On Grand Strand Golf: CCU men strengthen bond with Dunes Club, move Hackler tournament
The Coastal Carolina University men’s golf team is forging a stronger relationship with The Dunes Golf and Beach Club under coach Kevin McPherson, and that includes moving the program’s General Jim Hackler Championship to the iconic semi-private Myrtle Beach course.
The Hackler Championship, which began in 2002, will be played for the first time at The Dunes Club on March 9-10.
“I knew down the road if there was an opportunity to move it to The Dunes it would take the event to the next level,” McPherson said. “The Dunes Club allows us to take this tournament from being a good, solid college tournament to a great collegiate event. We can roll out the red carpet to teams committed to the tournament. It’s a great thing for us.”
The Hackler was first played on the Grande Dunes Resort Course but has been played at the TPC Myrtle Beach for 12 of the past 13 years, and last year McPherson committed to bringing it back there in 2015.
CCU alumnus Chip Smith had been an owner of the TPC for several years and has been a strong supporter of his alma mater’s men’s golf program, but he and co-owner Danny Young recently sold the TPC to a group of investors from China.
The Dunes Club board agreed to host the Hackler this year, and head pro Dennis Nicholl said the club will consider hosting it in future years.
“We’ll get through one year and assess if it was good for the club and good for the membership,” Nicholl said. “Like anything we want to dip our toe in the water at first and we’ll see if the membership likes it.”
McPherson is confident the tournament will be successful and remain at The Dunes Club.
“A lot of our boosters are members at The Dunes Club and play out there. We have a fair number of supporters out there,” McPherson said. “In the long term, I think The Dunes Club is a strong enough golf course to host NCAA regionals or one day – it may be 20 years down the road – it could host the NCAA nationals. We’re just excited to be out there and be able to showcase it.”
The Hackler attracted a mild level of spectator support in its years at the TPC, and McPherson believes member interest and a more central location can increase attendance, which is free. He said the participating teams will be staying in oceanfront rooms at The Caravelle hotel.
“With the location and the golf course itself, we’ve got a little more to offer now,” McPherson said. “Hopefully in the near future we’re having to turn down 40 or 50 of the best universities in the country.”
The Dunes Club is ranked No. 50 in Golf Digest’s rating of America’s 100 Greatest Public Courses and was recently named by the USGA as host of the 2017 U.S. Women’s Amateur Four-Ball Championship. The club will also be hosting the 2016 Southern Amateur.
This year’s 15-team Hackler tournament includes NC State, Charlotte, Cincinnati, East Carolina, East Tennessee State, Iowa State, Jacksonville, Kent State, North Florida, North Texas, USC Upstate, Winthrop, Charleston Southern and defending champion Middle Tennessee State.
McPherson must balance reciprocal invitations with other invites, as the Chants play in events hosted by ETSU, North Florida (at Sawgrass Country Club), Charleston Southern (at Kiawah Island) and Jacksonville (at TPC Sawgrass). He hopes to improve the overall quality of the field in 2016. “I think there will be a lot more talk out there about it being a great event and I think it will make a difference next year,” McPherson said.
The Hackler tournament includes a preceding college-am on the afternoon of Sunday, March 8, and at least one player from each participating college will play with a foursome. There are still a few spots for amateur teams remaining at a tax-deductible cost of $1,000 per foursome ($1,200 with hole sign), and Dunes Club members have an allotment of teams for $500 each. Participants receive an adidas-CCU pullover, awards and a dinner at The Dunes Club. “It’s a great setup for us,” McPherson said.
Rhett Graham, the director of development for the Chanticleer Athletic Foundation, played golf at CCU and has helped organize the college-am.
It’s fitting that the Hackler Championship is being played at The Dunes Club, considering Jim Hackler gave generously to CCU and was instrumental in the university developing a PGA Golf Management Program, and he was a Dunes Club member, club champion and the club’s president in 1982. His son, Joe, is a current member at The Dunes Club, which is also the home course of the Myrtle Beach High boys and girls teams.
The Hackler tournament is just part of a closer relationship between CCU’s men’s golf team and the club.
McPherson, the brother of LPGA Tour member Kristy McPherson, grew up in Conway so he has more inherent ties to The Dunes Club and some of its members than former 13-year CCU coach Allen Terrell. McPherson succeeded Terrell in Sept. 2013.
McPherson arranged for a membership at the club that allows his team to play rounds on the challenging course each Tuesday and Saturday, and he can utilize the property in the recruiting process. McPherson has taken recruits and their parents to lunch at the club, which overlooks the ocean. “If you’re recruiting to Myrtle Beach, you want to show them the beach and the best golf course in Myrtle Beach,” McPherson said.
