True Blue Golf Club in Pawleys Island is preparing a technology-enabled driving range, MyHorryNews.com reported. The project would add a practice option to the south end of the Grand Strand.
A Second Tech Range Is Planned for the Strand
True Blue's planned range will feature Toptracer technology, MyHorryNews.com reported.
Following The Bridge's Lead
The Bridge at International World Tour Golf Links opened over the summer with 16 Toptracer-equipped bays, making it the Strand's first outdoor technology range, On The Green Magazine reported before its July 11 debut. Its bays have screens showing tracked ball flights and artificial-turf mats. Matt Daly told the magazine he estimated a 50-ball bucket would cost about $10 to $15.
Daly also told the magazine he expected additional facilities of this kind to open. True Blue's project extends the trend to the south end of the Strand.
Why Clubs Are Betting on Tech Ranges
The appeal driving this build-out shows up in industry research, too. A National Golf Foundation study done on behalf of Toptracer found that four out of five private-club members consider a technology-enhanced range far superior to a standard one, according to Club + Resort Business. The same study found more than 70% of prospective club members named an enhanced driving range their most sought-after amenity, and nearly 70% of current members said they'd trade at least one existing amenity to get one.
Those preferences are already reshaping clubs well beyond South Carolina's coast. The Bridges at Rancho Santa Fe reported a marked uptick in practice after installing Toptracer Range, Club + Resort Business noted, while Belfair in Bluffton, South Carolina, said 80% of its upcoming events would feature the technology. Noyac Golf Club in New York has also upgraded its practice facility to include Toptracer, the outlet reported, part of a broader trend of clubs leaning on tracking tech to keep members engaged.
A wider market for golf technology
Golf's regional economic footprint offers context for the investment, though it does not predict the performance of any one facility. The Post and Courier reported an estimated $1.6 billion in golf-related economic impact across the Grand Strand in 2024; that regional estimate does not isolate True Blue's range.
Toptracer case studies document installations beyond the Grand Strand. The company says Gloucester Golf Club installed the system in November 2022 and recorded 1.8 million balls hit in its first full year with it, up from 400,000 the year before. At St Andrews Links, Toptracer says the practice facility was outfitted under a partnership announced in 2021 and recorded more than 1 million balls hit across more than 10,000 sessions in its first two months. These are company-reported results from separate venues, not projections for True Blue, according to Toptracer's case studies.
What statewide water data can show
South Carolina's 2020 water-use report tracks golf courses as a distinct category, but its statewide data cannot establish how significant golf-course irrigation is within Georgetown County or how much water True Blue itself uses, according to the South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control.
