Player-turned-broadcaster-turned-course-management-executive, Charlie Rymer is still making a living—and more—from golf
Charlie Rymer was struck by what looked like a giant bowl of cream in the sky below.
The first time he visited McLemore Resort atop Lookout Mountain in northwest Georgia in 2019, it was during a temperature inversion, in which cold air is trapped at the surface under a layer of warmer air. Perched on the cliff-edge above that bowl of clouds, Rymer felt like the proverbial cherry on top and recalled thinking, “this is the most incredible place I’ve ever seen.” He turned to his host, Duane Horton, president of Scenic Land Company, and said, “I want to be on your team. Let’s figure it out, but I’m in.”
That’s how Rymer, 57, became executive vice president of the McLemore golf course and resort development, beginning the third (at least) act of a colorful career that has revolved in one form or another around golf.
Rymer, a Cleveland, Tenn., native who was raised in Fort Mill, S.C., excelled at the game from a tender age, becoming the first-ever three-time South Carolina junior champion, winning the U.S. Junior Amateur Championship, and twice being named an All-American at Georgia Tech alongside David Duval.
“I thought I was going to be winning about five PGA Tour events a year, play my way into the Hall of Fame, and all of that. It didn’t quite work out that way,” he says.
Rymer did spend almost a decade as a professional, winning the 1994 South Carolina Classic on the Korn Ferry Tour. But by age 28, he developed the driver yips, slipped to No. 145 on the PGA Tour money list, and realized that it was time to find another line of work.
“For two consecutive years, I led the Tour in other fairways hit,” Rymer says. “There’s no strokes gained for that.”
He was on the verge of a career in wealth management when Gary McCord suggested he try TV. The two were on the practice tee at the 1998 “Monday after the Masters,” a celebrity pro-am hosted by Darius Rucker of Hootie & The Blowfish. Rymer doubted he had the chops to be a talking head. “You’re an idiot, that qualifies you to be on TV,” said McCord, who set up an interview. With his southern drawl and irreverent wit, Rymer was a natural: He joined ESPN that year and Golf Channel in 2007 for an 11-year run.
“He’s kind of that unmade bed, but he’s very bright,” said his former broadcast colleague Billy Kratzert. “Nobody hides behind that country bumpkin thing better than Charlie.”
Beginning in 2018, he reinvented himself yet again, first as an ambassador for golf in the Myrtle Beach area and now at McLemore. And once again, he’s a natural.
“For someone who has been in golf operations for only a few years, he thinks and acts like someone who has owned a course for a generation,” says Jay Karen, CEO of the National Golf Course Owners Association.
Rymer’s third act almost was derailed by a diagnosis of stage 3 colon cancer in 2021. He underwent a series of surgeries, removing a foot of his colon, followed by four cycles of chemotherapy. On June 6, 2022, he got to ring the bell at MD Anderson in Houston, signifying he’s cancer-free. Rymer called beating cancer a team sport and was grateful for the support of cancer survivors Mark Rolfing and Paul Azinger and his daily text chain with former TV colleagues and competitors such as Azinger, Kratzert, Phil Blackmar, Billy Ray Brown, and John Cook.
“We’re like a bunch of fifth graders,” Rymer says. “I love those guys.”
And he still loves to play. “Sometimes I’ll get out there and I’ll have a little stretch of six or eight holes and it feels pretty good,” he says.
And the rest of the time? “I feel like a 12 handicapper,” he says with a chuckle. “But one of the things I learned about golf is for most of my life it was about putting a score on the board. I’ve reached the point where, for me, it’s more about who you’re playing with and where you are. It’s not about the score anymore; it’s just about the day.”
