On Grand Strand Golf: Myrtle Beach’s Yamamoto teeing it up on Web.com Tour

Yoshio Yamamoto is joining friend and fellow Myrtle Beach resident Roberto Diaz in the Web.com Tour’s $600,000 United Leasing Championship presented by PTI from Thursday through Sunday at Victoria National Golf Club in Newburgh, Ind.

Yamamoto, who like Diaz trains and plays out of the Greg Norman Champions Golf Academy at Barefoot Resort and has Scott Shobe as a swing instructor, qualified by tying for 12^th in the most recent Web.com Tour event, the $700,000 El Bosque Mexico Championship that concluded April 19.

Players who aren’t otherwise qualified earn a Web.com Tour start in the next tournament with a top-25 finish.

Yamamoto is a native of Mexico and qualified for the El Bosque event three weeks before the tournament through a 70-player qualifier reserved for Mexican players. The qualifier was a way for the El Bosque’s sponsor to award sponsor exemptions, and Yamamoto earned one of five available exemptions in a playoff.

In the Web.com tournament, Yamamoto shot three 70s and closed with a 69 for a 9-under 279 to finish eight strokes behind winner and Duke alum Wes Roach of Tennessee at El Bosque Golf Club in Leon, Mexico, and 13 strokes ahead of Diaz, who finished tied for 59^th.

“I struggled last year with my game. It was my worst year as a pro. I had to sit down and think about if I was going to keep doing this or not because I was struggling and wasn’t having fun,” Yamamoto said. “I decided to give it another shot and do things a little differently to try to have fun. About a month and a half ago all the things I was working on started coming together and I started seeing results.”

Yamamoto earned a helpful $13,300 with his best finish in three career Web.com events – all the El Bosque – and he’s made the cut in all three.

“It’s great to get another start,” Yamamoto said. “I’m very excited. I’m hoping to finish top 25 again, do the same thing and try to get status out there.”

Shobe plans to caddie for Yamamoto in Indiana. “He struggled towards the end of last season but he’s coming out of it and getting back to his good form of playing,” Shobe said, “and his putter’s getting hot, too.”

In addition to his opportunity on the Web.com, Yamamoto is also playing on PGA Tour Latinoamerica this season. Following the Indiana event, he plans to play in a Mexican Tour event in Veracruz, Mexico, then either play in a $175,000 LatinoAmerica Tour event in Mexico from May 14-17 or, preferably, the Web.com’s $675,000 BMW Charity Pro-Am in Greenville on the same dates.

Diaz began the season with Web.com conditional status and tied for sixth at an event in Colombia in early February to solidify his place through a reshuffle based on the money list following the fourth event of the season. He is 32^nd in 2015 Web.com earnings with $49,120.

Playing it forward

The USGA and PGA of America have created and supported the Play it Forward initiative, and few courses have adopted the concept more enthusiastically than the private DeBordieu Club in Georgetown.

The concept is designed to help golfers speed up play and have more fun by using tees that provide the ideal distance, playability and enjoyment.

As a result of a course improvement project last summer, DeBordieu now has six tee boxes that are numbered rather than color-coordinated to eliminate the stigma of playing what are often considered senior or women’s tees.

“The thing that has come of it is people are enjoying the game a lot more,” said DeBordieu head pro Matt Williams, who has been at the club 10 years, including the past year as head pro. “We have older guys shooting their age and playing like they’re 20 again because they are playing a distance that matches their abilities.

“I would say that 75 percent of our ladies have moved up to the most forward tee, which we created and measures roughly 4,500 yards, which is 600 yards less than the former forward tee. Men’s green and gold tees were the most popular, now people have moved up to 5 and 6 tee.”

The club previously had five tees, and it has also created two hybrid tees combining the different yardages that have been rated for course and slope ratings so the round can be counted for a handicap, giving women essentially three tee options.

“It has been very neat to see the enthusiasm our tee system has created for the members of our club. People are really starting to enjoy the game again,” Williams said. “In the PGA we always talk about how we can make the game more fun to get people to reenter the game and shoot lower scores.”

The summer course improvement project included a total resurfacing of the course. Greens were changed from bentgrass to MiniVerde ultradwarf Bermudagrass, TifGrand Bermuda is on green fringes and Celebration Bermuda is throughout fairways, roughs and tees. Bunkers received new sand and existing tee boxes were enlarged to increase options.

