NBA veteran Ramon Sessions to hold his sixth annual golf tournament

NBA veteran and Myrtle Beach High graduate Ramon Sessions will be in his hometown on June 17 for his sixth annual benefit golf tournament at River Oaks Golf Plantation, and he’ll have some basketball-related prizes.

Sessions will be both a host and participant in the four-person captain’s choice scramble event, which has an entry fee of just $50, and he’s not shy about his intentions.

“I haven’t won yet but I’m always going to try to win,” Sessions said Monday.

The entry fee includes breakfast, lunch, a gift bag and prizes to the top teams and skills contest winners. Hole sponsorships for $125 are also available.

In addition to golf clubs, hotel stays, dinners and golf, raffle prizes will include a signed NBA jersey and four tickets to two different Charlotte Hornets games, and after each game Sessions will hold a meet and greet with the recipients, when they’ll likely have an opportunity to meet other members of the team.

The purpose of the golf tournament is to raise money for the Myrtle Beach High athletic department.

“Whatever we accumulate I’m going to double it, and come basketball season I’m going to give it back to the athletic department,” Sessions said. “I can’t be in the community all the time but when I do come back I want to have different events and give back to the community.”

Interested players can contact tournament coordinator Danny Gray at 843-685-5071 or 843-236-2222.

Sessions has one year remaining on a contract with the Charlotte Hornets and will be in his 11th NBA season next season.

After every season he has returned to Myrtle Beach to assist the community.

He had three days of events this past Memorial Day weekend. He held a public cookout for the ninth year Friday in the Racepath community, held a bowling tournament at Myrtle Beach Bowl on Saturday, and on Sunday held a field day for kids in a park in Racepath and softball tournament for adults.

His 10th annual basketball camp is June 19-22 from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. each day at the Myrtle Beach Sports Center.

The cost is $76, which reflects the age Sessions’ late high school basketball coach Buddy Rogers would be this year. The cost was initially $66 when Rogers would have been 66 and increases $1 per year.

Sessions holds annual basketball camps in Myrtle Beach and Reno, Nev., where he attended the University of Nevada, and to commemorate the 10th year of the camp he is flying six kids from Reno to the Myrtle Beach camp, and flying six kids from Myrtle Beach to the Reno camp.

All proceeds from the basketball camp go to the Buddy Rogers Scholarship Fund, and Sessions takes part in the selection of the recipient, which is either a tennis or basketball player, reflecting two sports Rogers coached.

Coastal Carolina coach Cliff Ellis is expected to take part in the camp, at least as a speaker.

A day for women

Organizers of the second annual International Women’s Golf Day taking place Tuesday say the event has grown in scope and size, increasing its global reach 68 percent in only its second year to now include events at more than 700 locations in 46 countries.

The event is designed for each location to include a two-hour golf clinic or a nine-hole round of golf, then culminate with a two-hour social affair where the expected 30,000-plus participating women can network and socialize.

The Grand Strand will have at least one location, though the Greg Norman Champions Academy at Barefoot Resort canceled its second annual event because of expected thunderstorms in the afternoon. It had about 50 women registered.

PGA Tour Superstore’s Myrtle Beach location is scheduled to host an indoor event from 4-8 p.m. that will include an hour of instruction, closest to the pin contests on golf simulators and putting contests on indoor putting greens, and a couple hours for social interaction.

“If the weather is bad tomorrow the participants at other locations can come to our stores and we’ll accommodate them,” said Rick Richard, PGA Tour Superstore’s Myrtle Beach events and marketing manager.

Women's Golf Day (WGD) is a global golf initiative launched in 2016 to introduce women of all ages and abilities to the game. The inaugural one-day, four-hour event spanned 28 countries in 485 locations, including the Norman Champions Academy and local PGA Tour Superstore locations.

Partners and supporting organizations of the event include the International Golf Federation, World Golf Foundation, LPGA, Ladies European Tour, European Tour Properties, TPC, National Golf Course Owners Association, European GCOA, ClubCorp, Billy Casper Golf, PGA Tour Superstore, Ahead, Executive Women’s Golf Association, Women in Games International, International Council of Nurses, All Square, Expert Golf and Troon International.

