Runaway Bay Miniature Golf (Myrtle Beach)

Runaway Bay Miniature Golf Myrtle Beach

4.1

Rating

4.1/5

Flyctory.com Pros

Very nice scenery
Amazing staff
Large parking lot
Challenging turf

Flyctory.com Cons

"Cockpit County" a bit more monotonous
Maintenance issues caused by visitors

During my trip to Myrtle Beach in October 2023, I just had to check out couple of mini golf and adventure golf courses. The city is famous for its wide variety of offers of that kind. The first one I tried out is Runaway Bay Miniature Golf, which is located a little bit outside the city. Here is my review.

Runaway Bay Miniature Golf – Location & Admission

Runaway Bay is part of the Tupelo Bay Golf Center. Apart from traditional golf, they also offer footgolf, disc golf and the mini golf / adventure golf lanes. The place is located right at the US-17 BUS highway Southwest of Myrtle Beach. The driving distance from Myrtle Beach Airport (MYR) is roughly 9 miles / 15 minutes.

The mini golf lanes operate daily from 10:00 to 21:00. I visited the courses in late October 2023, right before they went on a winter break period. I unfortunately cannot reconcile the admission, as I visited the place through a Groupon deal. During my visit, there were just very few other players. The parking lot is having a much bigger capacity.

Runaway Bay Miniature Golf – Atmosphere

Despite being close to the highway (some holes are rather close to it), the atmosphere at Runaway Bay Miniature Golf is really nice. The two course are arranged around a lake and some hilly area, the decoration is beautiful.

Runaway Bay Miniature Golf – The Courses

Runaway Bay drives two courses. I visited both of them, starting with Dunn’s River Falls Course.

Dunn’s River Falls Course

The first of the two 18 hole courses I played was Dunn’s River Falls, which is to the left, when you enter the grounds. After an easy straight opening course, the second and third course, featuring some more curves and a bridge, are more challenging. You play on artificial turf, the mats to tee off wok reasonably well. I played the course at the end of the season and some people are really harsh to the grounds, so that there were few damages to the turf here and there. The turf was rather short and thus very fast, so that you don’t need too much power to play. Here and there, it was a bit of narrow, so that I decided to switch from right handed play to left handed one.

As you see in the pictures, the holes are nicely decorated. A few courses come with challenges, others (like hole 7) appear being more difficult than they finally are. The scenery with an artificial waterfall and birds flying around is really lovely and gave me an enjoyable play. In the later holes, I was wishing for some renewed tee-off plastic mats. There is some variety in the course, which is still very family friendly. My key challenge was the partially very fast turf, which made me overspeed a couple of times. The holes themselves were a bit of tricky – you need to hit them rather central. Before the last two holes, you have to climb up the hill and have a great view of the area. The zig-zag final hole reminded me of Lombard Street in San Francisco. Overall, the course is not the most challenging one, but is a lot of fun to play.

Cockpit Country Course

The second course on the premises is Cockpit County, which likely also explains the airplane model in the lake. The first lanes already feel a bit more challenging. The holes are a bit longer and feature a bit more hills and curves for more difficult experience. In the first half of Cockpit County, I especially loved the sixth hole, where you play through a lighthouse. The seventh course had one of the worst damages, unfortunately. However, the staff told me that they regularly renew the grounds in winter. As the state of the turf is overall very good, I feel that this is definitely the case.

At this point of time, you are away from the highway again and enjoy nature. The courses are rather easy. However, the turf and holes do require skill, so that this course is finally more challenging than the pictures may suggest. The twelfth hole allows you playing through a tree trunk, which is a tree element. Even in late fall, playing daytime also becomes a heat challenge. The last holes of this course are played in an artificial cave below the waterfall, which adds a nice atmosphere, but is not too challenging. I did enjoy Cockpit County, but overall, Dunn’s River Falls is the more attractive option.

Runaway Bay Miniature Golf – Services

The reception desk also features a snack bar with drinks and an ice cream parlor. There are dustbins throughout the course, which is very handy in regards of drinking during the play. The staff is amazingly friendly, I had a lovely chat with them after my game.

Runaway Bay Miniature Golf – My View

Runaway Bay might not lead to the biggest challenges in regards of course design. I would have loved Cockpit County to pick up more of the aviation topic as well. Nonetheless, I had a very enjoyable time at these grounds and would absolutely recommend having a match of adventure golf there.