Charlie’s Travels: Less is More at International Club’s Par-5 9th

PlayGolfMyrtleBeach.com’s Charlie Rymer is making the rounds in 2023 – playing courses up and down the Grand Strand, showcasing their memorable holes and even offering some playing advice for the next time you encounter them in your travels. In his latest stop, Charlie’s at the par-5 9th at International Club of Myrtle Beach where he demonstrates how, sometimes, less is more!

Charlie Rymer:
As you can see, the 9th fairway, it gets really narrow in the driving zone. It also moves pretty sharply from right to left.

Now, most people have the mentality on every par five that, “I’m going to hit driver, and I’m going to hit it as far as I can, and maybe, just maybe, I’ll turn it into a two-shot hole.” I’m going to tell you what: that’s not the way to go here. This is a perfect example of where you can take a 3 wood and play it to the fat part of the fairway and essentially turn this into a three-shotter, no matter what, right here from the tee. I’m a lot more comfortable doing it because there’s a lot of trouble on this hole.

Now with a 3 wood, I like to tee it up just above the grass. I’m going to play it about the same place I play it in my stance with my driver. I’m going to aim at the fattest part of that fairway. Might even get a little bit of a draw here. Oh, yeah. It’s going to be a three-shotter, but again, no problem. This is a tough par five.