Women interested in participating can register at womensgolfday.com or visit @womensgolfday on Twitter for more information.

Salute to Veterans

The 18th annual Veterans Golf Classic has attracted 332 players from 29 states, as well as organized patriotic support from residents in the Long Bay Club community.

The tournament is being played on nine Myrtle Beach area golf courses from Monday through Wednesday.

On Wednesday, Long Bay community members will gather at homes near the 16th green to greet participating veterans with a photograph of each group, home-baked muffins and cookies, hotdogs, other food and a myriad of drink options.

Community members have donated enough money to also provide embroidered hats and golf towels to the participants.

As part of the Long Bay 16th Hole Salute to Veterans, homeowners are encouraged to decorate their homes and yards with flags and patriotic colors.

“We’ve had tremendous support from the community,” said Sandy Young, an organizer of the support. “The phone keeps ringing and the door bell keeps ringing.

“The more people we have to thank them for their service and sacrifice the better.”

The organized greeting was done for a few years on the 14th hole and included an American flag painted into the fairway. Long Bay did not host tournament rounds for three years but the event is back and the support has moved to the 16th hole.

“They’ve really appreciated it and we’ve heard many things back from people,” said Dave Roessler, who served in Vietnam with the U.S. Navy and lives behind the 16th green. “They spread the word and it’s a really a nice thing to do . It’s something we look forward to and we’ve missed it the last three years.”

The 54-hole, two-person team Veterans Golf Classic is open to all current and former members of the military and their friends. States with the most players represented are South Carolina with 88, North Carolina (61), Florida (36), Virginia (19), Georgia (15), Ohio (14) and Alabama (12).

The elder statesman of the participants is 88-year-old Vann Halbrooks, an Army veteran from Fairfax, Va.

The event features a different format of play each day – better ball, combined net team score and scramble – and each team must include at least one current or former member of the armed forces. Players are placed into one of four flights – Eisenhower, MacArthur, Nimitz and Franks – based on their handicap.

The host courses for this year’s event are Shaftesbury Glen Golf & Fish Club, Barefoot Resort Norman Course, Wild Wing Avocet, Prestwick Country Club, International Club of Myrtle Beach, The Witch Golf Links, Thistle Golf Club, Sandpiper Bay Golf Club and Long Bay Club. All nine have earned at least four stars in Golf Digest’s Best Places to Play Guide.

The event, operated by Myrtle Beach Golf Holiday, includes a Sunday welcome reception, tournament gift bag and Wednesday night awards banquet and dinner at Crown Reef Resort, during which the colors of each service branch – Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines and Coast Guard – are presented.

Tournaments within the tournament include the Branch Challenge that pits the five branches against each other, and the Carolina Cup, which matches members of the VFW against the American Legion. Visit http://veteransclassicgolf.com for more information.

Pro-am upcoming

The Rich Jacobs Memorial Grand Strand Pro-Am is being held June 21 at Arrowhead Country Club for the 11th year, and the fourth as a memorial to Jacobs, a former owner of the Myrtle Beach Golf Desk package company who organized the event until he died in March 2013 after a battle with cancer.

The tournament benefits three Helping Hand locations on the Grand Strand, which assist people in need in the community with several services and referrals to appropriate agencies.

The event is a pro-am featuring Grand Strand club and teaching pros paired with three amateurs per team, with a field limit of 32 teams. The event has been a sellout in recent years.

There are two tournaments in one, as pros compete in 18 holes of stroke play to qualify for a nine-hole shootout, while the four-player teams count the best low gross and low net per hole in the team competition.

The entry fee is $150 for pros and $100 for amateurs, with an additional request of four cans of food per participant. Lunch and refreshments are provided. There is a 9 a.m. shotgun start. Interested players or sponsors can contact Mark Stoneking at 800-642-3108.

This story was originally published June 5, 2017 at 9:24 PM with the headline "NBA veteran Ramon Sessions to hold his sixth annual golf tournament."