“Breaking Par with Charlie Rymer” Episode 21: Meadowlands

Charlie’s been on a bit of a roller coaster of late … can he get it back on the upswing as he heads north to this popular Calabash track. Join us as “The Big Timer” takes on the challenging, par-4 3rd hole at Meadowlands Golf Club! 

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 …

(Beware of them aglitators.)

… 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!

(Look at that, the big man’s on the board!)

Join me on my journey to break par!

They got me on the toughest hole here at a beautifully conditioned golf course. This par four has actually been modified a bit in recent years and adding some fairway landing area for your tee shot that reduced the size of the water hazard that runs across it. Thank you. But I’m still going to need to have my A game on this one though.

Today I’m right on the North Carolina-South Carolina line. We’re near Calabash, North Carolina. This is Meadowlands Golf Club, and boy is it a beauty. This would be a dream day for me. 18 in the morning, nine in the afternoon, roll into one of these seafood buffets over here in the village of Calabash in the afternoon, a couple of hours grazing. What a perfect day right there.

Now let me talk to you about this golf course a little bit. I was just hanging out in the clubhouse with some guys that had just got finished playing. I said, “What do you like about Meadowlands?” They said, “Man, those greens are good.” It’s TifEagle Bermuda, and they are absolutely perfect. A couple of things I like about the golf course. Number one, it’s got some room off the tee. I can spray it a little bit off the tee. I like a golf course that’s got a little bit of room. The other thing is the conditioning here is absolutely perfect. This is signature hole long par four. They send me out here to play the number one handicap hole. Let’s see what we get. I saw a splash and a bounce. The bounce came after the splash. That’s good. How you doing? Nice horn.

So when I was doing the on camera to start this show, I forgot what hole we were on. I couldn’t remember if it was number three or number four. So when I did the on camera, I just said this is number one handicap hole. I didn’t say what hole it was because it would’ve been 50/50. I didn’t know, was it three or was it four? So when I do camera work, I always try to make sure that I’m accurate or I just ignore something. In this case, I just basically ignored it. But it is in fact number three. I know that now. And it’s the number one handicap hole. You got to carry water off the tee. You got to carry water off the green. I got a long ways left for this one.

All right boys, here’s what we got. It did hit some water and I am in the right rough. I thought it hit that pond, but this is what we got right here. So I left myself just about 200 yards into the wind. I could lie and say four iron, but I’m not quite feeling it. So I’m going with my five wood, my weak five wood. It’s almost like a six wood. Little in front of it. Giddy up baby. I didn’t see a splash. I think it’s a little right. Remember this is number one handicap hole number three. It’s my shot hole. I tried to take a little too much off of that one. I think at my age, I shouldn’t try to take too much off of anything.

Man, what a pretty place. We’re just into North Carolina, but it’s amazing how different it feels here. Something about the maturity of the pine trees. You get on the south end of Myrtle Beach, which is 70 miles away, and it’s got more of that Lowcountry feel. North Carolina coast, it feels just a little bit different. You start getting a little closer to Pinehurst, and these pines get that texture like you get at Pinehurst. Really beautiful place.

All right, I got a pretty easy pitch over here. Cool thing about this green is sort of a bowl down in the front and today it’s in the bowl. The other thing I want to point out is when you look at that grass on the green, it gets a little slick. So that tells me the grain is going that way. So this will be a little faster than maybe it would be otherwise. All right, let’s see what we got. Oh, come on. So this hole location is in a little bowl. That got some slope coming in here. If you’re not careful, you don’t see the slope coming in right here.

I actually think that slope coming in on the left is going to have more impact than the slope coming in on the right. You know what that means? Left center chicken dinner. Well, I had a great theory on that. I was very wrong. That slope pushed it that way. That’s all right. Every now and then a man can be wrong and make a bogey. But you know what? Even though I made bogey, I can’t think of a place I’d rather be than right here at Meadowlands. Beautiful place.

Uh-oh, that’s two bogies in two holes. Got to get that turned around and quick. I’m not done with Calabash just yet on this trip. Let’s see what we’ve got on the next stop!

Miss an Episode? Just Click the Links Below to Catch Up!

Episode 20: The Wizard

Episode 19: Man O’ War

Episode 18: Colonial Charters

Episode 17: Barefoot-Norman

Episode 16: Barefoot-Love

Episode 15: Barefoot-Fazio

Episode 14: Arcadian Shores

Episode 13: Blackmoor

Episode 12: Wachesaw Plantation East

Episode 11: Willbrook

Episode 10: Tradition Club

Episode 9: TPC Myrtle Beach

Episode 8: River Club

Episode 7: Litchfield Country Club

Episode 6: Caledonia

Episode 5: True Blue

Episode 4: Pawleys Plantation

Episode 3: Founders Club at Pawleys Island

Episode 2: Heritage Club

Episode 1: Wedgefield Country Club

Series Trailer