Area golf column: Sunbelt Senior Tour outlasts competitors

The Grand Strand-based Cancun Sunbelt Senior Tour presented by Palace Resorts begins its 17th season on Feb. 20, and it has outlasted all other senior developmental and mini-tours.

According to founder and director Don Barnes of Longs, there is no longer another senior tour in the country aside from the PGA Tour-run Champions Tour that stages a schedule of multi-round tournaments. The Heartland Players Senior Tour based in Texas had been its most recent competitor for players.

“The health of the tour is fine because of what we’re willing to do for little financial reward,” Barnes said. “That’s why all the others have gone out of business.”

The Sunbelt has paid out about $4 million in purses since its inception. Tour and tournament sponsors are allowing Barnes to guarantee that 100 percent of entry fees of $500 per tournament will be paid out in purses in 2012, in addition to sponsor purse supplements. The tour has an additional annual membership fee of $700.A change in tour policy this year is a drop in minimum age from 47 to 45, opening up the tour to more players.

Barnes is offering free tour membership to players who have won a PGA Tour or Champions Tour event, or are life members of the PGA Tour. He’s attracted Jay Boros, Fred Gibson, Dave Rummels, James Mason and two-time European Ryder Cup Team member Paul Way, and Jim Thorpe has said he’ll play in some Florida events.

The tour’s first few years in the mid-1990s consisted of 35 to 40 tournaments that were all played on the Grand Strand with reasonable entry fees of about $200. But over the years, Barnes has had to move the tour to other parts of the East Coast in order to expand fields and purses.

This year’s schedule includes at least 21 events broken into a handful of three- and four-tournament series.

The opening Winter Series into early March is in Florida; an Early Spring Series in April is in Florida and the Caribbean; a Late Spring Series in May is in Alabama, Mississippi and Georgia; an Early Summer Series in June is in Georgia and South Carolina; a Late Summer Series primarily in September is in New York, New Jersey and Virginia; and a Fall Series in the Carolinas and Georgia is followed by the Tour Championship in Cancun, Mexico.

Barnes intends to add two or three events for a mid-summer series in and around New York and Pennsylvania to complete a 23- or 24-event season. Events are primarily three rounds with a preceding pro-am, though a couple larger events have the pro-am built into the competitive rounds.

A Sunbelt event wasn’t played on the Strand for the first time in 2011 after the South Carolina Senior Open had to move from Tidewater to Long Bay Club in 2010 once sponsorship dollars dried up. Barnes is still hoping to have an event on the Strand later this year, but corporate support of an event in the area remains an issue. “Sponsorship money is the biggest thing,” Barnes said.

Barnes, 67, is weighing how much longer he wants to operate the tour, and he accepted former PGA Tour player Tom Eubank of Canton, Ga., as a partner last year. Eubank, 52, is the non-equity managing partner and also plays – he finished fifth on the Sunbelt’s 2011 money list.

In recent years, Eubank has been involved in golf through laser range-finder measuring, course yardage books and promotional brochures for courses, and he has a small travel agency. He helped attract the tour’s title and presenting sponsors last year, and his additional contacts in the business have resulted in increased sponsorships and new tournament venues. “Because of his contacts we have expanded out,” Barnes said.

Eubank, who Barnes said considered buying the tour outright, previously worked with Palace Resorts in Cancun and helped secure them as a presenting sponsor.

The company put up 25 all-inclusive seven-day vacations at any Palace Resorts for a $75,000 value last year. The winner of each event got a trip if it was their first win of the year, and remaining trips were auctioned for charity. Trips will be awarded to each series winner this year, and Barnes said additional trips will be auctioned for both charity and purse additions.

The Cancun Convention & Visitor’s Bureau put up $50,000 last year for the Tour Championship at Moon Palace in Cancun, and Barnes expects a similar contribution this year. The tour finale attracted 35 players and was won by Jim Chancey, who topped the money list for the second year in a row with about $43,000 earned. The top 10 money winners received Titleist balls, gloves and hats for 2012.

Barnes said events averaged more than 30 players per tournament.

Most of the tournaments have an event sponsor, and Barnes hopes to get to the point in the next couple years where $10,000 will be added to every purse through sponsorships. The Cannonball Invitational in Virginia and Patriot Invitational in Pinehurst, N.C. – both in September – have $20,000 and $15,000 added to their purses, respectively, and have pro-ams built into tournament rounds.

Each event donates to charity, primarily through the pro-ams, which often include corporate participation. The Patriot is the most successful. Last year it donated $500,000 to families of paratroopers and special forces military members killed or injured in Afghanistan or Iraq, bringing a three-year total to $1 million.

“We’re looking at growing the tournament purses and growing the charitable donations at each event, and it seems to be working,” Barnes said.

Passport card popular

The Myrtle Beach Golf Passport discount card, offered by the Myrtle Beach Area Golf Course Owners Association, is selling at an unprecedented pace this year, reflecting the increasing popularity of discount cards in the area.

The passport is $42.50 including tax and is good through 2012. Residents of 10 South Carolina counties and four North Carolina counties in close proximity to the Grand Strand, or owners of second homes on the Strand, are eligible to buy the Passport.

MBAGCOA executive director George Hilliard said sales began in November and have been brisk through January, though a true comparison to past years can’t be made until March.

Nearly 10,000 Passports have been sold in each of the past three years, and there is no cap. “Certainly the mail we’ve received and people coming to the office has been robust. I think more than last year,” Hilliard said. “If things continue as they are we should equal or exceed [10,000].”

BMW readies for event

The Nationwide Tour’s $600,000 BMW Charity Pro-Am presented by SYNNEX Corporation, taking place May 17-20 at a trio of courses in the Greenville area, is accepting volunteers, selling tickets and aiding charities.

Volunteer registration began last Wednesday, and opportunities to volunteer include: hospitality, marshal, scoring and transportation. Volunteers as young as 14 can be standard bearers.

Individuals interested in volunteering should visit www.bmwcharitygolf.com. Registration is $40 through March 9 and $50 thereafter. The fee covers one tournament golf shirt, one cap or visor, one volunteer credential, one guest credential, one 2012 volunteer pin, and food and beverages while volunteering. Volunteers can donate $40 of the registration fee to one of the tournament’s charities by naming the charity in the “organization” area of the online or paper application.

Tournament tickets may be purchased at www.buybmwtickets.com. Charities will receive 100 percent of the funds from all Daily ($10), Patron ($25) and Clubhouse ($50) tickets. During the checkout process, buyers can choose a charitable beneficiary by selecting one of the 27 Upstate organizations from a pull-down menu.

Twosome and foursome spots are available for a pair of pro-ams Monday and Tuesday, and charities can receive half of a team’s entry fee. Contact Mike Ivester at 864-630-9276 or mivester@sccharities.org to reserve a team. Visit www.bmwcharitygolf.com or call 864-297-1660 for more information on the event that will be played at Thornblade Club, The Carolina Country Club and Greenville Country Club’s Chanticleer Course.

GAA opens fifth campus

Golf Academy of America (GAA), a two-year golf career college with one of four campuses in Myrtle Beach, has opened its doors in the north Dallas suburb of Farmers Branch, Texas. The new campus officially began classes with 20 students on Jan 6. The academy’s other campuses are located in Orlando, Phoenix, and San Diego.

GAA is a school that prepares graduates for a wide array of golf career opportunities by offering a comprehensive curriculum of golf instruction and business management. The 16-month program balances classroom studies, practical experience and a comprehensive understanding of both the game and the business of golf.