GolfTravelReviews: The Reviews "Barefoot Resort Seeks Status As Major Southeast Golf Destination"

The promoters are calling it "a city within a city" and describing it as "reminiscent of " Savannah’s Riverfront, Charleston’s Market, and New Orleans’ French Quarter. Encompassing 2300 acres directly on the west bank of the waterway in north Myrtle Beach, Barefoot Resort will have 23 different residential communities with an eventual population of 12,000. The homesites, being developed by Centex, include waterfront villas and golf view homes, comprising 1100 single family homes and 2,000 multi-family complexes.

Artist's rendition of the Clubhouse and Lodge to open
in 2001. They will be adjacent to the Dye Course.

In a mixed-use development, Barefoot Resort will feature a Town Center comprised of hotels with meeting facilities, boutiques, sidewalk cafes and a host of service businesses including restaurants, laundries, pharmacies and supermarkets. The plan also calls for parks, soccer fields, an equestrian center, an outdoor amphitheater, indoor and outdoor pools, parks and playgrounds, and a recreation center featuring racquetball and tennis courts. If that weren’t enough, water enthusiasts will be able to enjoy beaches along the waterway or enjoy boating from a full-service marine.

Barefoot Resort lies across the waterway opposite the retail park, Barefoot Landing, which stands to benefit from the market that will be created by the large influx of new residents. Accessible from Highway 17 North, the resort property is connected to the east side of the waterway by an historic drawbridge that was imported from North Carolina.

In keeping with Barefoot’s grand conception, no less than four very good, high-end courses wind through the trees, along the waterway and up and down the rolling hills of this expansive unspoiled site. Opened in the spring of 2000, the courses are designed by Davis Love, Pete Dye, Tom Fazio and Greg Norman. I played all but the Norman course on my visit to Myrtle Beach in mid-June (2000), as it was temporarily closed for maintenance at that time.

The Dye Course

The Dye course is set off from the others in the north end of the property. It will eventually be completely private with its own clubhouse. Adjacent to the clubhouse will be a 79-room lodge, a joint venture between Barefoot Resort and Golf Lodging, L.L.C., based in Englewood, Colo. The lodge will include meeting space and 10 deluxe residential condo units. A limited number of ultra-high-end homesites are sprinkled around the course. Access to the Dye Course will be limited to the projected 400 club members, who will have priority tee times, and to resort guests.

The Dye Course challenges even the best

The Dye Course, in two words, is very hard, no matter what tees you play from. Mid to high handicappers may not enjoy playing this course repeatedly, so it will be interesting to see how much success the club has in recruiting or retaining members. As with all Dye creations, there is plenty to test your shotmaking prowess and your nerves. Stretching from 5021 to 7343 yards and playing to a par 72, this course will eat players alive if they don't bring their "A" games. The slope from the tournament tees is 149, 132 from the Championship tees (6634 yards) and 124 from the member tees (6005).

Visually arresting as all Dye courses are, this track is filled with enough pitfalls to snare a fox. A premium is placed on extreme accuracy, particularly off the tees. This is pure target golf from tee to green on a course that lies on originally flat terrain. However, Dye, a terror with a D-9, has sculpted elevations. His creation features plenty of water, impossibly high rough of centipede and zoysia and a dizzying number of fairway and greenside bunkers. You can measure some of his frequent waste bunkers in acres. They seem to engulf some holes, like on the 380-yard 2^nd. In addition, the greens have nerve-jangling slopes and hogbacks. If you don’t land on the right side of some pins, you are headed for a sure 3-putt.

The course is under top quality management, so in time the course’s conditions will be outstanding. However, in mid summer 2000, a few greens were adversely affected by dry weather and some kind of fungus. The greens are L-93, a disease-resistent hybrid species of bent. The fairways are GN-1 Bermuda, developed by Greg Norman Turf.

Dye uses mounds liberally to frame most holes and to pose an enormous inconvenience for those hitting on or around them. Some mounds, such as the "mountain range" between the #1 fairway and the outstanding practice tee are out of play and were created strictly for visual effect. Two large continuous wetland areas come into play on holes 2, 3, 5, 9 and 17. Pine and hardwood forests lie around the edges of the course but within the course itself, the route is open save for sprinklings of palmettos and other native vegetation.

The course looks like it could have been designed by Salvador Dali. It has some intricate sight lines and no less than 14 doglegs! These include two double doglegs, the 543-yard 8^th and the 574-yard 16^th. Both are majestic.

