Barefoot Resort & Golf

The Dye Club at Barefoot Resort was a late addition to my recent Myrtle Beach trip. I'd only played one Pete Dye design previously, so I took the opportunity to add another Pete Dye course to my resume.

While Pete Dye is famous for torturing tour pros at TPC Sawgrass and The Ocean Course (among others), The Dye Club at Barefoot Resort is a kinder and gentler Dye layout. Don't get me wrong, there is still quite a bit of Dye deception, but he gives the golfer a little more room for error on most holes.

The condition of the course is really good, with firm, fast fairways and true greens. The greens were a bit on the slower side the day we played. All of the bunkers are played as waste areas, allowing the player to ground their club and take practice swings.

For a resort course with 8 minute tee times, the pace of play was terrific. We played in under 4 and a half hours, which was unexpected.

I would definitely play this course again on a return trip to Myrtle Beach and I highly recommend that all golfers considering playing the Dye Club at Barefoot resort.

My favorite hole on the course is the 16th, which is a medium length par 5 surrounded by waste bunkers and mounding. On the day I played the pin was up front and two good shots got me on the fringe of the green, where I made eagle. So it has to be my favorite hole.

I had the opportunity to play this golf course on Wednesday, April 21. In spite of the fact that Spirit Airlines failed to load my checked bag (golf clubs and clothes), this course made my date. The price at $136 was high, but worth every penny as this tract is well maintained. This course is challenging, but not overwhelmingly. The winds did make play tougher but the exquisite layout makes this tract probably the best of all the barefoot courses.

Played all the Barefoot courses this week, Dye course was total opposite from the other happy, pleasant three. Right from the start at the entrance gate we were getting attitude about showing up 2 hours + early. Then the wait staff in the restaurant seemed like we were an inconvenience. So then on the course the was maybe 10 foursomes total on the course, one group in front of us, nice group of younger players. We had a 1:08 tee time but there was no one there so we teed off at 12:30. Got through 3 holes with just the group in front of us, at a good pace. There was no one behind us at all so we drove over to the clubhouse to get some ice to keep the drinks cold and give a little room between us and the only other group in front of us. We got a visit from the ranger asking us to speed up play. There was absolutely no one on the course behind us, nor on the practice area near the 1st tee. Why did the ranger feel he needed to push us along with no one behind us. Besides according the cart gps we were only 5 minutes behind... but with a group in front of us. So in the end we finished our round in less than 4 hours.
The attitude from the staff was so unpleasant that we will not ever return to the Dye course. This course is so opposite from the other courses across the street.

One of four options at the Barefoot Resort, this is the site for Darius Rucker’s “Monday After the Masters” celebrity pro-am.

Sam Puglia, the owner of the Dye Club, famously recounted a story that sums up the approach taken by the architects designing the offerings. “There was a big press conference when we announced that we were building four courses simultaneously at Barefoot Resort... One by one they talked about how they were going to build enjoyable, playable resort courses that would appeal to players of all abilities. Then Pete took the microphone. He said, ‘My golf course won’t be like theirs. It’s going to be so d%*n hard that people are going to hate it!’”

Having played many of Pete’s courses all over the country, I’m not willing to say it was excruciatingly hard. I did join the brothers whom I were paired with in playing the white tees, which were pretty benign, and probably one set up from where I should’ve played. Dye induces the usual self-doubt and second guessing off the tee, drawing the player’s eye toward vast waste bunkers and other hazards.

But he gives ample scoring opportunities with a handful of short par 4s and lightweight par 5s. Like many of Dye’s tracks, the par 3s stood out for me.

Uniquely, all sand traps, including green side traps are played as waste areas. Make a practice swing and ground your club, but don’t bother looking for a rake. You won’t find one!

The Love course at Barefoot Resort is hanging on to the tail end of one prominent Golf magazine’s Top 100 American public course rankings. It has been my experience that the bottom 20 percent of these rankings are often controversial.

My sense is that the artificial Antebellum plantation ruins at the confluence of the fourth and sixth greens that offer an anomaly rarely seen on golf courses is polarizing. Some haughty reviewers will label it gimmicky, contrived, and in today’s climate maybe even intolerant. I’m in the “loved it” camp. It made for some intriguing photo ops and created an interesting green-side element.

I feel this element likely singularly keeps this course among “America’s Greatest” lists. Detractors will say, in addition to the negativity above, that this is textbook resort golf, and I don’t disagree with that. But I rather enjoyed it.

Davis Love III offers roomy corridors off the tee box. You will find elements of a place he has been very successful at throughout his career - Harbour Town - in the green complexes. Most are small and feature subtleties that can make first putts look either misread or misjudged.

