USGA makes U.S. Women’s Amateur Four-Ball site visit to The Dunes Club

The third U.S. Women’s Amateur Four-Ball Championship is still nearly seven months away, but national championships aren’t put together overnight, so three United States Golf Association staff members made a three-day site visit to The Dunes Golf and Beach Club last week.

Rachel Sadowski, the USGA’s championship director of both the U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur and U.S. Women’s Amateur Four-Ball, surveyed the golf course and met with club staff members and the heads of approximately 20 tournament-related committees.

The Dunes Club’s executive staff was given a 27-page agenda for the involved three-day visit.

“It’s really a good time for the USGA to help the club and guide them in what needs to be done in all those different committees,” Sadowski said. “It’s a lot of work for a club to put on a championship like this. We want to guide them as best we can and tell them what other clubs have done. We provide guidance to them on what the players like and what the players want to have a great experience here.”

The championship is scheduled for May 27-31 and will feature 64 teams (128 players) that will be cut to 32 teams following two rounds of best ball stroke play for a match play finish.

The third men’s U.S. Amateur Four-Ball Championship will be played concurrently at Pinehurst Resort in North Carolina. “The coverage from a media standpoint worldwide is going to be significant for the Carolinas that week,” said past Dunes Club President Jack Bonner, who is serving as the club’s championship general chairman. “It’s an exciting event to be holding in Myrtle Beach and exciting event to be hosting at The Dunes Club.”

Sadowski, a native of England, played on the Coastal Carolina women’s golf team from 2004-08 under her maiden name Rachel Graves. She tries to return to the area at least once a year. “I love Myrtle Beach, so any time I get to come back I’m very happy to,” Sadowski said.

She has a degree in recreation and sports management from CCU and is beginning her fourth season with the USGA. She worked for the American Junior Golf Association for six years before joining the USGA in April 2014.

She has run the first two versions of the Women’s Four-Ball, which has a two-player team best ball format, in 2015 at Bandon Dunes Golf Resort in Oregon and 2016 at Streamsong Golf Resort in Florida. The tournament was created to replace the U.S. Women’s Public Links Championship, which the USGA eliminated, along with the men’s Public Links Championship, after the 2014 tournament.

“We do try to keep consistencies amongst our championships, but being here in Myrtle Beach we want it to have that Myrtle Beach feel,” Sadowski said. “We want the club to incorporate things that are local and make it different and special so that it’s not exactly the same from the club [perspective] each year, but in terms of the structure from the USGA side, it’s going to be the same each year.”

Graves never played The Dunes Club during her time at Coastal, but is excited about its possibilities for the tournament, when it will likely be set up at approximately 6,200 yards.

“I know the players that are coming are going to love it,” Sadowski said. “It’s beautiful. It’s a great test of golf. There are a lot of opportunities in terms of how I set up the golf course to have a risk-reward, especially with the four-ball format where one can play conservatively and one can go for things. So I think this golf course sets up perfect for this kind of championship.”

She’ll work with Dunes Club superintendent Steve Hamilton on achieving desired green speeds, rough heights, firmness of the fairways, etc.

Dunes Club head pro Dennis Nicholl said the USGA asked the club to either overseed all rough or none, so the club has overseeded only tees and fairways, and will color greens with a pigment. The rough in May will be rejuvenated Bermudagrass coming out of winter dormancy.

The club and USGA are looking for more than 200 volunteers for the tournament in several capacities including transportation, communications, live scoring, practice facilities, registration, spotters, caddies (players are required to walk) and private housing.

Dunes Club members and club employees are chairing committees.

Michael Monahan, who will be graduating in December from Coastal Carolina’s PGA Golf Management Program and interned as an assistant at Whistling Straits, site of the 2015 PGA Championship, has been hired as the tournament’s volunteer chairman.

He is accepting volunteer inquiries at 843-449-5236 or USWAFBvolunteers@gmail.com.

The members of host clubs typically offer housing for participants of significant amateur tournaments, and “we’ll call on that wonderful amateur golf tradition and do that at the club,” Bonner said. The USGA has also reserved blocks of rooms at the Marriott for its staff and competitors.

South Carolina is already represented in the field. Dawn Woodard of Greer is paired with four-time U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur champion Meghan Stasi, and Furman University players Alice Chen and Taylor Totland are competing as a team and are exempt into the championship based on their World Amateur Golf Rankings.

A championship qualifier will be held Nov. 19 at Legend Oaks Golf Club in Summerville.

As it hosts the national women’s four-ball next year, The Dunes Club will be recognizing the 65th anniversary of its hosting of the 1962 U.S. Women’s Open, and 40th anniversary of the 1977 U.S. Senior Women’s Amateur Championship at the club.

Bonner said the USGA and PGA of America are actively seeking quality venues in the southeast as potential tournament hosts, and The Dunes Club is interested in other tournaments.

“I think the club would entertain any conversation of the beach hosting a national championship,” Bonner said.

DJ joins exhibition

Dustin Johson will have an opportunity to exact some revenge on Rory McIlroy for swindling his potential $10 million FedExCup bonus, though the stakes won’t be nearly as high – for the two competitors, anyway.

Johnson posted on Instagram on Monday that he was “thrilled” to be playing against Rory in Dustin vs. Rory: Battle for a Cause on Nov. 29 in Pampanga, Philippines. Johnson is replacing Jason Day in the charitable exhibition at Pradera Verde Golf and Country Club, from which proceeds will mainly go toward typhoon relief efforts.

Day’s mother is from the Philippines and he had family members die in the devastating typhoon in the area in 2013. A back injury is keeping the world No. 1 from participating, so No. 2 is filling in.

