In the Studio with Charlie Rymer: Myrtle Beach National GM’s 3 Favorite Holes on West Course

PlayGolfMyrtleBeach.com’s Charlie Rymer chats it up with Ryan Ruddy, head golf professional and general manager at Myrtle Beach National Golf Club, who dishes on his three favorite holes at the Arnold Palmer-designed West Course.

 

 

Charlie Rymer:

Joined now by Ryan Ruddy, who’s the Head Professional and General Manager at Myrtle Beach National. That’s a 54-hole facility that is just dead center of Myrtle Beach. And it’s been there for a long time. I love getting out. Because as a kid, I would come every year, Thanksgiving, and play in the George Holliday Junior Tournament. And it was a long time ago when I was a kid. And so for me, it’s always a lot of fun to go down memory lane. You guys have the SouthCreek Course, King’s North that gets a ton of attention. But today, we’re wanting to talk about that West Course a little bit.

Ryan Ruddy:

[crosstalk 00:00:36] Sure.

Charlie Rymer:

Will you walk me through a few key holes on the West Course?

Ryan Ruddy:

Yeah. The West Course is a fun golf course. It’s that traditional parkland golf course. The best thing about the West Course is there’s virtually no out of bounds or houses out there.

Charlie Rymer:

Now you’re talking.

Ryan Ruddy:

Exactly.

Charlie Rymer:

If there’s out of bounds, I’ll find it.

Ryan Ruddy:

So it’s a great track to get out there and just let the big dog eat. You can’t really lose a golf ball out there unless you really try. But some key holes, couple of my favorites, number six, par five.

Charlie Rymer:

Yep.

Ryan Ruddy:

It’s just a nice little gentle dogleg where if you’re a big hitter, you go to the back tees, you can just take it right over that bunker and have a nice mid to long iron coming in, big green. Number 12 is another fun hole. It’s a dogleg left where you got to negotiate a short bunker on the left and you can’t hit the driver too long or you might go in the far bunker. So it’s a little precision and accuracy out there. And then we come to number 18, which is our signature hole out there, which is a nice long par three to finish up the day.

Charlie Rymer:

Yeah.

Ryan Ruddy:

It’s fun. It’s the only course on the property that finishes on par three.

Charlie Rymer:

Yeah. It’s pretty rare. You don’t see that a whole lot and often. I remember East Lake, home of the Tour Championship and the FedExCup Finals every year on the PGA TOUR, used to finish on 18 as a par three.

Ryan Ruddy:

Yeah.

Charlie Rymer:

It was my home course when I played golf at Georgia Tech. It was such a long hole, it felt more like a par four. But now, they’ve switched the nines. But yeah, you just don’t see that very often. But I like having a little bit of a variety in everything you do. So I think it works.

Ryan Ruddy:

Yeah. It’s just a fun golf course, right? I mean, we say if you’re coming down from up North or anywhere from the Northeast, South, wherever, you’re on a [inaudible 00:02:13], you haven’t played in a while.

Charlie Rymer:

Yeah.

Ryan Ruddy:

Go to the West Course. It’s just a great warmup. I mean, you can hit some air shots and you’re not going to get in too much trouble. So it’s just a fun track, traditional.

Charlie Rymer:

A lot of our visitors and friends that come from Midwest, Canada, and Northeast, they don’t get a chance to see a lot of Bermuda grass, especially on greens. The way Bermuda grasses are now, they’ve been, I guess the technical term is hybridized, which means they get finer and finer and finer. And they really roll more like Bentgrass. Certainly, they roll a lot differently, a lot better than when I was a kid on the old stuff. But you guys are on the MiniVerde on the West Course. And that’s something that your visitors have to really appreciate.

Ryan Ruddy:

Yeah. It’s not as grainy as the old Ultra Bermuda. So with the tinier grass blades, you’re able to minimize the amount of that crazy Bermuda pull and break on the late days. So it rolls close to that Bent when it’s preseason. Yeah.

Charlie Rymer:

Yeah. These new Bermudas aren’t your grandfather’s Bermuda. The ball actually rolls, it doesn’t bump and scoot.

Ryan Ruddy:

No, that grain is not big out there, which is great.

Charlie Rymer:

Well, Ryan, appreciate your time. Wonderful facility, Myrtle Beach National. It was one of the first, one of the best, and still is. We appreciate your time. And I know our visitors, when they get a chance to get out there playing one of your three courses, any of them, they’re going to really have a great time.

Ryan Ruddy:

Thank you, Charlie. Thanks for having me. Great to be here.

Charlie Rymer:

My pleasure.