The Long and Short of It at Eagle Nest: “Breaking Par with Charlie Rymer” Episode 52
At a course that plays more than 8,100 yards from its longest tees, you might not think you’d be hitting your final tee shot with an iron. But that’s exactly what’s in store for Charlie at his next stop at Eagle Nest in Little River, S.C., where he’s taking on its par-3 finishing hole. Can “The Big Timer” card a red number in the process?
Charlie:
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 …
(I don’t even have a writer!)
… 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!
(I’m gonna show you all the best par you’ve ever seen after that one!)
Join me on my journey to break par!
Any day at Eagle Nest wraps up with a pretty dramatic challenge on a closing par three. You see the water carry here and you see the bunkers, and the front one is what really requires to carry off the tee. So don’t let the soothing side of that fountain distract you from the task at hand. You’ve got to leave Eagle Nest with a birdie, don’t you?
I’m at Eagle Nest Golf Club in Little River, South Carolina. We’re located just a couple of miles south of the North Carolina-South Carolina border. Now it’s right in the middle of everything, but when you come into the property, you feel like you’re out in the middle of nowhere. It’s just absolutely so peaceful out here. And this golf course, it’s a big, mean full-grown golf course with teeth. It’s got a set of tees called The Perch that’ll stretch to over 8,100 yards. That’s right, 8,100 yards. That makes it the third-longest golf course in the country. Now, I don’t recommend you go back there.
The thing that’s cool about it though is it also has a set of tees that measure about 3,800 yards, so it’s got a little bit of something for everybody, and it’s really evident when you come out here that over the past year or so, they’ve put a lot of money into updating this golf course. There’s a lot of new grass out here, a lot of new sandy areas. It’s absolutely beautiful, and nothing is more beautiful than this finisher. It’s a par three. You got some water short. I love the styling of the bunkers. Today we got sort of a middle left hole location. Again, those back tees I talked about, The Perch, they’re way back there. I’m going to play up here where I can have some fun, and I love that you have that versatility in a golf course.
See if we can take this right at it.
That’s a good line, but did I hit it? Get it up. Oh, yeah. We’re cooking with grease with that one. Yeah, those perch tees, I don’t even want to know they’re there, but it’s cool to know they’re there. You steal my towel again? Somebody stole my damn towel. How can I come out here and work and not have a towel? It was right here and now it’s not. Y’all won’t get very far with it because it got brown stains on it and it’s not from mud. I’m just saying. You might as well give it back.
When I was a little kid, my dad had a dog kennel. My dad’s passed now, but he had show dogs and he had a kennel, and the first words I ever said in my life for some reason were eagle, eagle. At least that’s what they thought it was. So the name of the kennel was Eagle Eagle Kennels, and the first dog I ever had was an old English sheepdog named Eagle. Beautiful. Had this keg like she’s going to rescue in the Swiss Alps.
Anyway, my dad had these towels made. They were white with a red stripe and it said, Eagle Eagle Kennels. Well, the kennels probably closed down when I was four, and I’m going to tell you what, I had some of those towels for 20 years and they were the best golf towels because they were cheap and they were thin. The best golf towels are stolen from a cheap hotel, not a fancy hotel, a cheap hotel. And the ones they sell in the pro shops, by and large, they’re too lush and luxurious. A good golf towel is every bit as important a tool as any club in your golf bag, and don’t just settle for any golf towel. Get a thin one, steal it from somebody like someone stole mine from me. That’s all I’m going to say about that.
Check out these bunker faces. There’s all kinds of styles of bunker. You don’t see this very much. It’s grass. That’s Bermuda mowed up in the face. I like how it’s thrown up on the sides and the back. Some people do flat sand, some people flash it a little bit, some people flash it and have grass in the face. At Augusta National, they throw it all up in the face. That’s really cool there. I love that look.
All right, so we got some left to right, but here’s something to always look for. A lot of times coming off of bunkers, there’ll be a little bit of rise between the putting surface and the bunker edge.
It’s there for a couple of reasons. Number one, it gives it a nice look, but the main reason is when water drains across this green, it’ll get diverted from going into that bunker. That way every time you get some rain, you don’t have to rebuild the bunker. What it does on this putt is it maybe flattens it out a little bit more. Just got to sort of be on the lookout for things like that. Did I get it? Did I get it? Did I get it? Ah, did everything but hit it.
It’s all right. Great golf course. Beautiful finishing hole. Pretty solid par. Well, no birdie there, but that’s okay. We’ll certainly take par and head off happy to our next stop in North Myrtle Beach where the sister course of Eagle Nest awaits!
