“Breaking Par with Charlie Rymer” Episode 31: Risk-Reward Redux at Wild Wing

Just when we got our feel of adventure at the last stop, we get some more!

There’s a short par four, and then there’s a drivable par four, and this one definitely qualifies as drivable. We can always play it safe with an iron around the left side leaving a wedge approach. But man, that green is just daring me to go for it. It’s laughing at me. Which way do we go?

So this is Wild Wing Golf Course right in the middle of Myrtle Beach and there’s a lot of busyness going on in this area, but when you come on this property, all that busyness goes away. It’s absolutely spectacular.

This golf course was designed by three-time major champion Larry Nelson, one of the nicest guys that you’ll ever meet. And it’s all about fun. There’s dual fairways, there’s double greens, there’s drivable fours, and that gets us here to the 14th. This is a drivable four today. I was going to say it’s like 350 and I’m going to drive it, but this tee’s only about 265. If I get a good one, I might be able to bust my putter out. Cut a little, baby!

That thing, sometimes it works. It didn’t work there, but I can make birdie from that position.

So Larry Nelson, he is incredibly nice. And don’t take nice for being weak because he’s not weak. Did two tours in Vietnam. Didn’t start playing golf until he was 18 or 19 and best all-time ever Ryder Cup record for the U.S. team.

But he came to visit me in Golf Channel one time, and he had a fitness product. He said, “I hear you have a gym there at Golf Channel.” I said, “Well, I don’t know where it is.” But he said, “Let me come down and talk about it,” so I said, “That’d be great.” So we go down with about three camera guys and we’re shooting World Golf Hall of Fame member Larry Nelson in the gym at Golf Channel.

And the lady who runs the building who doesn’t play golf, she doesn’t know anything about golf, but super nice, she comes in and threw us all out. Because, apparently, there’s a release that you have to sign before you go in the gym at Golf Channel. I said, “Well, these are camera guys and that’s audio guy. They’re not even working out.” “If you’re going to be in this room, you got to sign the release.”

So I said, “That’s Larry Nelson.” She goes, “I don’t care who he is. I don’t care if he’s in the Hall of Fame.” I said, “Well, actually, he is in the Hall of Fame.” She said, “I don’t care. He’s got to sign the release.” So it was pretty funny. Larry Nelson got a good chuckle out of it. We signed the release and we ended up getting a nice piece. It’s just another reason to not go in a gym.

So I think this is just a really awesome green for a drivable par four. Check out these mounds that go down the middle of it. You know, if you’re going to have a hole that’s drivable, you can have a lot of movement just like this. If you got like a 490 yard par four, I sort of think that ought to be a fairly flat green.

All right, I didn’t get it a whole high, just pulled it a little bit, and I got to go over one of those mounds. I’m going to take my seven iron. I’m going to put a putting grip on it and a putting stroke and we’re going to go up and over. Easy, easy. Oh, oh. Find some golf hole, baby! Yeah, that’s not bad. Little five-footer for birdie from there, maybe only four and a half feet. Just a little outside left.

Ah, there we go. Old Yeller. He ain’t afraid of the dark. Woo-hoo! Put it on aboard, Jim! Another birdie! Woo-hoo!

We are on a roll. Let’s head across the street now to see how we can do at our final stop in this great golf neighborhood!