On Grand Strand Golf: SwingThought Tour banking on guarantees, sites
Swingthought.com Tour president Robin Waters isn’t saying 2015 is a make or break year for his tour.
But with a schedule of guaranteed $140,000 purses that is friendly to players wanting to enter Monday qualifiers on the Web.com Tour, the outlook would be bleak if the tour doesn’t at least approach the past success of its nearly two-decade run as the NGA Hooters Tour.
“If this model doesn’t work this year, then developmental golf as I’ve known it for the past 15 years has come and gone,” Waters said.
The 2014 season was the first in more than 20 years that the Grand Strand-based tour did not offer a full season of guaranteed purses after player participation plummeted.
The tour, which was rebranded the Swingthought.com Tour last September after it was acquired by Golf Interact LLC and its founder and chief operating officer Michael Rush of Houston, has 16 events with guaranteed $140,000 purses, and many tournaments will be held in close proximity to Web.com Tour Monday qualifiers.
“The only reason I sold the tour was to get back to guaranteed purses, a reasonable amount of money that players can play for week to week and be able to survive and eat,” Waters said.
The tour is also ending most of its tournaments on either Friday or Saturday to give players time to travel to the qualifying sites and become acquainted with the courses. A few tournaments will be cut from 72 to 54 holes. “There is no doubt it benefits players to be closer in vicinity to these Monday qualifiers,” Waters said.
Waters, of Loris, said membership is a little ahead of this time last year. “We’re up, so that’s positive, but we’re not where we were four years ago,” Waters said.
The tour began the 2014 season with at least 80 players in its first four full-field events, including 100 or more in two of them. But the tour held a few events with fewer than 30 players later in the season, presumably in part because a competing tour, the Hopkins Peach State Tour, sweetened its offerings to attract players but ended up not paying players in its final three events in 2014.
“Once again players got stiffed,” Waters said. “One thing we’ve always done is we don’t write checks we can’t cash.”
Swingthought.com Tour membership is $1,800 and tournament entry fees will be $1,150 for members and $1,400 for non-members.
Fields will be limited to 132 players and cut to the low 55 players and ties after 36 holes. Players finishing solo 55th or better will receive at least $1,000.
The tour will award six exemptions into Web.com Tour events as performance-based incentives, including four into the $675,000 BMW Charity Pro-Am presented by Synnex from May 14-17 in the Greenville area.
The tour schedule begins Feb. 25-28 with the Swingthought.com Tour Classic at Kinderlou Forest in Valdosta, Ga. Several events will be held in the Carolinas, and other tour events are scheduled for Mississippi, Florida, Tennessee and Texas.
The PGA Tour has made business more difficult for developmental tours with its creation over the past few years of PGA Tour LatinoAmerica, PGA Tour Canada and PGA Tour China. They attract players because they are feeder tours for the Web.com Tour and give players hope for more profitable days.
But they also take players out of the U.S. for long stretches, and the cost of the Q-Schools and tournament/travel expenses often leave all but the most successful players without funds to compete elsewhere.
Waters estimates that three years ago there were up to 1,200 players in the U.S. playing on developmental and mini-tours. He believes that number is down to 600 to 700. “It has made it much more difficult. The whole business model since the PGA Tour’s involvement has changed,” Waters said. “We think we have a good model in place to get back to where we were, or as close to it as possible in the current environment.”
The Swingthought.com Tour was founded as the TC Jordan Tour, was sponsored by Hooters for nearly two decades and was the National Golf Association (NGA) Tour for three seasons through 2014 without a sponsor.
The NGA Tour announced guaranteed purses averaging about $150,000 for 18 events in 2014, but had to back off the guarantees after its events didn’t attract enough players to support the business model, though no events were canceled.
“Nobody is more embarrassed in this business than I am about what happened last year,” Waters said. “In my professional career I’ve never experienced anything like that … to go back on my word and not deliver on something I promised.
“I wanted to sell it so somebody will fund it to where players can have a continued opportunity.”
