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 5,021 to 7,343 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 (6,634 yards) and 124 from the member tees (6,005).
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 2nd. 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 No. 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 8th and the 574-yard 16th. Both are majestic.
The 8th 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 No. 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 9th 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 No. 9 from No. 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 No. 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 15th 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 17th 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 11th 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 18th, 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. 
Barefoot Resort Courses:
Myrtle Beach Golf
