Deer Track North appeal set for Tuesday

A lawsuit filed in 2006 attempting to prohibit the redevelopment of the former Deer Track North Course has perhaps reached its final appeal Tuesday.

Homeowners around the course in the Deerfield Plantation development have a class-action suit against the course owners arguing that there is an easement on the property preventing redevelopment.

Oral arguments will be heard at 10:40 a.m. by the three-judge South Carolina Court of Appeals in Columbia.

If either party objects to the court’s decision, they can petition the S.C. Supreme Court to hear the case. The Supreme Court can agree, or decline and leave the S.C. Court of Appeals decision to stand as the decision of record.

“They’re trying to reverse what I feel is an irreversible verdict,” said McCray Smith, who owns the course with partner Jerry Pettus.

Attorney David Miller of the Bellamy Law Firm said he has never received a decision from the S.C. Court of Appeals in less than 30 days, and he expects a decision in between 60 and 90 days.

Tuesday’s oral arguments should take approximately 25 minutes, as Miller has 10 minutes to present his case as the appellant, attorneys from the McNair Law Firm representing the course owners have 10 minutes, and Miller has 5 additional minutes to conclude his argument. Documents in the case were presented in advance in the appellate court.

Smith and Pettus purchased the 183-acre North Course in March 2006 as Deertrack Investors LLC for $8 million, according to court documents, and planned to redevelop it, as they still do.

Late in 2008, Deertrack Investors received a summary judgment freeing it to develop the property, but that judgment was rescinded and the case went to retired circuit court judge Thomas Cooper, who acted as a special referee approved by attorneys in a case.

Cooper twice ruled in favor of the course owners, and Miller filed for the appeal being heard Tuesday.

Course owners have a countersuit seeking a monetary award.

“It has been a farce,” Smith said. “I’m tired of it. I just want to go back to work. We’re going to have to pursue what we have to pursue and we’re going to get restitution, it’s just a matter of time, not if. When you’re right they can’t take that away from you … and we’ve been right all along.

“It will hurt some people out there. A big award in a countersuit will be a life-changing experience for some of those people out there. I think there were a few people making decisions for a lot of people [in the suit] and it’s been unfortunate for everybody really.”

One lawsuit has already been settled on the property. Horry County paid Smith and Pettus $325,000 late last year in the settlement of a lawsuit stemming from the County Council’s rezoning of the property against the owners’ will in November 2006.

The council changed the property’s zoning from R-7 to a much less dense R-3 at the behest and in the interest of some residents around the already heavily developed North Course, and the course owners filed a federal lawsuit in May 2009.

Smith said he has already drawn up redevelopment plans for the property. “We’ve got some good plans; some really awesome things in store, and we can’t wait to get started,” Smith said. “It’s a great piece of property; a great location. Other than the Phase 1 homeowners we haven’t had any resistance from anyone else. Everyone knows it’s a great piece of property and golf is not viable there.”

The ruling by the S.C. Court of Appeals and any consideration by the S.C. Supreme Court could have far-reaching effects to other course owners and homeowners throughout the Grand Strand and state, including on the neighboring former Deer Track South Course. Homeowners there have a similar lawsuit pending that attempts to avoid potential redevelopment.

Hail the new president

Both the incoming president and vice-president of the South Carolina Golf Association, which oversees numerous amateur and junior programs and tournaments in the state, reside on the Grand Strand.

Kent Hungerpiller of Myrtle Beach was elected to a two-year term as the association’s 64th president at the SCGA’s annual meeting on Jan. 7, and John Lopez of Murrells Inlet is the new vice president.

The 65-year-old Hungerpiller has served on the SCGA’s Executive Board since 2001 and moved to Myrtle Beach from Hartsville in 2007. He is a mechanical consultant and a member of Sans Terra Golf Club, and succeeds Doug Smith of Spartanburg.

Hungerpiller helped start The Players Junior Championship sponsored by the Dustin Johnson Foundation in Hartsville 15 years ago.

His duties as president include conducting board meetings and two annual meetings, giving input into an ongoing SCGA strategic planning project, and accompanying the final groups in the final rounds of both the S.C. Amateur and S.C. Junior Championship.

The SCGA –formed in 1929 – and S.C. Junior Golf Association are based in Columbia and run by executive director Happ Lathrop and his staff.

Junior happenings

The first event of the Peggy Kirk Bell Girls’ Golf Tour 2012 season – and the tour’s only stop on the Strand – was held this past weekend at the Hackler Course at Coastal Carolina University.

The 2012 Kick-Off Classic featured 57 players and was won by Katelyn Dambaugh, a high school junior from Goose Creek and South Carolina commitment, by two strokes over Bryana Nguyen of Columbia, Md., with a 5-over-par 70-79—149. Dambaugh lost a six-stroke lead on the first eight holes, then rallied with birdies on holes 9 and 13 to regain control.

Ashley Sloup of Oak Island, N.C., tied for 17th at 85-89—174 and Pendleton Bogache of Myrtle Beach tied for 23rd at 86-89—175. The Bell tour is in its sixth year, is an initiative of the Triad Youth Golf Foundation based in Greensboro, N.C., and has 22 one- and two-day events scheduled primarily on weekends this year in the Carolinas, Virginia and Maryland.

Students at the Greg Norman Golf Academy based in North Myrtle Beach continue to perform well on the Hurricane Junior Golf Tour. Gonzalo Martinez won the overall title by two strokes from the 15-18 age division in an event this weekend at Hilton Head National Golf Club with a 1-over-par 69-74—143.

The event featured 80 players from multiple countries and states in four age divisions. Four players representing Myrtle Beach finished in the top 10 of the boys competition, as Rafa Jaurequi and Anthony Gardner tied for seventh at 153, and Jose Aguilar tied for 10th at 155.

TOC upcoming

The SCGA’s Tournament of Champions is being held at the Tradition Club in Pawleys Island on Saturday and Sunday, and a near-record field of 121 players is registered. That total is just a few off the tournament’s all-time high and includes several Strand club champions.

Golfers will compete in one of six divisions: men’s club champions, women’s club champions, men’s senior club champions, SCGA one-day tournament men’s gross winners, men’s one-day net winners, and senior one-day gross winners.

POYs named

Two previous winners and four first-timers have been named 2011 Richard S. Tufts Players of the Year by the Carolinas Golf Association.

The six winners are: Scott Harvey of Greensboro, N.C. (Men), who won the 2011 Carolinas Amateur at The Dunes Golf and Beach Club; Austin Ernst of Seneca (Women); Paul Simson of Raleigh, N.C. (Senior Men); Pat Brogden of Garner, N.C. (Senior Women); Carson Young of Pendleton (Junior Boys); and McKenzie Talbert of North Augusta (Junior Girls).

Simson won his sixth consecutive senior player award, while Talbert won her third consecutive junior girls award.

The Tufts Awards were established in 1997 to honor Carolinas amateur golfers who excelled in tournaments. Winners will be recognized during Carolinas Golf Night and the CGA Annual Meeting at Pine Needles Lodge & Golf Club in Southern Pines, N.C. on Feb. 25.

The SCGA Player of the Year is Corbin Mills of Clemson and the SCGA Senior Player of the Year is Frank Ford III of Charleston.

Mills, 21 and a junior at Clemson, won the USGA’s Public Links Championship and the Players Championship in Hilton Head and finished fourth at the Palmetto Amateur in Aiken. Ford, 59, earned his fourth POY award in five years. He won the South Carolina Senior and finished third in the British Senior Amateur.