Second straight par five for Charlie – can he rebound with a red number this time? Let’s tag along with “The Big Timer” as he heads back to the heart of Myrtle Beach to take on the first of Dan Maples’ two signature tracks near Highway 501, Man O’ War Golf Club. Its par-5 18th awaits!
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:
You feeling like a superhero today? Just make sure it’s not Aquaman. This Dan Maples beauty of course plays into out of and around an 80-acre lake. And check out how the finishing hole features it. Pretty spectacular. But don’t let all this water get inside your head. Uh-uh. This hole is a great chance to end your round with a circle on the scorecard. Let’s go get it!
Today we’re at Man O’ War Golf Club right in the middle of Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. This is a Dan Maples-designed golf course and let me tell you something. When you come on property, couple things really stand out. First off, this golf course is in really nice shape. Secondly, they actually have bentgrass greens here. That’s something that’s not only unusual for the Myrtle Beach area, but for the entire Southeast. And believe me, they keep these greens rolling really great all year round. And then finally, there’s plenty of water here. It comes into play on 12 holes and you can see water from all 18. This is the 18th hole. It’s a par five. Let me see if I can get one in the fairway. Maybe, just maybe, I can get home in two here.
That’s definitely going to be in the go zone, baby. dMan, I’ll tell you what. This golf course is in good shape. They do a heavy overseed here, which is nice. And a lot of places will spray the ryegrass out early, but they just let it grow. I think it looks great. The other thing I’ll tell you, the staff here, they really care about this golf course. This morning when I got here, just a little before 6:30, there was a staff member that had a bucket and was walking around in the parking lot picking up cigarette butts and other things that get blown around at golf courses. You don’t see that every day. 6:30 in the morning, hand-picking up trash that’s in the parking lot.
Cool place. You got to love when you have folks that work for you, that pay that much attention to detail. And it shows. All right, it looks to me like I got about 230 left. Got a good lie here in the fairway. Uh-oh. Y’all check this out. I love it when this happens. Right by my ball here, I got a little feather. Is it an eagle feather or just a regular bird? I don’t know. Let’s see. Love it when I got a feather by my golf ball. Little right, little right. Hang on baby. I’m going to make an eagle. I’m going to have to chip in. I got to tell you, I was a little disappointed in that one. It’s trying to hit me a medium high butter cut. And that’s what I did. But I started it right. Right to right’s no good. I can’t stand hitting it right to right.
Where’s that yellow tater? Oh yeah, I’m good to go. All right, I got a good lie down here in the swale. Got a decent amount of green to work with. Get this thing on the ground quick, rolling like a putt. I pulled it. Hang on, hang on. All right, I got that one. There’s just something about bent grass. This is what I grew up putting on right here. Bentgrass in the Southeast in summertime, it can get a little bit slow. But these are great speed. Watch how smooth this rolls. Yeah, baby. Make sure y’all write that down. That is a birdie for Rymer. That’s birdie for Rymer. R-Y-M-E-R. More where that came from too. Maybe.
Now that’s more like it. We’re going to keep my tally in the red numbers, folks. Now watch me go next door and do just that in the next episode!