About 30 miles south of Myrtle Beach lies Winyah Bay Golf Club, a hidden gem opened a year ago as the first design effort of former golf course superintendent Matt Sapochak.Sapochak had honed his design skills as a shaper and construction superintendent for Pete and P.B. Dye at Debordieu Golf Club in Georgetown and Prestwick Country Club in Myrtle Beach, and had done a substantial in-house renovation while superintendent at Deertrack Golf Course in Surfside Beach.The current general manager of Winyah Bay, Sapochak said: "When I had the opportunity to design Winyah Bay, I jumped at it. I felt it was a chance that not a lot of people get in a lifetime. Plus, the possibility that it could turn into other design jobs, which I would love to do." "Having worked for the Dyes and accumulated design and construction experience," he added,"there was never a doubt that I could build a great course on such a small piece of property and make it safe to play."Winyah Bay was an existing nine-hole course set on a portion of 85 acres along the picturesque Winyah Bay when owner George Marlowe approached P.B. Dye about redesigning it and adding nine holes.Dye directed him to Sapochak, who set out to make his vision a reality on the property which possessed Southern magnolias, live oaks, towering cypress trees and mature dogwoods. le Beach, South Carolina and is owned by Hyakumata & Co., Ltd., headquartered in Osaka, Japan. Myrtle Beach is known as the "Seaside Golf Capital of the World." Golfers have their choice of four distinctly different courses with two very important common denominators, quality fairway surfaces and outstanding PennLinks Bent Grass Greens. Golf course architects, Willard Byrd, the team of Larry Nelson and Jeff Brauer, and Rees Jones have all focused their talents to provide Wild Wing guests with aesthetically pleasing variety and challenge.

The first order of business was to lay out the course using as much of the original nine-hole layout as possible without making it obvious where the old course ended and his work began. He settled on using four existing holes and six existing green sites. Because the existing nine was predominately flat, Sapochak gutted out areas in the fairways to add roll and generate material to be used in other areas. He rerouted several holes and added auxiliary tees to gain length and add difficulty. All the bunkers were renovated, enlarged with smooth sweeping edges. Sapochak knew the front nine only offered a hint of the spetacular vistas of Winyah Bay that the new back nine would possess. He set out to design nine holes that would unfold like the chapters of a novel. Each one gets closer and closer to the unobstructed view of the bay.The modest length of the 6,055-yard par-70 track can be misleading. "My philosophy was to create a shot-maker's course," Sapochak said. "People who hit good shots, not super long drives, would do well. Someone who hits it long could post a score of 63 or 78, depending on how straight they hit the ball. "Also, I wanted it to be fun to play. I wanted women and seniors to have as few forced carries as possible and the ones they did have to be short. I wanted every golfer to have a chance to run the ball up on the green from out of trouble, not to make it easy but to make it inviting for the player to go for the shot because they see an opening, not trouble."