Coastal Players Tour beginning its most ambitious season yet in 2017

Buddy Wilkins started the Coastal Players Tour in 2012 as a low-budget local tour predominantly for professionals on and around the Grand Strand.

The tour extended its reach last year by adding partner Daniel Davis from Raleigh, N.C., and adding tournaments in the areas of Pinehurst and Raleigh, and the tour co-owners are embarking on the tour’s most ambitious season yet in 2017.

In its sixth season, the Coastal Players Tour has retained title sponsor Srixon for a second season, has a few other sponsors that will help bolster tournament purses and offer guaranteed first-place checks, and has a 20-event schedule that tees off this weekend.

The opening event Saturday and Sunday at Arcadian Shores Golf Club has a $3,000 guaranteed first-place payout regardless of field size.

“I think what’s going to set us apart is a guarantee,” Wilkins said. “The money is there before the first player enters. We’ve done some good things. Our sponsors have stepped up and we’ve made it worthwhile to play. We want to be different and set apart from other tours.”

Tour sponsors include the Fred Smith Company, which owns and operates a series of golf courses and athletic clubs in North Carolina, the Tee-On Golf Systems golf management softward company, Black Clover’s Live Lucky sportswear and golf apparel division, and the Great Clips hair salons. Some individual events have sponsors, including Auddie Brown Chevrolet for an event at the Country Club of South Carolina in Florence.

A reworked tour website will include a money list and accept entry fee payments.

Most events will be two days and 36 holes. Events in the Myrtle Beach area include the opener and events April 8-9 at River Hills Golf & Country Club, May 13 at Carolina National Golf Club, a major from May 19-21 at Pawleys Plantation, June 10-11 at Wild Wing Plantation, a Stableford scoring event June 24 at International World Tour Golf Links, and July 8-9 at Carolina National Golf Club.

There will be a few one-day tournaments and four three-day majors with cuts after 36 holes to the low 60 percent of the field and ties.

The other majors are July 14-16 at N.C. State’s Lonnie Poole Course, Aug. 25-27 at River Landing in Wallace, N.C., which is a U.S. Open qualifying site, and the Tour Championship at the private Scotch Hall Preserve in Merry Hill, N.C., which has four-bedroom homes available to players for $150 per night.

Entry fees are generally $425 for two-day events and $525 for majors, and amateurs can play for reduced rates.

Wilkins, a Strand resident whose full-time job is an asset manager for 22 corporately-owned car dealerships headquartered in Indiana, will manage the events around the Strand and Davis, who owns several golf course pro shops and played the Coastal Players Tour for four years, will operate most of the North Carolina events.

Wilkins said he, Davis and industry veteran Vince Dunn of Southern Pines, N.C., who is the tour’s first-tee announcer, met in early December to plan the 2017 season.

Wilkins said Dunn and Davis convinced him to pay more in purses, but Wilkins insisted on keeping entry fees reasonable. “We have been able to structure so entry fees are half of what other tours are, yet our payouts can be the same or exceed other tours,” said Wilkins, who said at least 92 percent of income after course expenses will be paid to 33 percent of the fields. “And we have some fantastic golf courses.”

Through Davis, Coastal Players Tour members can receive gear at wholesale prices.

Wilkins considers the tour a grooming ground for aspiring professionals. “It’s rewarding to me to see some of our alumnus do well on the next level,” Wilkins said. “That’s what our tour is about is seeing these guys excel and extend their careers.”

The tour has been around long enough now to have some notable alums.

Among them, Grayson Murray of Raleigh and Arizona State has a pair of top-12 finishes this season on the PGA Tour at the Sanderson Farms Championship in October and CareerBuilder Challenge in January, former Myrtle Beach resident Roberto Diaz is fifth on the Webcom Tour money list, Jared Wolfe of Louisville is fourth on this season’s PGA Tour LatinoAmerica money list, and Zack Byrd of Murrells Inlet has qualified for the Sunshine Tour in South Africa.

Romo playing in S.C.

Nobody seems to know where Tony Romo will be playing football next season, but we know where he’ll be playing golf in South Carolina this week.

