“The Charlie Rymer Golf Show” and Gary Player Visit Blackmoor

Charlie Rymer:

Now we’re on to a golf course that’s really special, Myrtle Beach’s very own Blackmoor. It’s one of the most enjoyable rounds of golf in South Carolina, just as intended by the golf course architect, my friend and legend, Gary Player. And I’m joining him to gain insight into the golf course design.

Gary Player:

… time ago, huh?

Charlie Rymer:

It’s got to give you great pleasure to come to a golf course that’s been around 30 years and will be here obviously a lot longer. But to see people enjoying your creation, that’s got to feel really amazing.

Gary Player:

You know what’s amazing, Charlie, is you come here, it’s like living on your own ranch. It has been such a pleasure being associated with Blackmoor, such nice people. The way they look after people when they come, that’s important. A good golf course is nice, but you’ve got to look after your customers, and they do that here. And this is a very playable golf course. We tried to make this not too tough, not too undulating greens, and that’s very important, because the average guy doesn’t play very well and you want him to come out and have a good day.

Charlie Rymer:

And they have to have a golf course that accommodates that.

Gary Player:

Exactly. You’re not going to get a big championship on your golf course. And the average guy, you’ve got to think of the average man and woman that are playing the game, to give them enjoyment. They want to come out here and have fun and play as well as they possibly can. Hold it. Hold it a second. Hang on there. Tell me something. How are you? Good to see you. Nice to see you.

Speaker 4:

Mr. Player.

Charlie Rymer:

You guys had no idea you were going to run into Gary Player out here today, did you?

Speaker 4:

No, no.

Gary Player:

I want to make you, I want to…

Charlie Rymer:

Y’all have a great day.

Speaker 4:

Thank you.

Charlie Rymer:

This industry, the golf course industry, moving forward, and obviously things now are a lot different than 1990 when you built this golf course, but great environmental stewardship has to be a huge part of the golf course industry moving forward. What are your thoughts on that?

Gary Player:

I think you’ve got to be careful of over-fertilization. I’m a farmer, and if you keep putting that fertilizer into the soil all the time, instead of, like on my farm, I put a lot of horse manure into the soil. Two years later, I put some chicken manure in there, a lot of leaves. You’ve got to keep the soil vibrant. You can’t just keep putting fertilizer in it all the time. Good soil is good growth, is good drainage. Drainage is important.

Gary Player:

And the other thing is, you’ve got to make sure you don’t waste water, and you’ve got to make sure that you get the speed of play. Look at this, you see this green here now? Look, you can run the ball up here, Charlie. See that? Got a bunker on the left. One’s enough. You don’t have to have… You know what some of these guys do today? They got water on the right, bunker on the left, double trouble. I try to never build a green with double trouble. If you’ve got a bunker on the left, no bunker on the right, no water on the right. Give a guy a chance to bail out and recover. You want people, I keep putting emphasis, people to enjoy the game. If you plan building an Augusta or something like that, that’s different. You want the guys to play well. Look at that green, flat as a pancake. They can make some putts. Makes them feel good.

Charlie Rymer:

I get the sense that the best compliment a golfer could give you after playing one of your golf courses is, “Man, did I have fun.”

Gary Player:

“And I played well.” In fact, wherever I go, somebody comes up to me and says, “You know, I was at Myrtle Beach. I played a lot of golf courses. I enjoyed yours the most, enjoyed yours the most, because the greens weren’t too undulating, there were no bunkers in front of the greens. I could play well, and I felt good. I don’t want to go there and be tortured. I have enough of that at home.”

Charlie Rymer:

Of all the golf courses you’ve played on all the continents of this globe, is there one or two that maybe influenced what you tried to do or have done in your design career?

Gary Player:

I think, first starting off my tour as a pro in Europe helped a lot, because I played a lot of links golf courses. You never saw many bunkers in front of the green. I think that was one of the big influences. And proper bunkering, I think bunkering really makes a golf course. It gives a golf course great character. I do like for weekend golf, is wider fairways too.

Charlie Rymer:

Doesn’t need to be an Easter egg hunt when you head out to play golf.