It is the kind of course where you can walk off the 18th green having shot 82 and wonder how you didn’t shoot 72.

Played the Fazio course for the forth time a week ago. Absolutely the worst greens I have been on in the Myrtle Beach area in 5 years. Had a 25 ft putt on one hole and it became a “mud ball” by the time it stopped rolling about 2/3 of the way was NOT worth the amount of the green fees.

Played in twice now on two separate guy outings. Good design , challenging but not brutal...good par 3s....white tees were enough for us on a wet morning from all the watering...staff is friendly...great outdoor bar...food is nothing special...it’s a bit of a cattle call mentality but you just to chill when the course is packed with tourists and guys who don’t play...

a typical Fazio course with challenging bunkering and visuals. the fairways and greens were in reasonable shape, maybe not as good as you should expect for this time of year in the south. it quickly became obvious that the overall course conditions left a lot to be desired. the rough was nonexistent, bunkers for the most part were lacking sand but full of mud, signage and paths looked 20 years old and uncared for. in its prime this course was magnificent but it has been allowed to deteriorate and is definitely a $50 value.

A great layout that is poorly maintained with the typical Myrtle Beach rude staff (especially the semi-private courses) Extremely slow round. Driving range closed two out of three days. Go elsewhere. A disgrace to a great Dye design.

Great weather, the course was in really good conditions, greens fast .

Beautiful track. You can enjoy this layout from any set of tees. Challenging and fun. Greens putt true and are well protected but are fair to all levels of golfers. On the high side of cost but well worth a try

Must play when in the area. Very playable from white and blue tees. Course was in pretty good shape, save for the few rough patches on the greens. Much more room in the fairways than the cart GPS would have you believe. Hit a lot of 3-woods and long irons when driver would have been fine. Nice staff.

Nice course in the Barefoot resort. Total SE golf experience. Some holes felt like Florida, then Georgia and even NC. Trust your yardage and fly fairway bunkers whenever you can. Will leave you fairly easy approaches.

The first thing I have to mention is that a group of 16 of us traveled to MYB for 5 days. We shipped our clubs to Barefoot Landing ahead of time as this would be our starting point. We were prepared to grab our clubs and then figure out how to stuff the boxes into our vehicles in order to ship them back after our last day. Upon arrival at Barefoot the greeter/ starter/ concierge told us to leave our shipping boxes in the cart barn and to return after our final round and pack them there. The icing on the cake was our on our return a number of young men helped us pack our clubs and Barefoot staff arranged for their shipment home.
The Love Course at Barefoot Landing was a great starter. The course was in great shape and was not overly difficult. The course was very playable for all levels. it was a nice layout that set the tone for what would prove to be our best trip yet.
Next year we will be shipping our clubs to Barefoot once again, as this will now be our starting point for the foreseeable future.

Wouldnt let me use the range after my round after spending over 200$ for my foursome. Already have my money right ?!!!

very challenging layout with the bunkers, good thing they have GPS. course was in great shape but a little wet in some areas, not sure from what. great value if you can get the $72 rate. cant wait to play the other courses.

I love Dye courses but not at 5 1/2 hours per round. The rangers apologized and they agreed it was a money grab by the owner instead of making it the best experience for the golfer. It is ridiculous to wait on literally every shot. Awesome course with lousy course management. Ruined an overall very good week.

This course has the potential to be excellent if they use sand in the traps instead of gravel. If I was Greg Norman I’d be embarrassed to have my name on this course. What a disappointment!

Played the Barefoot courses 11/28-12/2 and they were all in fantastic shape. Fazio is a great course that has some very challenging holes. The layout if great and the course was in great shape. This course is certainly worth it and the Barefoot packages are one of the best values in Myrtle Beach.

Pete Dye's mastery for mind games is on full display here. The opening three holes ease you into your round but present previews of the challenging angles to come. The only hole in this layout I real felt was unfair is the Par 3 17th hole as the overgrown marsh in front blocks a fair view of the small green complex and the trouble located next to the green is a but much for a longer par 3 with a small green. Aside from that the layout challenges you to take on trouble and blindshots like any Dye course does.
From a course conditions side the course was in good shape considering it is the summer off season here and the winterkill issues at this point in the recovery process were minimal. Greens were very receptive and not in perfect shape but definitely good to play on.
Value and Pace of play: We were a foursome of 2 adults and 2 juniors. Barefoot has afternoon discounts that are totally worth it if you can stand the heat. We paid 58$ after 12pm and our two juniors were free since there were two paying adults in the afternoon. There was not a ton of play on teh course so we played in about 4 hours which is great for a tough layout with juniors.
Staff: Was super accomadating and friendly from the start. We didn't use the the resturant and bar except to buy drinks at the turn but we were treated well by the staff there as well