“Breaking Par with Charlie Rymer” Episode 15: The Fazio Course at Barefoot Resort

Charlie’s heading up the road to test the first of three award-winning layouts at Barefoot Resort & Golf, starting with the par-5 7th hole on its Tom Fazio signature design. Can “The Big Timer” card a birdie here? Tune in to find out!
 

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 …

(You can only keep talent down for so long!)

… 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!

(You’re not going to believe where this ball ended up!)

Join me on my journey to break par!

Charlie Rymer:

Man, Tom Fazio throws the kitchen sink at you on this one. You got water, you got waste bunkers, you got regular bunkers, you got trees. All right, let’s take a breath! It’s a par five, which means we’ve got a chance at birdie. There’s plenty of room to land your tee shot safely in the fairway, so let’s get ‘er done and see where we go from there!

So this is one of my favorite spots in all of Myrtle Beach. This is the Barefoot Resort. We’re actually up in North Myrtle Beach and the folks here, well, they’ve only got four golf courses and they use Pete Dye, Greg Norman, Tom Fazio, and Davis Love III. Yeah, that’s all they got here. That’s all they got here, folks!

People ask me, “So what’s your favorite at Barefoot?” And I always say you’ve got to have the Asiago cheese dip. I’m telling you what. It is the best cheese dip you’ll ever have in your life. One bite of that, your toes curl up, your eyes roll back in your head.

As for the golf courses, there’s not a weak link here. You’re going to have to play them all and decide which one you like. This is the Fazio course and the seventh hole, par five. I’m going to try to do this. Bunker right, bunker left. I want to get somewhere in the middle of those two.

Woohoo! Just like I used to do it, except 50 yards shorter. I mean that Asiago cheese dip, it’s unbelievable!

So people ask me all the time, “What’s your favorite course at Barefoot Resort?” And I always say, “Well, it’s like trying to figure out who has the best fried chicken. Is it Chick-fil-A? Is it Bojangles? Is it Popeye’s? Is it Zaxby’s? That’s a really hard question to answer.

Who has the best hamburgers? Is it Wendy’s? Is it Burger King? Is it In-N-Out? Is it Five Guys? I don’t know. That’s a really hard question to answer. Hell, I like all of them. Is it sort of like who has the best fried fish? Is it Captain D’s or Long John Silver’s? Well, that’s a little easier to answer because there’s only two of those, but I like both of them.

Who’s got the best ice cream? Is it Haagen-Dazs? Is it Mayfield? Is it that place where they mix it all up together? What’s the other ice cream? I can’t even think of the other ice cream, but I don’t know. They’re all good. I like them all.

253 yards. All right, so here’s the deal. My GPS on the cart says I got 253. That’s not in the cards off a downhill lie, so I’m going to lay it up. I got to hit it somewhere between 170 and 200 yards. That’ll get me right in the middle of those bunkers.

The goal here is to put this somewhere where they mow the grass. All right, I can live with that. I’m feeling good about my wedge game. I might just make this next one.

It’s hard. It’s like if I had four kids, who would be my favorite kid? Well, I’d probably figure that out. The one that got a college scholarship. That’d be my favorite.

I got to tell you, the bunkers are really cool here. The Fazio course. That’s one of the things that’s different about each of these golf courses. They all have different sort of character to them. You’ve got sand flashed up in the faces. So when you watch them rake these bunkers, there’s a GoPro that goes around the bottom, but they got to hand rake them up in the top. It’s a little extra maintenance, but boy does it give a nice look. They’re absolutely beautiful.

All right, so I got 80 yards. That’s a really good number. It’s a nice, full lob wedge for me. I got 60 degrees on my lob wedge. Got some real aggressive grooving in here. I don’t like to hit it more than 80 yards. See what we get. It might be 80 yards. Go in, baby. Yeah, 80 yards. Push six feet. I got that one. Yeah, uh-huh. 80 yards on the number. I told you it was a full lob wedge for me. Uh-huh.

You give me 80 yards and a good line, and I’m going to put it up there by the hole just about every single time. Find that ball mark too. Always find your ball mark, folks. You want to leave a golf course just as good as you found it. Inside, right. I got it. Uh-huh. Lookie there. The big man’s on the board. Take that, Tom Fazio! Bringing your course down today.

Quick, quick over here! That’s where I got my birdie! I’m headed over to the next Barefoot course to get some more. Try to keep up, will you?

Miss an Episode? Just Click the Links Below to Catch Up!

Episode 14: Arcadian Shores

Episode 13: Blackmoor

Episode 12: Wachesaw Plantation East

Episode 11: Willbrook

Episode 10: Tradition Club

Episode 9: TPC Myrtle Beach

Episode 8: River Club

Episode 7: Litchfield Country Club

Episode 6: Caledonia

Episode 5: True Blue

Episode 4: Pawleys Plantation

Episode 3: Founders Club at Pawleys Island

Episode 2: Heritage Club

Episode 1: Wedgefield Country Club

Series Trailer