The 8^th starts from an elevated tee box and runs out at an angle over a portion of a huge waste bunker on the right to the landing area tightened by bunkers and mounds left. The second shot must be long and accurate, as a lake left flanks the fairway some 400 yards out and runs all the way to the green. A sliver of a waste bunker stands between the lake and the fairway until just before the green. The left side of the green is also guarded by two bunkers. A cluster of four fairway bunkers lie in the middle of the fairway directly in front of the green about 40 yards out. The green has enough slopes and contours to mystify a physicist. The day I played the course the pin location was smack on a ridge, making my 2-footer very nervy.

On #16, the drive must carry a corner of a waste bunker right and avoid mounds left. The landing area of the second shot is guarded left by another large waste bunker. A high mound juts into the fairway some 60 yards from the green, obscuring the putting surface from the right side.

The par-4 9^th plays 493 yards from the tips (410 from the Championship tees) and features a carry over a wetland and a waste bunker to a right-to-left bending fairway lined on the right by a ridge that is high enough to hide the large lake separating #9 from #18. My partner hit slightly right over the ridge and rudely discovered that her ball had gone down the steep slope into the lake.

The finishing hole is trademark Dye. It is a right-to-left job very similar in shape and appearance to #18 at Sawgrass, only it plays 475 yards from the tips instead of 444 yards. It has a very narrow landing area guarded left by the lake and right by wide bunkers. The green sits on the edge of the lake and is surrounded by mounds on the right. There is no bailout except short and straight.

Hole 10 is possibly Dye’s best here. It is only 344 yards but it puts enormous pressure on your drive, as there is a lake on the left virtually from tee to green. The hole doglegs left to an elevated green (there are many elevated greens here). The entire right side of the fairway is banked and has three large bunkers.

On a course with intriguing visuals and shapes, the par 3’s stand out. They are also very hard. The sixth has a lake on the right from tee to green. The green sits right on the lake and has mounds left. At 195 yards, it presents a Maalox moment. The 227-yard 15^th has no water but then it doesn’t need it. Hardwood plantings line the left side of this hole stretching from an elevated tee box to an elevated green with a high bank behind. The green is wide but very narrow. A hogback separates the green into two halves, creating severe down slopes on both sides of the ridge. The hole is very difficult with the hole in front, but back left, it is virtually impossible to get your tee shot anywhere near the pin. The 17^th is a fine hole over a wetland to a narrow green front to back that looks even narrower from the tee.

Sometimes Dye takes his diabolical tendencies too far. For example, the 461-yard 11^th is hard enough because of its length. Defying understanding, he has put a high-mounded pot bunker smack in front of the green, totally nullifying the option of a bump-and-run approach. Even with a good drive, you must hit a high medium to long iron or a wood to reach the green, and if you are playing this one into the wind, take your bogey and walk quickly to the next tee box.

Save for the 18^th, I played the Dye Course from all the way back. I played very well and only managed to shoot one over on the front 9. I continued to hit the ball solidly on the back but a series of wayward drives into the bunkers or rough left me scrambling for too many bogeys. Worn out physically and mentally, I let a good round slip away. The course will do that. It presents an uninterrupted challenge from the first tee to the last green. The course will dazzle you with its unusual holes and I suggest you try it for that reason. But don’t feel discouraged if you shoot 10 strokes over your handicap. You won’t be the first.

The Love Course

The Love course is more user friendly. It has a wide open feel save for a few holes on the back. It has been described as a traditional course with a Lowcountry character. Stretching up to 7200 yards with a par of 72, the Love Course features several greens with false fronts similar to those on Pinehurst #2.

The 'ruins' at the Love Course

The course, which has A-1 bent on the greens and 419 Bermuda on the fairways with fescue and zoysia rough, has seven lakes, and wetlands on almost every hole. On several holes, Love has presented alternate routes to the green. The most interesting of these is the 412-yard 16^th with a large mounded bunker splitting the fairway in two. A tee shot right of the bunker leaves an open shot to the green but your drive must negotiate a long wetland carry and avoid a lake on the right. The safer play to the left leaves a totally or partially obscured approach shot.

There are more elevations on this course than the Dye track, and on some holes hardwood and pine forests come into play and make for a contrasting visual, as well as golfing, experience. On the long par-5 finishing hole, the tee shot must land safely on the narrow alleyway through the trees. From there, the hole doglegs left to a green sitting directly on a lake. The second shot must avoid both a lake and a wetland area. The best of the fine set of par 3s is the 235-yard (207 from the next forward tees) 9^th, featuring a forced carry over a large wetland. The best hole on the course is arguably the 552-yard 8^th to a fairway marked by a bunker some 275 yards out in the left center of the fairway. A good safe drive to the right of the bunker leaves a very long second over an environmental area to an elevated well-bunkered green. It’s a marvelously designed hole with strong visuals and challenging features.