CCU adds Overas

Coastal Carolina men’s golf coach Kevin McPherson went a long way to sign his second commitment for the incoming 2015-16 class.

Daniel Overas of Norway signed this month to attend CCU next school year. He has been part of the Norwegian Golf Federation junior program since he was 14 and was one of six players on the Norway National Under-18 Team in 2013.

Among Overas’ accomplishments:

He finished fifth at the 2012 McGregor Trophy in England, one of the biggest tournaments for boys under the age of 16 in Europe; finished second and received a silver medal in the 2013 European Boys Team Championship in Scotland; won the finale of the 2014 Titleist Tour in Denmark, which featured the top 20 players from Norway’s top junior tour along with several international competitors and made up seven strokes in the final round; finished fourth on the 2014 Titleist Tour order of merit for players under 19, and eighth on the 2014/15 NorgesCup order of merit for players of all ages in Norway.

Luis Ruiz, a Mexico native attending the Greg Norman Champions Golf Academy at Barefoot Resort, signed a letter of intent in early November to attend CCU. He is the brother of CCU sophomore Alredo Ruiz and a member of the Mexican National Team.

Stenson headlining field

Henrik Stenson, the No. 3 player in the Official World Golf Ranking, is among the early commitments to the PGA Tour’s Wells Fargo Championship, being played May 14-17 at Quail Hollow Club in Charlotte, N.C.

Stenson hasn’t had much success at Quail Hollow. In four previous appearances, he tied for 69^th in 2007 and missed the cut each year from 2011-13.

The Swedish star has three top-four finishes in five starts this year. He has four PGA Tour victories and was the 2013 FedExCup Champion and has 10 wins on the European Tour. Adam Scott has withdrawn his name from the current commitment list, citing a May schedule change. The tournament is being played a couple weeks later in the season this year and is expected to return to its traditional dates on the first weekend in May next year.

Top players in the world rankings in the field now include Stenson (No. 3), Jim Furyk (No. 5), J.B. Holmes (No. 12), Hideki Matsuyama (No. 16), Phil Mickelson (No. 18), Kevin Na (No. 21), Bill Haas (No. 24), Ryan Moore (No. 29) and Hunter Mahan (No. 32).

Players have until 5 p.m. on Friday, May 8 to commit to the tournament.

Winners of PGA Tour events this season who have committed to the event include Furyk (RBC Heritage), Haas (Humana Challenge), James Hahn (Northern Trust), Padraig Harrington (Honda Classic), Alex Cejka (Puerto Rico Open), Matt Every (Arnold Palmer Invitational) and Holmes (Shell Houston Open).

Tickets and hospitality options are available at www.wellsfargochampionship.com or by calling 1-800-945-0777. Children ages 12 and under are admitted free with a paid adult admission – one child per paying adult.

A fitting honor

The Steve Dresser Golf Academy in Pawleys Island has again been named to Golf Digest’s biennial list of America’s Best 100 Club Fitters. The list was created in 2011 and Dresser’s academy is the only business on the Grand Strand to be named to all three incarnations of the list.

Dresser said staff members Bill Forbes and Chris Daily do the bulk of the academy’s club fittings.

The school offers private Trackman fittings by appointment and free demo days every Tuesday from 2-5 p.m. Fitting carts from Cobra, Ping, Taylormade and Tour Edge/Exotics are on site and Dresser said the academy is the only Titleist Advanced Fitting Works Center in South Carolina. More information on the academy can be found at www.dressergolf.com.

Kids get course

The U.S. Kids Golf Foundation has completed its purchase of Longleaf Golf and Country Club in Southern Pines, N.C., and plans to make the course a model children’s golf academy and family club.

The sale includes the Dan Maples-designed 18-hole golf course, driving range, clubhouse, tennis courts, swimming pool and croquet court, totaling 175 acres. The club is being renamed Longleaf Golf & Family Club.

Longleaf has been among the courses used for U.S. Kids Golf’s world championship, held annually in Pinehurst. U.S. Kids Golf is based in Atlanta.

This story was originally published April 27, 2015 at 9:54 PM with the headline "On Grand Strand Golf: Myrtle Beach’s Yamamoto teeing it up on Web.com Tour."