Get inside the gates at The Dye Club at Barefoot Resort & Golf in North Myrtle Beach, South Carolina

NORTH MYRTLE BEACH, S.C. -- The first clue is the gate out front. The second clue is the sprawling clubhouse. The third clue is you'll likely see more staff than customers before teeing off.

The Dye Club is the most exclusive -- and the most highly rated according to Golf Digest -- of the four Barefoot Resort & Golf courses that opened simultaneously in 2000.

Playing The Dye Club, designed by Pete Dye, costs more than Barefoot's other resort courses operating out of a different clubhouse down the street. That exclusivity and a strong 7,343-yard course justify the splurge.

The Dye Club, the host of the Monday after The Masters charity pro-am for more than a decade, looks like a second cousin to both The Ocean Course at Kiawah Island and the Dye Course at French Lick Resort in Indiana. It's loaded up with waste bunkers and devilish greens like Kiawah and volcanic mounding reminiscent of French Lick.

Solving its riddle requires placing the ball from point to point to avoid all the trouble. Water dictates the strategy on the most three dramatic par 4s, the short 10th hole and the finishing holes at no. 9 and no. 18.