Regularly ranked among Golf Digest’s 100 greatest public courses in America, the Heritage Club’s long layout presents a memorable challenge at 7,118 yards from the back tees.

Play opens with a 417-yard par-4 before the big clubs come out of the bag for the 598-yard, par-5 second hole. After dueling with doglegs and undulating greens galore on the 3,483-yard front nine, golfers confront one of the course’s most intimidating holes at the turn, where the 606-yard, par-5 10th, the longest of the course’s three par-5s, looms.

The 3,635-yard back nine culminates with a 506-yard par 5. All but two of the course’s 11 par-4s top 400 yards, including the 462-yard 15th, but holes don’t have to be long to be tough. The 228-yard, par-3 13th, with a water carry to a ridged green buttressed by a pair of pot bunkers, has a reputation as one of the most difficult on the Grand Strand. Golfers have to frequently navigate bunkers, and water—including a large freshwater lake and saltwater marshes—comes into play on 10 holes.

The course, part of an award-winning, five-course package offered by Legends Golf & Resort, has won its share of accolades since opening in 1986, including a spot at No. 13 on Golf Digest’s best courses to play in South Carolina in 2009. Should help scoring from either of the course’s four sets of tees be required, a three-day Classic Swing Golf School, rated one of the top 25 golf schools in the country by GOLF Magazine, is available year-round. Like many of its Pawleys brethren, the Dan Maples design is lush with magnolias, oaks, azaleas and crepe myrtle.

Built on the former site of the True Blue and Midway rice plantations, the 600-acre course seamlessly blends in with its surrounding landscape, and its Southern Colonial clubhouse backs up to the scenic wetlands of the Waccamaw River. The course boasts of its many repeat customers, and an in-season photographer is available for individual and group photos to preserve the memories created at the Heritage Club.