There is a place to visit on your Myrtle Beach golf vacation that is the epitome of genteel calm and tranquility -- more reminiscent of Tara than "tank-top town."

Located at the southern reaches of the Grand Stand, about halfway between Myrtle Beach and Georgetown, Pawleys Island, South Carolina is a peaceful oasis. Away from the highway, nestled between the ocean and the Intercoastal waterway, this relaxed beach community seems to be a world apart from Myrtle Beach.

Pawleys Island has only 200 year-round residents, but thousands of part-time residents and visitors. It is often described -– with pride -– as "arrogantly shabby."

Twelve residences in the historic district, which date from the late 1700s to the mid-1800s, still remain. The approach to the secluded Litchfield Plantation manor house -- at the end of a lane of arched live oaks -- evokes the resplendent lifestyle of Southern aristocracy.

Pawleys Island is known for its shoeless, carefree, laid-back life style, which includes crabbing in the adjacent creeks, fishing, the stories of ghosts, the rope hammocks, and the unspoiled, unsophisticated, casual, delightful stretch of wide beach and sand dunes.

Pawleys Island and nearby Georgetown, with its antebellum mansions, lovely churches, and quaint waterfront, are a startling contrast to the mass morass of Myrtle Beach.

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