Indian Wells Golf Course

Indian Wells Golf Course is a Gene Hamm design located in Garden City, a small beach community along South Carolina's Grand Strand between Murrells Inlet and Surfside Beach. Hamm, a regional architect active primarily in the Carolinas during the latter decades of the twentieth century, created a course that reflects the coastal plain topography characteristic of this stretch of the Atlantic coast. The property sits inland from the ocean, where the flat terrain and natural vegetation typical of the Lowcountry shape the playing corridors. The routing works through stands of pine and hardwood, with water features appearing on several holes as both strategic and aesthetic elements. The course layout emphasizes accuracy over distance on many holes, as the tree-lined fairways reward proper positioning. Elevation change is minimal, consistent with the regional landscape, so the design relies on bunkering, water placement, and green contours to create variety and challenge. Indian Wells serves primarily as a public facility in an area dense with golf options catering to the Myrtle Beach tourism market. The course offers a straightforward test suitable for a range of skill levels, without the severe hazards or extreme length found at some of the Grand Strand's more demanding layouts. It represents the kind of accessible daily-fee golf that has long characterized this part of South Carolina's coast, where the combination of mild climate and abundant courses draws golfers year-round.