Barefoot Resort’s Love Course Earns the Affection of Golfers

Because Love lacked the architectural chops of his colleagues, there was great interest in seeing how his namesake course would fare in comparison. But Love laid to rest any doubts about his work by the time the first tee shot was struck.

With its generous landing areas, creative layout, and Donald Ross-inspired greens complexes, the Love Course garnered immediate acclaim from both national media and, more importantly, golfers.

The layout emerged as Barefoot’s most popular course immediately after the facility’s opening, earning top 100 public course honors from Golf Magazine and Golf Digest.  

Chief among the reasons for the Love Course’s popularity is its playability. Low handicappers are challenged by a layout that stretches 7,000 yards and features crowned greens complexes protected by collection areas and tightly mown grass, demanding precision to go low.

High handicapper will see a layout that is a manageable 6,055 yards from the white tees. With open fairways and good course management (aiming for the middle of the green), playing to one’s personal par is very attainable.

“If you have your game together and come out and play well, it will reward you with a good score,” head pro Mike Ross said of the course.

Love’s most appealing holes are four through six, a stretch highlighted by the presence of the faux ruins of an old plantation home that frame the fourth and sixth greens.  

The fourth hole is the shortest par 4 on the Myrtle Beach golf scene, playing just 294 yards from the tips, and one of its most enjoyable. With the ruins covered in kudzu, the fourth hole is reachable for almost everyone but is fraught with risk-reward dangers.

Come up short and a nasty bunker or collection area likely awaits, but this a hole players have to attack, because more daunting challenges await. The fourth hole is quickly offset by the mammoth 463-yard, par 4 fifth, the stiffest challenge on the course.

Throw-in a couple long par 3s, including the 235-yard ninth hole and the 228-yard 15th, and there is challenge aplenty.

The Love Course’s greens are typically large and relatively flat, assuming you play to the center. With new Champion Bermuda installed last summer, Love’s greens are in terrific condition throughout the year. Smooth and fast isn’t the hope, it’s the standard.

The Verdict: The Love Course has been a player’s favorite since its opening and, pardon the pun, the love is much deserved. Barefoot is one of the premier facilities not just in Myrtle Beach but America, and there is a case to be made that the Love Course is its flagship layout. If your next Myrtle Beach golf trip takes you here, know that a great day is coming.

Have you played The Love Course at Barefoot Resort?
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