Well … this was one wild ride! Charlie heads north to tackle Colonial Charters Golf Club in Longs, S.C., where the “Big Timer” shows once more why he’s one heck of a showman. Enjoy the episode!
Cancer knocked me down, but not out. Now, I’m cancer free. The recovery? It’s been tough. I’ll need patience, a lot of humor …
(You can only keep talent down for so long!)
… And support from friends and family. Over the last two years, I haven’t played much golf, but there’s no better place to get back in the game than on 66 courses in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. We’re keeping score, but just teeing it up means I’ve already won!
(You’re not going to believe where this ball ended up!)
Join me on my journey to break par!
Charlie Rymer:
Water, water everywhere. That’s what you’ll have here at Colonial Charters, where it comes into play on 16 of the 18 holes. The first hole has it in spades, all up the left side of this par 5, with a heavy line of trees down the right side. But I’ve got some room to maneuver here. So let’s go find the fairway first, and see if we can get us a birdie!
Today, we’re between Longs, South Carolina and Little River, South Carolina, up at the top end of Myrtle Beach. We’re at Colonial Charters Golf Club and it’s one of the 21 golf courses that Founders Group International has in their stable. The thing I like about Colonial Charters, especially if you’re new to the game, the staff here, they’re super friendly, and playing here won’t put a big dent in the wallet. I tell you what, when you walk up to this first tee, it gets your attention. This is a par 5, and you can see there’s water left and trees that come in close on the right. I better have my A game today.
That one sucked giant monkey balls.
I’ll tell you what, the attitude that I have to deal with some of these guys on the crew, I don’t know, it’s really hard dealing with this. I mean, they make fun of me, they call me fat. I just got called old right there. I think I’m going to cry.
Okay, so that tee ball that I had here at Colonial Charters was so bad, it actually landed left of the water and kicked right into the water that’s on the left. That’s how bad it was. The good news is, just because I hit a bad shot, it doesn’t mean I’m a horrible person. I just hit a bad shot. It could happen to anybody, especially on the first hole.
All right, so let me give you an update. After that horrible tee shot that went in the penalty area, which used to be a hazard. Now it’s a penalty area. I’m going to take my drop. Used to drop like that, and then it was like that. Now it’s like from the knee. I think this was the best way to drop, but I wasn’t consulted by the USGA. All right, so we’re dropping. I’m so far back, what I’m going to have to do is make a nasty par for you here. This is my third. We’re going to scrape it up there in that fairway, try and wedge it close, make an old-school par.
All right, that’s perfect. Got to check and see if this is my stroke hole. I’m guessing it’s probably not. God, I’m still mad about that tee shot. You got all these ducks around here. I think it’s duck mating season. That’s always pretty loud. Folks got a nice pool over there. They don’t have a Traeger like mine, or a Big Green Egg. I need to get some of these ducks on that Big Green Egg.
All right, so I got about 55 yards here. Remember I lie one in the lake, one out, two out, three here. So I lie three, I got to get up and down for par. And this is about a 55-yard shot. I like to think about throwing it with my right hand. A lot of people try and take their hands out of their short game. I think that’s a mistake. You can get all your feel with that right hand. Right there.
All right, I got a fighting chance hitting my par from there. I pulled that. I hate when I pull it. Hit the right distance though, or close to the right distance. That’s one of the things that I did. I play this game professionally. These shots, 40 to 110 yards. I keep a shag bag of the balls I played with and I set these little marking cones out. 10 yard intervals from 40 to 110 yards. I’d hit 10, 10, 10. I’d work my way out, and I worked my way back, I’d do that for hours, maybe an hour. I do that for minutes, it was great. But I still have pretty good touch today.
So I told you I pulled it a little bit, but if you get the right distance, even if you’re a little bit off on your right and left, you’re not going to be too far from the hole. We call that in these parts, I got my furs right, but my towards was a little off. You want to get in close, you got to get your furs and your towards adjusted just right.
All right, let me see what we got here. Got a little left to right. Oh, no way. How did that not go in? That was going to be an amazing par. Let me see if I can get my focus back. God. Nothing worse than golf. It’s really bad. Robbed. Robbed, I tell you!
Okay, time to get over it. I’m headed back south a bit and see what we can do on a couple of great Maples tracks!