On Grand Strand Golf: Opportunities for female golfers growing in the Myrtle Beach area

Many golf industry leaders believe an increase in female participation is imperative for the future growth of the game overall, and opportunities for women in the Myrtle Beach area are growing.

A meeting is being held this week to revive the local chapter of the Executive Women’s Golf Association, the Carolinas Golf Association has kicked off a new annual series of tournaments for women, and the Women’s South Carolina Golf Association will be staging more than 40 events in 2016, including some on the Grand Strand.

The Myrtle Beach chapter of the EWGA was founded in 1994 but hasn’t been active since last fall.

A free meeting to provide information is being held at 5:30 p.m. Thursday at International World Tour Golf Links and will feature speaker Mimi Lenio, an EWGA chapter development specialist and past president of the organization’s chapter in Daytona Beach, Fla. Golf experience is not required to attend the meeting.

Myrtle Beach resident Shan Coughlin is assisting with the organization of the meeting and reorganization of the local chapter. She is a show host and sales and marketing director for The Golf Director (thegolfdirector.com), a Strand-based internet golf marketing and vacation package company with a multimedia entertainment network component

“If there’s no interest then maybe there’s no reason to pursue it in this area,” Coughlin said. “If there is interest our next step will be to get events scheduled.

“… Our push moving forward is to try to target women who are in the work force or have retired and can be mentors for people in the work force. We want to make it an opportunity for women who do work to meet people and have a chance to network.”

To accommodate working women’s schedules, EWGA chapter events will generally be nine holes in early evening hours on weekdays and either nine or 18 holes on weekends.

“Some of the women who were previously involved with the EWGA still get together and play golf,” Coughlin said. “That’s what it’s really all about, finding a group you enjoy playing with and staying involved in the game.”

Karen Carlson, an EWGA chapter development representative who has been an EWGA member since 1997 and employee since 2007, said the Myrtle Beach chapter became inactive largely because its members aged and were no longer interested in holding executive positions. Organizers are hoping to identify leaders for the local chapter at Thursday’s meeting.

“When people retire they can play whenever and wherever they want,” Carlson said. “We focus on the working woman, so we … focus on women who can’t get together at any time. It’s a different demographic that’s coming back to the group, which isn’t unusual for chapters.”

There are three levels of EWGA membership. A traditional Classic membership is $135 annually, a Young Professional membership (ages 18-30) is $75, and Senior memberships are initially $125 and $100 to renew.

There are more than 100 EWGA chapters in the U.S., and others in Canada, South Africa, Ireland and Bermuda.

Membership has several benefits including an opportunity to play in national and regional tournaments, access to EWGA-affiliated establishments and facilities including ClubCorp courses and the BoxGroove.com collection of dining clubs and private courses, and free entry into LPGA Tour tournaments.

For more information on the EWGA local chapter, contact Coughlin at 843-685-2867 or shan@inetgolf.com

EWGA members may be interested in joining other women in the new Race to the Carolinas Cup, a season-long points competition consisting of at least 12 CGA Ladies’ Four Ball Play Days that have been created for the points competition.

There were 31 two-player teams at the inaugural better ball event Monday at Croasdaile Country Club in Durham, N.C. The next event is May 10 at Mid Pines Golf Club in Southern Pines, N.C., the third will be May 27 at the Founders Club at Pawleys Island, and the final event of the regular season is scheduled for Nov. 10 at Burning Ridge Golf Club in Conway.

The events are $140 each, are flighted by team handicap, and include gross and net prizes and lunch. They are for CGA members of all abilities ages 13 and older. The invitational Carolinas Cup Tournament for all four ball participants is scheduled for Pinehurst Resort’s No. 1 course on Dec. 11. For more information visit www.carolinasgolf.org.

The Women’s South Carolina Golf Association will stage a series of one-day tournaments throughout the state and several multi-round championships.

It is currently conducting its Team Championship for two-women teams at Palmetto Hall Plantation in Hilton Head Island through Tuesday, and a Carolinas Net Championship is scheduled Nov. 12-13 at Pine Lakes Country Club.

Founded in 1949, the WSCGA is a non-profit organization based in Mount Pleasant that is comprised of local women’s golf associations throughout the state. Membership has grown to include more than 140 member associations with more than 12,000 females receiving WSCGA handicaps.

Girls tour expands

The WSCGA is also trying to expand opportunities for junior girls, and through its Junior Golf Foundation it has partnered the Charlotte-based Peggy Kirk Bell Girls Golf Tour (PKBGT) to expand into South Carolina with six one-day Saturday sessions.

The six sessions in 2016 will be in the Upstate and central areas of S.C., though tour director Mike Parker said he hopes to expand the sessions to the coastal region in 2017.

The tour is coming to the Strand this summer for a two-day open championship sponsored by 2GG Apparel from July 16-17 at the General Hackler Course at Coastal Carolina.

Players ages 12-18 are eligible for the event. Tour membership costs $60 and the event has a $169 entry fee. The tournament will include a collegiate series for players ages 19-23. Visit www.pkggt.org for more information.

Women’s Open qualifying

The closest sectional qualifier to the Grand Strand for the 2016 U.S. Women’s Open will be held at Carolina Trace Country Club’s Lake Course in Sanford, N.C., on May 25.

Sectional qualifying, conducted over 36 holes, will take place at 21 U.S. sites and four international sites between May 9 and June 3. The championship is open to female professionals, and female amateur golfers with a Handicap Index of 2.4 or better.

The entry deadline is 5 p.m. on May 4 and player applications are available at https://champs.usga.org/index.html. The U.S. Women’s Open will be conducted July 7-10 at CordeValle in San Martin, Calif.

