Finishing up a Myrtle Beach golf trip with a little class: Barefoot Fazio and Umi Pacific Grille

NORTH MYRTLE BEACH, S.C. – You’ve got to wrap up a great six-day golf trip on a high note. On my Myrtle Beach golf trip this past week, I ended mine not only on a fine one, but a rather upscale, classy one to boot.

The day started with 18 holes at the Barefoot Resort’s Fazio Course. This is a course I’ve always wanted to play when I was living in the area but for some reason never got around to it. Probably more than any designer, I look forward to Fazio courses, which is probably why just about every resort in the world inquires for his services.

Suffice to say, Fazio delivers here with great shaping on a lot of acres but land that’s not necessarily exceptional (he had a better palette to work with at the TPC of Myrtle Beach just south, one of my favorites down here). Few holes parallel each other and when they do, a massive, 300-yard waste bunker with barren trees dotted amongst it separates the two holes on No. 9 & 10.

Golf highlight of the trip came during this round too: I had fewer birdies this week than I’d like to admit, but parring the gargantuan 499-yard, par 4 5th hole (which plays uphill, by the way), thanks to a solid drive and nifty downhill putt, will be in the memory bank for awhile - much more so than my ocho-ocho finish on the 17th & 18th (ran out of gas after six rounds in a row, perhaps…)

After golf and a quick pint in Barefoot’s clubhouse, I headed down the road a few minutes on Highway 17 for dinner at the Umi Pacific Grille, one of Myrtle Beach’s newer, trendier restaurants that dishes up seafood dishes with local produce but with a Pacific Rim flair. It’s a trendy joint, in dark, aqua blue decor with some pulsating tunes in the background, but the food (my scallops were great, but the filet mignon of my companion looked even better) holds it’s own.

Barefoot Resort’s Fazio Course: The 14th hole ate my lunch, but at least I got a pretty picture out of it.

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