When Barefoot Resort opened in 2000 with an audacious vision – 72 holes designed by four big-name architects – the goal was simple: create one of the premier multi-course destinations in America.

For Davis Love III, then an up-and-coming architect and PGA Tour star, the mission was to design a course that could meet or exceed the standard set by his high-profile colleagues.

“I don’t know if we were a big-name architect back then,” Love said. “But we were thrilled to be included, especially being so close to home. I’ve done so much in the Carolinas throughout my life, and my first Q School stage in 1985 was right there in Myrtle Beach. So, for me, it felt a little bit like things had come full circle.”

Pete Dye, Tom Fazio, and Greg Norman were Love’s fellow course designers at Barefoot and they were long established stars in architectural circles. With the pressure of creating a course that was at least the equal of his hall of fame peers, Love knew his team would have to be creative.

“We knew enough to say, ‘Hey, we need to be different than everybody else,’” Love said. “We knew what Pete’s course would feel like. We had a good sense of what Fazio would do. So we said, let’s go the other direction. Let’s make ours the fun course.”

The site Love inherited was largely flat, offering little in the way of natural drama. That challenge turned into creative fuel for Love and his lead designer, Paul Cowley. It was Cowley, a landscape architect by training, who pitched the idea that would become the signature of the Love Course: faux ruins of an old plantation home.

“We were looking for ways to create movement, to get off the flat,” Love said. “And Paul said, ‘What if we played up onto landforms and gave people a reason to go up there?’ That’s how the ruins came to be. They look like history, but they’re imagination.”

Set atop a small hill and tied naturally into the routing, the faux ruins between holes 4 through 6 add a sense of surprise. Love laughed, “Now people say, ‘Wow, you were lucky those ruins were there,’ and I’m like, ‘Yeah, very lucky Paul had a crazy idea!’”

From short par 4s to a wall you hit over on an approach shot, the Love Course broke from convention while never losing sight of what matters: making golf enjoyable.

In the early days, the Love team’s goal was to hold its own against some of the most respected names in golf architecture and win over the people who mattered most: golfers. Twenty-five years later, it’s safe to say they did just that.

“I think we get more compliments on that course than any other we’ve done that’s open to the public,” Love said. “It’s playable, it’s interesting, and it’s fun. And that’s what most golfers really want. They want to be challenged but not beat up.”

Looking back, Love takes pride in how his course has stood the test of time.

“It meant a lot to our career to not be the stepchild of the four,” he said. “We wanted people to be surprised and say, ‘Hey, Davis’s course might be the best one.’ And a lot of people still do.”

For Love, who grew up the son of a club pro with the belief that golf should be fun, the Love Course remains one of his most gratifying projects.

“My dad’s mission was always to help people enjoy playing golf,” he said. “That’s what we try to do with every course we build. And when someone finishes 18 and says, ‘I can’t wait to play that again,’ that’s the win we’re after.”

It’s a win he has achieved many times over at Barefoot Resort.