Romo, the 36-year-old quarterback who is still employed by the Dallas Cowboys, is entered in the Azalea Invitational amateur tournament Thursday through Sunday at the Country Club of Charleston.

Romo, who has said being a club pro was a fallback career to football and would consider playing professionally when his football career is over, was a plus-handicap but said in 2014 he had given up the game to preserve his back for football.

Apparently his back is feeling much better.

Romo is paired in the first round with Rob Wilson of Mount Pleasant and Thomas Lehman, the son of 1996 British Open champion and former world No. 1 Tom Lehman. The elder Lehman caddied for his son at last year’s Azalea.

Roy Hunter of Georgetown and Jeff Knox of Augusta, Ga., who has regularly beaten playing partners as a weekend marker in Masters tournaments, are also entered.

Aberdeen reopening

Aberdeen Country Club on S.C. 9 in Longs will reopen Wednesday. The course has been closed since it was affected by flooding in the aftermath of Hurricane Matthew in early October and is reopening with a rebuilt clubhouse.

The 4,000-square-foot clubhouse has been redesigned as a sports-bar style restaurant with four large TV screens. It will feature a full-service menu along with daily drink specials.

Aberdeen is adjacent to the protected Waccamaw riverfront preserve and loops around wetlands and creeks populated by cypress trees. The course, which is operated by Founders Group International, also has a new logo featuring a red dragon.

Snagging MAM spots

Keegan Vaugh of Myrtle Beach, Matthew Griego of North Myrtle Beach and Braeden Barnett of Galivants Ferry have earned caddie spots in the 23rd annual Hootie & The Blowfish Monday After the Masters Celebrity Pro-Am on April 10 at Barefoot Resort’s Dye Club.

They earned the opportunity to caddie with high finishes Sunday in the “Papa Ed” Caddie Classic at the Members Club at Wildewood in Columbia. Thirty-six junior golfers earned the spots.

Bronson Myers of Columbia was on a waiting list as of Saturday but got into the field when a player withdrew and won the tournament by two shots with a 1-under 71.

In the boys division, Vaugh tied for sixth with a 77, Griego tied for 18th with an 80 and Barnett tied for seventh with an 82.

Each group in the Hootie MAM features a touring golf professional and additional celebrity as well as a few amateurs, and caddies get to choose their teams based on their finish in the Caddie Classic.

Palmetto upcoming

The 19th annual Palmetto High School Golf Championship is accepting individual entries from area juniors who will not be participating with a high school team.

The 54-hole, college-style tournament will be played April 13-15 on True Blue Golf Club and Caledonia Golf & Fish Club, which have both been ranked among America’s top 100 public courses.

The event, which counts PGA Tour players Rickie Fowler and Harris English among its alumni, has already attracted 28 teams from seven states, including Colorado and Texas.

The entry fee is $250 and will include two rounds at True Blue, one at Caledonia and a gift bag that features a nexbelt. The registration deadline is Thursday. An optional coaches tournament is available as well. More information can be found at PalmettoHSgolf.com.

Seniors defend at Reserve

The Reserve Club in Pawleys Island hosted the 68-team South Carolina Golf Association’s 24th S.C. Senior Four-Ball Championship last week, and Walter Todd of Laurens and Eddie Hargett of Blythewood successfully defended their title with a birdie on the first hole of a sudden-death playoff over Todd Hendley and Bobby Hines of Greer. The teams tied for the lead at 12-under 132.

The title marks the fourth SCGA Senior Partners event that Todd and Hargett, who are both 56, have combined to win as they’ve won the 2015 and 2016 Senior Better Ball along with the 2016 and 2017 Senior Four-Ball.

Sammy Truett of Surfside Beach and Bert Atkinson of Charleston tied for third at 7-under 137, and Jim Burgess of Murrells Inlet teamed with Kevin King of Bluffton to finish sixth at 139. John Long of Murrells Inlet and Tim Teaster of Columbia won the first flight with a 142.

This story was originally published March 27, 2017 at 10:09 PM with the headline "Coastal Players Tour beginning its most ambitious season yet in 2017."