Arcadian gets clubhouse

For those who have feared that Arcadian Shores Golf Club would soon be closing either for redevelopment or following a sale, they can be reassured that it will remain open by an investment being made by course owner Burroughs & Chapin Co.

The first solo design of Rees Jones will soon have a new clubhouse. Construction will begin in the near future and the new clubhouse could be open by late summer.

The existing clubhouse is the original one from the course’s 1974 opening. It is adjacent to the site of the new clubhouse and will be utilized for storage and other uses during construction. It will also be renovated and continue to be used for cart storage in the future.

“B&C recognizes the importance of Arcadian Shores to the community,” said Arcadian Shores general manager Frank Coughlin. “It's also time for a new clubhouse. We want to improve the customer experience.”

Coughlin intimated more improvements could be coming. “We continue to have discussions about what other steps we can take at Arcadian Shores,” he said.

The new 3,500-square-foot Lowcountry-style clubhouse is expected to include an 18-foot wraparound porch overlooking the 18th green.

Arcadian Shores was operated by National Golf Management through a lease agreement with B&C until NGM sold most of its golf-related assets in April 2015 to Founders Group International, a company led by investors from China.

In 2012, Jones met with National Golf Management representatives to discuss formulating a course restoration plan that he was interested in leading, but the plan has yet to be implemented.

A new $50 Arcadian Shores player card includes 72-hour rates for $36 and $30, an annual USGA handicap subscription, 20 percent discounts on merchandise and food and beverage, and discounts on some local par-3 and mini-golf courses.

“B&C is not trying to sell Arcadian Shores,” Coughlin said. “We've always been proud to own it. It's a great layout in a great location with a distinguished history.”

Ryder Cup bound

Horry-Georgetown Technical College Golf & Turf Management Program professor Charles Granger will be putting his lessons into practice the week of Sept. 26-Oct. 2 when he works the 41st Ryder Cup at Hazeltine National Golf Club in Chaska, Minn.

Granger has been selected to work on the agronomy staff of Hazeltine superintendent Chris Tritabaugh, whom he met while both were working the 2014 PGA Championship at Valhalla in Kentucky.

Granger, 43, is one of just 30 on the staff who reside outside Minnesota, and he and Frank Rossi of Cornell are the only two educators on the staff.

“It’s pretty neat. It’s a huge honor for me to go up there and be a part of Chris’ team and be able to represent the superintendents in this area,” Granger said. “It’s only once every four years in the United States, and it’s easy to argue it might be the best golf event in the world. For team play you can’t compare it.”

Granger hasn’t been assigned duties yet, but expects to handle data collection including green Stimpmeter, firmness and moisture readings.

He has taught at HGTC since January 2014 after teaching a couple years at Vincennes University in Indiana. Granger graduated from HGTC in 1994 and worked on the maintenance staffs at Wild Wing Plantation, Man O’War and Wizard before earning a bachelor’s degree at Tennessee Tech and master’s degree at Iowa State.

At the Ryder Cup, he’ll reunite with superintendents he knows from around the world, including Paul Jenkins of the United Kingdom.

“I get to run back into people internationally I’ve made relationships with at other tournaments, and isn’t that what the Ryder Cup’s all about?” Granger said. “That’s what makes the whole event great.”

S.C. juniors prevail

With contributions from a pair of Murrells Inlet residents, a team consisting of the top juniors in South Carolina defeated their counterparts from Ontario, Canada, on Sunday in the 18th annual Can-Am Junior Team Matches at Wachesaw Plantation Club.

Smith Knaffle won her Sunday singles match and halved her Saturday four ball match with partner Jodee Tindal of Rock Hill, and Patrick Golden halved his singles match and won his four ball match with partner Christian Salzer of Sumter.

The 16-member teams consist of the top eight boys and top eight girls from their respective regions, and the 221.5-210.5 win gave the S.C. team a 15-3 advantage in the competition.

The matches were tied after the opening day and the final score was the closest it has been since 2010, when the Ontario juniors captured the Joseph T. Simons Can Am Trophy.

Among the interesting happenings in the event, Canadian Peyton Callens made the first hole-in-one in the history of the matches by holing a hybrid on the 210-yard 17th hole Sunday en route to a singles win, and Canadian Monet Chun won her Sunday match despite losing her 9-iron when it flew out of her hands and into a pond on the par-3 seventh hole during heavy rain.

Hootie caddies set

Caddies for the Hootie & the Blowfish Monday After the Masters Celebrity Pro-Am were determined Saturday in the 23rd annual Caddie Classic at The Windermere Club in Blythewood, and Matthew Griego of North Myrtle Beach and Hannah Fesperman of Georgetown will have early selections of the teams for which they will caddy.

Griego finished in a four-way tie for second in the overall boys division and Fesperman tied for third in the girls division, and the qualifiers get to choose their team – which includes a touring pro, celebrity and four amateurs – based on the order of finish.

Grant Sellers of McBee and Jalen Castle of West Columbia earned the first picks. Sellers won the boys division with a 75, and Castle won the girls division with a 78 in just her second S.C. Junior Golf Association start since having a procedure called Anterior Vertebral Body Tethering to fix her spine in 2015.

Griego shot a 78 and Fesperman shot an 82. Kelli Smith of Murrells Inlet also earned a spot by tying for 12th in the girls division with a 90.

This story was originally published March 21, 2016 at 5:41 PM with the headline "On Grand Strand Golf: Opportunities for female golfers growing in the Myrtle Beach area."