Moorland Shines in the Land of Legends: “Breaking Par with Charlie Rymer” Episode 33

You’ll need your thinking cap to go with your a-game here. You’ve got to find the fairway off the tee, because sand and water will get you if you don’t. There’s also an elevated second fairway here along the left side, starting 100 yards from the green. The smart play with a second shot is to that upper shelf on the way to a small green. Let’s see if we’ve got the brains and the game to get it done!

Today we’re smack dab in the middle of Myrtle Beach. You can get to this golf course, the Legends Golf Resort, from anywhere in Myrtle Beach very easily, and when you do come here, you’re going to be really impressed. This is a massive 54-hole facility. The terrain’s pretty similar, but we have three golf courses that have a very different feel to them. This golf course, the Moorland is designed by P.B. Dye, the son of the late Pete Dye, and man is it a lot of fun.

The second hole is a great example. Really tough par five. Skinny little fairway, water right. Fairway looks like it’s 15 yards wide. Some grass bunkers, some high grass to the left. You just got to figure out some way to get it in the fairway here. Take it right to left. Take it left to right. You can go straight. One of those. And I have no idea what this one’s going to be. Come on baby, find some fairway for me!

Yep, that’ll be just fine right there. Long hole. Three-shotter here.

I tell you what, I’ve always loved golf courses from the Dye family. I’ve had a chance to be around Pete and Alice Dye, actually a little bit before they passed away. Talk about golf royalty. And then P.B. Dye, their son, built a lot of golf courses in the family tradition and the one thing they have in common is just all their golf courses are just fun. They’re visually intimidating. You look around, you’re like, “Wow.” They’re just really cool. And the Moorland is no exception.

You might get mad at it because it’s not easy, but you’re never going to get bored, I can assure you of that.

Okay, so I missed this fairway and I know what you’re saying, “What’s this guy doing doing videos if he can’t hit the fairway?” But look at this fairway. It’s only like 12 yards wide. Anybody could miss this fairway. What do you think, I’m Fred Funk or something? No, I am not. I get to lay up. I got a couple of choices here. I can go straight away the fairway ends or there’s a second fairway that’s up there to the left. I’m feeling a little adventurous. Let’s go for that second fairway that’s up there on the left.

It’s pretty narrow too. If I pull this off, I’ll end up getting a pretty short third. Oh, I think I pulled it off. You Google perfect, see if that shot doesn’t come up right there! Perfect. It’s P-U-R-F-E-P-E-R. Just Google “perfect.” You’ll find that one. I’m glad you got a chance to see that one. It’s perfect!

So here’s what’s really cool. I’ve been trying different medicines, stretching, I got some electrical thing they hooked me up to. And for the first time in about 18 months, finally starting to feel like a human being again. Getting my movement back. And it doesn’t hurt to walk or hang out. Pretty excited about that. Maybe my golf game will start getting a little better at some point. But even if it doesn’t, I’m just happy to be feeling better and moving better.

See, I told you that one was perfect. Look, I laid it out right here just short of the green. Yeah, that was perfect. All right, let’s focus on this third one. This is a really cool shot. There’s a lot of contour in the front half of this green. It goes up and over. That gives me a couple options. I can try and fly it up top and stop it or I can run it through that slope, land just at the base of it, and skip it up through there. I don’t know about you guys, but I feel like skipping one today. So I’m going to take my gap wedge, put it a little back in my stance, drive it in there low, run it up that slope, and get it stopped right by the hole. At least that’s what the plan is.

Back in the stance. Low through that slope. Stop it right by the hole. Get going, get going, get going. Right idea, just didn’t quite hit it hard enough.

So one of the coolest things I’ve got in my bag, I grew up when I was a kid, I played leather grips. That’s right, folks, back in the day, they used to make grips out of this really cool thing called leather. You might not have ever heard of it. But it has the greatest feel ever, especially with a little bit of humidity. Smell it. Smell that. It makes me want to make a birdie. Gosh, smells so good. Love me some leather.

There’s something really cool going on with this putt. Walk up here to the hole with me. We’re primarily Bermuda grass in this part of the world. Bermuda grass has grain in it. Come look at this hole. I want you to see something. You see how the hole is ragged on that backside. That means the grain is growing this way, which happens to be just a little south of west. So I’ve got a putt here, it’s a little downhill. It’s also definitely down grain. Can tell by that ragged edge on the far side of the hole. And also I can tell by where the sun sets every night.

So it’s going to be a little quicker than what you might think. Down grain, downhill. Look at that ball rolling out. Pulled it a little bit. But by knowing what that grain was doing really gives me best chance of getting the speed right. I’m just going to leave it. Sometimes they’re really hard to get out of the hole. They don’t want to go in there and they don’t want to come out. I don’t get it.

Not a bad way to start the day. We’re off to the second stop in our Legends tour. Let’s see what Tom Doak has in store for us at his signature course!