In a design decision that I think was misguided, Love has built a ruins of a southern plantation complete with columns (some of which are toppled over) directly behind the 4^th green and beside the 6^th green. A portion of the structure’s brick wall comes right up to the edge of the 4^th green, so that a slightly off line approach could result in an unplayable lie. The "ruins" was put there because Davis wanted to have the feel of a Scottish links, which typically have ruins on them. However, this is not Scotland, and the attempt here seems hokey and artificial. The two adjacent greens sit in an open area that needs framing, but putting an artificial ruins there is contrived. Framing the greens with mounds and/or trees and vegetation would have served the same purpose and created and more natural look.

Even so, the Love Course offers an enjoyable trek over crests and vales and through lovely forested terrain with lots of lakes and sand.

The Norman Course

The Norman Course

Though I did not get to actually play the Norman course on this trip, here is an overview. Distinguishing it from the others is seven holes on the waterway, resulting in its being the most "scenic" of the four. Also, Norman has worked with the natural contours of the land as he found them. Abundant waste areas and natural vegetation frame many holes of a course which in places resembles some of the desert layouts of the Southwest. It also features McKenzie style bunkers with sloping white faces. There are a few sod-wall bunkers. The greens slope gently and are designed to receive bump-and-run approaches. Norman employed a variety of turf grasses to add color to the scene. The tees and fairways consist of GN-1, a hybrid Norman turf. The approach areas are Tiff Dwarf, the rough areas are zoysia and GN-2 and the greens are A-1. The course plays to par 72 and stretches to 7200 yards.

The Fazio Course

At 6834 yards from the tips, the Fazio course has a slope of 133 with a par of 71. There are five par 3’s. As with all of his designs, this course is very fair and visually satisfying. Fazio frames his holes magnificently, using the natural contours of the land and the landscape features unselfconsciously. The course has a lot of created elements, yet it doesn’t seem contrived. That is a tribute to Fazio’s ingenuity because he worked with a tract of land with widely varying characteristics. Pines and hardwoods come into play on many holes and water occurs on 15 holes, though some of these water features are out of play. Several holes on the back have a savanna look with lots of exposed sand that lies near the surface.

The Fazio Course

The course starts in a parkland setting. The opener is a 390-yard dogleg right to an elevated green through the live oaks and pines. This is followed by a 458-yarder over a lake and wetland from the tee to a bend in the left-hand dogleg that is guarded by large and steep fairway bunkers. The 4^th is a majestic sweep of a hole, measuring 548 yards, most of which are uphill. Here the terrain becomes more elevated and less wooded. The open setting continues on the equally magnificent 5^th of 499 yards (467 from the next forward). It is a par 4 all uphill. The fairway is quite wide and guarded by wide bunkers. On the green you are on the higher elevation of the course.

The par 5’s measure between 533 and 558 yards. The best of these is the double dogleg 10^th veering out to a wide fairway with a large sprawling lake and a waste bunker on the right. The fairway turns left around the lake and back right again toward the lakeside green. The second shot landing area is very tight between the lake and a set of bunkers.

Water is the predominant feature of all of the par 3’s. The 191-yard 6^th starts from an elevated tee and requires a carry over a lake to a huge two-tiered green. The 198-yard 16^th is one of the most visually appealing on the course. The lake, which also comes into play on the 170-yard 2^nd, wraps around half of the green on #16. A waste bunker runs from the green’s edge down to the lake, creating a colorful visual texture that is worthy of your camera. A palm tree in the waste bunker adds interest to the hole.

The back 9 features three successive short par 4’s. Holes 13-15 measure 379, 380 and 346 yards, respectively. In this portion of the course, sand lies just beneath the surface of the ground and, as with the 16^th, Fazio has taken advantage of this feature by exposing a lot of the sand. The finishing hole of 453 yards is dominated by water. The drive from the two back tees must carry a lake, and the entire left side of the fairway and green are guarded by another lake. The hole is a back-breaker and stunning.

At Barefoot, Fazio brings out his best instincts, weaving a stirring set of holes through terrain of different characteristics. His deft use of water, sand, and vegetation and his varied elevations result in a course that has excellence written all over it.

A single clubhouse and practice facility will serve the Love, Norman and Fazio courses. Barefoot Resort is a development of Silver Carolina, a private partnership led by Sam Puglia, a local businessman and real estate developer with substantial holdings throughout the southeast. The partnership originally had visions of building a small retail operation on a modest piece of property west of the waterway. Then, an opportunity came up to buy a much larger tract of land.

For tee times and more information, call 877-237-3767.
Photos courtesy Brandon Advertising