Nicholl said The Dunes Club has always been welcoming to CCU, and allowed Terrell’s teams to play there, but it was generally just a couple times a year.
“When Allen was coaching at Coastal, we had a good relationship but they had a close bond with the TPC. When Kevin took over, he has connections here with members,” explained Nicholl, who said Tuesday afternoons were identified as slower times for member and guest play.
“It’s kind of an open door to support Coastal. A lot of our members have a connection to Coastal and the program so it’s a good fit. There are members that really want to support a local university and I think we should.”
The Chants begin their spring season next Monday at Jacksonville’s Seabest Invitational in Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla. Though McPherson said his team recorded an impressive team grade-point average in the fall of 3.49, the results on the course weren’t as impressive, as the Chants finished between sixth and 16th in four events.
“We certainly didn’t play to our ability. We just didn’t connect all the dots and put it all together when we needed to,” McPherson said. “We’ve got a strong enough team to where if we start rallying and play well as a team, we’ve got the potential to make NCAA postseason and win the conference, it’s just getting off to a better start than we did in the fall, then we can feed off of that.”
CCU has some individual talent. Seniors Andrew Dorn and Ben Wheeler will join the team just in time for Monday’s opening round after playing in the invitation-only Jones Cup in Sea Island, Ga. Dorn played in the 2014 U.S. Open, and in October, Wheeler was one of six players selected to the English National Team.
The Chants lost a couple players to transfers over the winter, including the reigning junior college player of the year in Vinnie Murphy, a Washington state native who McPherson said returned to South Mountain Community College in Phoenix after just one semester at CCU. “He was a great pickup for us,” McPherson said. “It was difficult to convince him in the first place to come all the way to the East Coast.”
McPherson said West Virginia native Chris Williams transferred to West Virginia, which is reinstating its program in the fall.
The Chants roster includes senior Peter Valasek of Slovakia, freshman Harrison Frye of Gastonia, N.C., and sophomores Olle Widegren of Sweden, Josh Pisarri of Naples, Fla., and Ryan Carpenter of Aiken and a College of Charleston transfer.
Luis Ruiz, the brother of CCU sophomore Alredo Ruiz and a member of the Mexican National Team, has signed to join the Chants in the fall, and McPherson said he also has a verbal commitment from a player in Norway who is expected to sign in April.
The CCU men’s program is still awaiting the announcement of expected penalties from an NCAA investigation into improprieties under Terrell.
“We haven’t heard the first thing, so I don’t know if that’s good or bad,” McPherson said. “We’ve done our due diligence for what the university had to do. The violations are from former coaches and former players and we’re just trying to do the right thing and cooperate.”
Charleston golf recognized
Myrtle Beach doesn’t have to look far for its competition. The International Association of Golf Tour Operators (IAGTO) recently named nearby Charleston the Golf Destination of 2014 North America at its annual IAGTO Awards Ceremony during the International Golf Travel Market (IGTM) in Lake Como, Italy.
The Charleston area is home to 19 courses including Kiawah Island’s heralded Ocean Course – host site of the 1991 Ryder Cup and 2012 PGA Championship – 60 miles of coastline, award-winning dining and historic downtown offerings.
IAGTO’s more than 500 golf tour operators from 61 countries vote in each of five regional categories: North America, Latin America & Caribbean, Europe, Africa & Gulf States, and Asia & Australia. Operators were asked to consider: customer satisfaction, quality of golf courses and accommodation, value for money, professional conduct of suppliers, support from the local tourism industry and accessibility to tee times.
CPGA a junior leader
The Carolinas Section of the PGA of America was named one of eight PGA Junior League Golf Regional PGA Sections of the Year by the PGA of America and League Golf for its successful 2014 season.
The regional winners were selected based on the total number of teams, percentage increase in teams from 2013, percentage of PGA facilities participating and their overall involvement in PGA Junior League Golf promotion, recruitment, league assignments and communication.
The Carolinas PGA had 105 teams in 2014, which was an increase of 135 percent.
Cardinal Amateur saved
One of the most popular and historic amateur tournaments in the country, The Cardinal Amateur at Sedgefield Country Club’s Pete Dye Course in Greensboro, N.C., has been resuscitated.
The Cardinal Am tournament committee announced in December the tournament was ending after 36 years, but course owner McConnell Golf has stepped up to run the event, with anticipated assistance from former Cardinal Am committee members and Sedgefield CC members. The tournament will be played July 17-19.
This story was originally published January 26, 2015 at 10:28 PM with the headline "On Grand Strand Golf: CCU men strengthen bond with Dunes Club, move Hackler tournament."