COLUMBIA--While gardeners might like the drought-breaking rains this year, the rain clouds haven't done much for the state's golf-related tourism businesses.

Rounds played at 120 Myrtle Beach courses are down about 5 percent this year, says Mickey McCamish, president of Myrtle Beach Golf Holiday, a golf marketing organization.

The year got off to a bad start: a cold January, wet February and a March that wasn't much better, said Tim Tilma, the general manager of Wild Wing Plantation golf courses in Myrtle Beach.

"In March, we had six days where we probably lost 300 or 250 rounds each," he said.

While January and February bring in locals and day trippers, March is the beginning of the vacation package season that usually brings a steady stream of money from golf enthusiasts staying at the beach.

"But if it's raining, we don't make them play. So it hurt," he said.

Down the coast, Charleston's 30 area golf courses are losing business, too.

"The weather has been the thing that has been holding us back more than anything else," Perrin Lawson, deputy director of the area's convention and visitor's bureau, said.

Chad Leonard, general manager at River Town Country Club in Charleston says rounds during January and February were a third less than projections.

Tom Sponseller, president of the S.C. Hospitality Association, said the rain has come at a bad time, namely spring weekends. It will be hard for courses to recover.

"You can't make up from something like that because you've lost the time," he said.

South Carolina's billion-dollar golf industry is part of the state's $14.4 billion tourism industry.

Golf tourists have deep pockets, spending on average $817, or twice what other travelers spend, according to Terry Sedalik, executive director of the South Carolina Golf Course Owners Association.

But tourists of all sorts are traveling and spending less after the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.

"We're still recovering from 9/11. We're still recovering from the economy," Sponseller said. "And as much as we need the rain to recover from the drought, it's really coming at the wrong times."

With most tourists driving to the state rather than flying, the state's vulnerable to weather-related last-minute cancellations when bad weather brews.

That's improved in the last few weeks and "things have turned in the right direction," Leonard said.

As golfers return, they're seeing the rain's benefits.

"The courses are just beautiful this year," Gregory Ray, golf director at Patriots Point Golf Links in Mount Pleasant, said. "They are just lush."