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 7,200 yards with a par of 72,
the Love Course features several greens with false fronts similar to those on Pinehurst No. 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 16th 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) 9th, featuring a forced carry over a large wetland. The best hole on the course is arguably the 552-yard 8th 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 4th green and beside the 6th green. A portion of the structure's brick wall comes right up to the edge of the 4th 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. 
Barefoot Resort Courses:
Myrtle Beach Golf
