LEDGER COLUMNIST
The chances we took all turned out fine
Cody SOSSAMON LEDGER PUBLISHER

Being the inquisitive type I am, I couldn't resist asking about the name. It's the owner's first name, Nigerian in origin and is pronounced "o - ROBE - eh - su." It is located on the first road (coming from Myrtle Beach) out to Pawley's Island. All in all, I lucked out in that the golf courses and restaurants were to everyone's liking.

Sometimes when making decisions, you just have to take a chance and hope everything works out okay.

Such was the case this past weekend when my wife and I, along with three other couples, spent a few days at North Litchfield beach.

This has become an annual trip for our group. During the day, the guys play golf and the girls either shop or relax on the beach.

At night, we all eat.

The golf and the eating are where the decisions and taking a chance come in.

There are several courses we have played before that all of us enjoy, so we keep them on our rotation, but usually try a course we haven't played before for one of three rounds.

Same thing with the restaurants we choose for our evening meals.

I made the golfing arrangements this year and chose Willbrook, one we have played several times; River Club, one we played several years ago, but scratched because the employees were rude; and Wedgefield, a course none of us had ever played or even heard about.

I was somewhat anxious as we drove to Wedgefield as my golfing companions are not what you'd call easy to please - and they'll let you know when they aren't.

At about $45 for cart and green fee, the price was right and they liked that. The course was just outside of Georgetown and only about 30 minutes from where we were staying, so the location was fine. However, as we approached the course, that smell Georgetown is known for began to get stronger and stronger. The guys began making comments about how it wasn't going to be very pleasant on the course if we had to smell that smell all day.

"Maybe we'll get used to it," I said cheerfully, knowing full well we wouldn't.

Much to my relief, the smell dissipated by the time we arrived at the course.

Wedgefield is not one of those immaculately landscaped "tourist" courses you find further up the Grand Strand. It does, however, have a certain charm that few other courses possess.

HUGE live oak trees dominate the area around the clubhouse and unpaved parking lot. The pro shop is in one of many OLD wooden buildings surrounding the main clubhouse.

We inquired about range balls and were told they were behind the drink machine in the cart shed.

We paid our money and found the balls - apparently salvaged from the many ponds on the course - but found a hand-painted "range closed" sign on the practice tee. We asked the guy who greeted us in the parking lot and he told us to ignore it.

After warming up we inquired about our tee time. "Go ahead whenever you're ready." Alright!

The course, while not in pristine condition, was very playable and had a lot of interesting holes.

We played in about four hours, which is remarkable for a beach course.

The best thing about it was my three playing companions enjoyed it and didn't complain about my choice.

They didn't complain about the other courses and even commented about how pleasant the employees at the River Club were.

One night we ate at Austin's, which my wife and I had previously tried and all in our group enjoyed the food and service. Ditto for Lee's Inlet Kitchen, one of our regular choices and ALWAYS good, especially the she crab soup.

The big test was a place called "Orobosa." The publisher of "The Coastal Observer" in Pawley's Island told me about it at a meeting earlier this year. I gotta tell you, it doesn't look like much but the food was delicious. My wife had oyster pie ("almost as good as your dad's," she said); Pam had shrimp jambalaya (I sampled it and it was very good), Peck had crab cakes and said they were delicious. Everyone, I think, would agree to keep 'Orobosa' on our rotation.

Being the inquisitive type I am, I couldn't resist asking about the name. It's the owner's first name, Nigerian in origin and is pronounced "o - ROBE - eh - su." It is located on the first road (coming from Myrtle Beach) out to Pawley's Island.

All in all, I lucked out in that the golf courses and restaurants were to everyone's liking. That's not to say everything was perfect. Our golf games were not without flaws and several in our group ate too much, but I had nothing to do with that and could not be held accountable.

The best decision I made, however, was taking some time off from work and getting away with friends. I have much to be thankful this Thanksgiving and having good friends is near the top of the list.

Cody Sossamon (cody@gaffneyledger.com) is publisher of The Gaffney Ledger.