To participate, Johnson is expected to withdraw from the Hero World Challenge, which begins two days later on Dec. 1. Hosted by Tiger Woods in the Bahamas, the World Challenge typically features just 18 players who will be competing this year for a purse of $3.5 million.

The Philippines exhibition may be Johnson’s next event. He tied for 35th Sunday in the WGC-HSBC Champions in China in his first event since the Ryder Cup.

In late September, McIlroy won the Tour Championship in a three-man playoff to claim the FedExCup points championship. McIlroy holed out for eagle on the 16th hole and birdied the 18th to get into the playoff, then outlasted Kevin Chappell and Ryan Moore over four playoff holes to claim the $10 million bonus.

Had McIlroy not won, Johnson would have claimed the top bonus. Instead, he collected $3 million for finishing second in FedExCup points.

Golfsmith store closes

The Golfsmith retail store in North Myrtle Beach that was targeted to close as part of the parent company’s Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing in September was shut down on Oct. 23, leaving one location on the Grand Strand.

The future of that location, a three-year-old Golfsmith Xtreme store at the corner of U.S. 17 North and U.S. 501 South, is in limbo according to a Reuters report.

The news agency, citing sources familiar with the matter, reported that Dick’s Sporting Goods teamed with liquidators to win a bankruptcy auction for the U.S. business of Golfsmith International Holdings Inc. with a bid of about $70 million.

The sources, according to the Reuters report by Jessica DiNapoli, said Dick’s plans to keep open at least 30 Golfsmith stores and wind down the rest with liquidators from Hilco Global and Tiger Capital Group.

Golfsmith had 109 U.S. stores at the time of its bankruptcy filing last month, but identified about 20 it planned to close in October.

Dick’s appeared to be down on the golf business when it laid off all of its PGA of America-certified professionals in July 2014. Those laid off consisted of several hundred pros who handled sales, club fitting, club repair and instruction.

Dick’s already has its specialty golf shops called Golf Galaxy, which it acquired in 2007.

According to Reuters, Dick’s beat out a competing bid from Worldwide Golf Shops and liquidators from Great American Group LLC, which had also planned to carry forward about 30 Golfsmith stores and shutter the rest. Golfsmith was also considering reorganizing with the support of its existing lenders, which might have saved more locations.

Clark makes cut

Stuart Clark of Pawleys Island made the cut to the final two rounds of the 40th $100,000 Assistant PGA Professional Championship at the Wanamaker Course at PGA Golf Club in Port St. Lucie, Fla., tying for 66th Sunday at 14-over-par 302.

Clark, an instructor at the Steve Dresser Golf Academy at True Blue Golf Club, shot rounds of 76, 75, 77 and 74 and said his putter failed him all week. He earned $625 for his finish.

The 41-year-old North Alabama graduate qualified for the tournament by winning the National Car Rental Carolinas Assistant PGA Professional Championship in August at River Run Country Club in Davidson, N.C.

Campbell University alumnus Ben Polland of Deepdale Golf Club in Manhasset, N.Y., who has competed in the past two PGA Championships, won the national assistants title with a 7-under 281.

STT members move on

The developmental SwingThought Tour, headquartered on the north end of the Grand Strand, had 32 players advance to the Web.com Tour Qualifying Tournament’s Second Stage, which begins this week.

Those who advanced include SwingThought Tour money leader and two-time 2016 winner Anthony Maccaglia, two-time winner Jonathan Hodge and third-leading money winner Bruce Woodall – who both advanced through Florence Country Club – and 2016 SwingThought tournament winners Christian Brand, Justin Lower, Joey Garber and Grant Leaver.

Members Garber, Blake Sattler, Charlie Martin, Seth Reeves and J.T. Griffin all earned medalist or co-medalist honors at a first stage site.

The SwingThought Tour claims that on average more than 40 percent of PGA Tour fields and over 60 percent of Web.com Tour fields consist of SwingThought Tour alums. Last year, the SwingThought Tour had 87 current or former players earn status on the Web.com tour.

Zack Byrd of Murrells Inlet and Patrick Lundy of Little River compete in the second stage next week.

HJGT event registration

Wednesday is the deadline to enter the Hurricane Junior Golf Tour’s Military Appreciation Junior Shootout at Wild Wing Plantation’s Avocet Course on Nov. 12-13.

The tournament offers Junior Golf Scoreboard Ranking, S.C. Junior Golf Association and Tarheel Youth Golf Association points, and winners in each division receive an exemption into the 2016 Hurricane Tour Championship from Dec. 3-4.

The entry fee is $195 for tour members and $245 for non-members. Visit HJGT.org or call tournament organizer Joe Carbonell at 843-467-7191 to register.

A player meet and greet with a skills challenge will be hosted by the Myrtle Beach Junior Golf Foundation and HJGT at 4 p.m. Nov. 11 at the River Oaks Golf Plantation driving range.

Sloup honored

Ashley Sloup, a product of The First Tee of Brunswick Country from Southport, N.C., and Winthrop teammate Chelsea Dantonio were named the Big South Conference’s Women’s Co-Golfers of the Week for events played Oct. 20-26.

They tied for medalist honors at the Winthrop Intercollegiate with scores of 5-over 149. Sloup had rounds of 76-73 while Dantonio shot 73-76, and the duo helped Winthrop win the team title for their second consecutive tournament victory of the fall season.

Sloup, a junior, won two individual titles during her sophomore year and captured the Carolinas Women’s Amateur in May at The Reserve Club in Pawleys Island.

This story was originally published October 31, 2016 at 10:21 PM with the headline "USGA makes U.S. Women’s Amateur Four-Ball site visit to The Dunes Club."