Gary Player:

I’ll never forget that in all my life.

Charlie Rymer:

So Gary, this is the eighth hole, par four, and I love that you give the players an option here. There’s a long way, that total distance going around the corner might be 380 yards. But you give them this opportunity through this chute for the longer players to drive the green. I just love that you give players options.

Gary Player:

Now, this hole here, I love this, because that is extremely narrow. The average guy, 80 percent of them slice, so we made it a dogleg right. And it’s wide, so they can go up that fairway. It’s very wide. Or you can go this way and you’ve got to hit it dead straight. It’s a lot shorter this way. A lot of young guys could drive the green here, but if they hit it offline, they’re in the boondocks. I love this risk-reward hole. It’s really nice.

Charlie Rymer:

It’s just not a lot of fun to play a golf course where the architect has said, “There’s one shot that you must play here.” I like to be able to go through my options.

Gary Player:

This is a pleasure. I’ll tell you, it’s a thrill coming back here. Look at that, how nice that is. Look at that.

Charlie Rymer:

That’s a good hole.

Gary Player:

You can run it up. That is perfect, man.

Charlie Rymer:

Yeah, and it works with maintenance and maintenance budgets, so many different things that people don’t think about. If you’re doing a project for someone, it’s okay, what are we trying to accomplish here? What’s the maintenance budget going to be? How does all of that work? And I think sometimes if you get a golf course that someone wanted to be a championship golf course, but it’s not, then you struggle with maintenance, because it takes so much money to maintain the golf course, and you can’t do that.

Gary Player:

Now you’re talking, Charlie. And Charlie, let’s hypothetically just say a golf course maintenance is a million bucks. I can go in there now with the ideas that I have, and I can drop that by $200,000. They’re wasting money. That $200,000 can make a vast difference to a golf course’s budget.

Charlie Rymer:

That’s why reinvestment in golf courses and going back and looking at them and spending a little bit of money can really pay off financially over the next 10 or 15 years. One of the things I wanted to bring up with you, Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, we’re “The Golf Capital of the World.” We’ve essentially got 90 golf courses in a 70-mile stretch running north to south, and people from all over the world come here to play golf. Do you see a way that as a golf course community, and that’s how we look at each other… Sure, golf courses compete, but at the end of the day, we want people coming and enjoying. It means a lot to the economy, the golf courses.

Gary Player:

Exactly. Exactly.

Charlie Rymer:

Do you see ways that we can collaborate with each other to make the overall business better on our end and also for our customers that come here?

Gary Player:

Just before we say anything, that drive we just took now, through those trees. I mean, one thing about the golf course, yeah, one thing I can feel here when I come here, it takes the stress out of my body. But anyway, what as far as the community is concerned? Here we are in this wonderful area, the golf course community of the world. You should all be working with each other as much as possible, inter-community, inter-golf courses, competitions. It’s many things, dinners, lunch, and bring kids in with autism, bring young girls to the club, bring old ladies. Look after the old people. Have a special day for the vets. I’m really loving this, what I’m seeing, bunker right at the green, see?

Charlie Rymer:

Gentlemen, if you have any complaints or compliments, here’s the designer, Gary Player, World Golf Hall of Fame member.

Gary Player:

How are you?

Charlie Rymer:

And let me tell you, he takes compliments better than complaints.

Gary Player:

Good to meet you guys. Good to see you guys. How are you? Look at those arms. You look like Tarzan. How are you? Nice to see you. Now give me your putter there. Look at the strength. Now watch my eye. I’m going to see it hit that nail. Did you see my eye? You guys… Okay, guys, have a nice day.

Speaker 5:

Thank you.

Speaker 6:

Great facilities.

Gary Player:

All right.

Charlie Rymer:

Thank you, gentlemen. Y’all have a great day. Mr. Player, a true pleasure to spend time with you.

Gary Player:

Thank you.

Charlie Rymer:

I think it’s lunch time. Let’s go have lunch, and I know you’re going to have me eat a salad.

Gary Player:

I’ll tell you, this man can eat. He’s a world champion when it comes to eating.

Charlie Rymer:

All right, let’s go, you old fart.