of one of the Strand's newest golf courses and Johnston's latest creation - Glen Dornoch. Gore and the Himmelsbachs turned some 250 acres directly along the Intracoastal Waterway over to Johnston with instructions to create "one of the best courses ever built".
  Johnston knew well the quality of these owners required. He had been lead design associate for Byrd when Byrd's firm completed the original Heather Glen course just across Highway 17. That course went on to be named by Golf Digest 1987's "Best New Public Course in America." And it was Johnston who was tapped to add a third nine to Heather Glen two years later.
     With new orders in hand, Johnston set himself to the task. Glen Dornoch debuted last November as a Par 72 test stretching 6,850 yards from the back tees. But numbers tell little about this new waterfront gem that sports some of the best natural settings for golf holes on the East Coast.
  Sandy soil interspersed with fingers of wetlands, mature forests of both evergreen and hardwood trees, dramatic topography sporting nearly 50-foot elevation changes, and an unspoiled stretch of the Intracoastal Waterway that provides the backdrop for five holes - these are the features that characterize Glen Dornoch.
      "This is a great site," Johnston said of his new creation, "probably the best site I've ever had. And it probably has the most flexibility I've ever worked with, as far as both the routing and the overall design were concerned."
   Taking advantage of the ever-changing personality of the Carolina coastline, Johnston routs players through every setting the site affords. Selecting a prominent bluff overlooking the Waterway for the clubhouse, Johnston gives the golfer a glimpse of what lies ahead right from the time he arrives in the pro shop.
     But instead of delivering the player right to the Waterway, Glen Dornoch turns inland for the beginning of both nines. Each loop works its way through heavy forests and across and around wetlands before returning to the dramatic waterfront.
   From the very first hole, a short Par 4 of just 333 yards from the back tees, less than 300 from the whites, Glen Dornoch reveals the rolling topography that shapes much of the course's personality and separates it from so many coastal layouts. Skirting a deep swale to the left, the fairway works up and over a ridge, giving the player the option of laying up to a plateau-like landing area with a fairway wood or long iron, or ripping a driver with the hope of catching the downslope and reaching the green. But boldness has its risks, as a gaping, steep faced bunker sits in the front center of the green.
     Topography is again the key feature at that second hole, another Par 4 requiring on a short iron approach. But this time, the fairway climbs sharply from the landing area to the green, leaving only a flag and not of the putting surface visible on the second shot.
    At the fourth hole, Johnston rated a standard of classic design - the redan - in a Par 3 of 168 yards. Not as severe as, for example, the fourth hole of National Golf Links or the sixth at Yeamans Hall, the fourth at Glen Dornoch provides a strategy and visual challenge of a classic redan, although with a more generous and less sloping target.
     Wetlands, not elevation changes, dominate the landscape at the next two holes, the Par 5 fifth and the Par 4 sixth. The sixth, 410 yards from the back, is especially interesting. A sharp dogleg right with a wetland extending the length of the driving area and through the dogleg in front of the green, the hole presents obvious challenges on both the drive and the second shot. But even once safely on the green, the player must still negotiate some bold contours to record a par or better.
      At the eighth tee, standing well above some 570 yards of fairway stretching out in front, the golfer must pause, because the view is simply breathtaking! And each shot on the straightaway brings the stark beauty of the Intracoastal Waterway into sharper focus. Once at the green, the player is only a tidal creek removed from the quaint fishing village atmosphere that is Little River.
      At the tee of the 460-yard Par 4 ninth, the view is again mesmerizing - the manicured beauty of Glen Dornoch on one side of the Waterway and the raw, untouched natural beauty of the opposite shoreline. It is a view that speaks praise for the talents of both nature and man.
      Moving to the back nine, the golfer must negotiate more intervening wetlands at the Par 5 tenth; a sprawling sandy waste area reminiscent of the Pinehurst or New Jersey pine barrens areas at the 11th, more wetlands at the Par 4 12th, and the Par 3 14th, and a large lake inside the dogleg left at the 525-yard 13th hole, a Par 5 that begs to be hit in two but is quick to punish any error in execution.
      But the back nine really bares its teeth over the last three holes. It's a finishing stretch as demanding as any, combining length, trouble and intimidation into a setting beautiful enough to grace the canvas of a master.
      The challenge is clear right away. From the elevated tee of the 431-yard 16th, Glen Dornoch demands a drive into a valley-like fairway framed by bunkers right and a steep slope left. Long hitters may want to leave the driver in the bag here, because the landing area ends when the fairway plunges more than 30 feet down to a finger of marsh extending off the Waterway and wrapping tight around the right of the green. Depending upon the wind, the approach should be with a middle iron, maybe more. But regardless of conditions, accuracy cannot be compromised.
      Just on the other side of the same marsh finger, Johnston fit the longest Par 3 on the course into a sea of spartina grass and needle rush. Set on a bulkheaded peninsula extending into the marsh from the right, the deep green is 212 yards from the back tee, 164 yards away if playing the whites. And even though the right side is high ground, it offers no bailout unless sand bunkers cut into the face of a steep ridge are one's idea of safety.
      After playing directly toward the Waterway for two holes, the player arrives at the 18th tee and is confronted by a brutally demanding finishing hole. With the Waterway now on the left, the ultimate target, a huge double green shared with the ninth hole, lies 455 yards away, with plenty of marshland intruding along the way.
      A dogleg left, the 18th hole offers players both brave and skillful, a chance to cheat the yardage by firing a drive across an expanse of marsh, leaving only a short iron to the green. But a more prudent play might be a drive to the corner of the dogleg, leaving a longer approach across the wetland. Even from the blue tees at 427 yards, a pair of long irons will reach the green, avoiding the danger that lurks inside the dogleg.
      Overall, Glen Dornoch offers five sets of tees, measuring the course at 6,446, 6,035, 5,617, and 5,002 yards, in addition to its full yardage. Considering the difficulty of the course, Johnston and the owners put much attention into designing tees suited to the variety of players that will enjoy Glen Dornoch.
      In fact, much attention was paid to every facet of the course. According to Johnston, the owners of Glen Dornoch were "great clients. They were genuinely excited about what we were doing, but they gave us the freedom to do what we wanted to do."
      And what Johnston wanted to do at Glen Dornoch was different from any past assignment. No actual construction plans were ever drawn for the course, only an overall routing plan as well as a sediment and erosion control plan.
      Instead, Johnston set about building Glen Dornoch one hole at a time, sketching his ideas "in the field." It's an intensive, time-consuming way to build a golf course, with Johnston on site every week during the construction. But there is no doubt that he feels the final product is worthy of the effort.
      "I'm proud of it. I spent a lot of time up there on that site. We put in a lot of work to make it the best we possibly could," he said from his Hilton Head Island office.
      "It was a first for me," he said. "I've never built a course that way before, but I hope I can do another one that way one day, especially if I get another piece of land that good. In this business, you always hope you get a project like Glen Dornoch - where it's only a golf course and where you're free to put the holes where you want to without having to worry about real estate."
      Players tackling Glen Dornoch may want to take a tip from the architect. Play it one hole at a time, one shot at a time, and don't get distracted. The challenge and beauty of each hole is something to be studied, even savored.

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Last Updated on July 19, 1998