Golf Interact is a company looking to make a splash in the golf world with new ideas, products and marketing. Rush, who is also a mini-tour player, started the company in 2009 while in college and has several investors. Swing Thought, a philosophy with a new website and developing product line dedicated to simplifying the game for players, is the company’s first brand brought to market.
In addition to remaining president of the tour, Waters became an equity partner in Golf Interact with the acquisition.
The Swingthought.com Tour also has a summer series in Florida and summer and winter series on the Grand Strand.
The 2015 Carolina Series has a $500 membership fee and entry fees of $450 for members and $650 for non-members for two-day events, and $200/$250 for one-day tournaments.
The Carolina Winter Series schedule still has five one- or two-day events remaining through Feb. 17.
Remaining developmental tours include the Adams Pro Tour based in Texas and eGolf Gateway Tour that was created through a joint venture between the eGolf Tour based in Charlotte and All-American Gateway Tour based in Arizona. The NGA Tour had a similar joint venture agreement with the Gateway Tour prior to the NGA’s purchase by Rush.
Optimism for juniors
Junior golfers have until Friday to register for an event at Barefoot Resort’s Norman Course that can qualify them for the 2015 Optimist International Junior Golf Championship, being played in July at PGA National in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla.
The 36-hole Greg Norman Champions Academy Open will be held Feb. 21-22 and is one of three events that comprise the 2015 Optimist Junior Golf Tour, which is run by Optimist International. The other two events are in Fort Worth, Texas, and Orlando.
This is the second playing of the Barefoot event. Players will compete in three age and gender divisions: Boys 14-15, Boys 16-18 and Girls 14-18. The top four finishers in the older boys division, and top three in the other two divisions qualify for the International event in July as long as they shoot minimum scores of 156 for Boys 16-18, 166 for Boys 14-15 and 170 for Girls 14-18.
The age divisions correspond to the age the player will be on the last day of the International final (July 25 for age 14-15 and July 31 for age 16-18). Participants cannot be enrolled in college.
The tournament entry fee is $190 and includes two tournament rounds, range balls, lunch on both tournament days and an Optimist Golf gift package. Tee times begin as early as 8 a.m. each day and a practice round is available on Feb. 20.
Players from a dozen states are already registered to participate. They are the Carolinas, Ohio, Connecticut, Virginia, Maryland, Tennessee, Missouri, Wisconsin, Minnesota, New York and Florida.
Players can register by visiting optimist.org/golf-tour1.cfm or calling 314-881-1307 or 800-500-8130, ext. 207.
Boys 16-18 are expected to play approximately 6,500 yards and the course shortens for the other divisions.
The winner of each division will also receive 50 percent off the cost of a summer camp at the Norman Champions Academy.
Juniors will have another opportunity to qualify for the International championship through a qualifier that is run by the local Optimist chapter May 30-31 at Black Bear Golf Club. That qualifier will have seven age/gender divisions.
The local chapter covers entry fees and travel expenses to the International tournament for the oldest boys and girls winners who shoot the required scores, and any additional funds assist other division winners. Last year the local chapter paid the expenses of six players. That qualifier is $150 and information is available at www.optimistsc.org.
Preseason tees off
The inaugural Myrtle Beach Preseason Classic teed off Monday with a sold out field of 200 golfers from 26 states. The 54-hole event is being played on six courses: True Blue Golf Club, Glen Dornoch Golf Links, The Witch, Wild Wing Avocet, Tradition Club and Panther’s Run Golf Links.
Tournament festivities began Sunday with a welcome party and will conclude with Wednesday’s awards lunch.
Marketing cooperative Myrtle Beach Golf Holiday organized and is running the two-person team event, which features a different format each day with best ball in the opening round followed by combined net team score and a Texas scramble. Teams are flighted based on USGA handicap.
Golf Holiday’s next new event is the Myrtle Beach March Championship from March 8-10, which will have an individual format similar to the Myrtle Beach World Amateur Handicap Championship. The maximum field of 200 is already well over half full.
This story was originally published February 2, 2015 at 10:57 PM with the headline "On Grand Strand Golf: SwingThought Tour banking on guarantees, sites."