These Myrtle Beach area golf courses reopen after being closed because of coronavirus
The number of Myrtle Beach area golf courses that are closed because of the coronavirus will be down to three within a week.
There were as many as 11 courses closed in late March because of the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Now, only three Founders Group International courses – Burning Ridge Golf Club in Conway, Colonial Charters Golf Club in Longs and Founders Club at Pawleys Island – are expected to remain closed after May 28.
The Hackler Course at Coastal Carolina reopened on Monday, Arcadian Shores Golf Club is expected to reopen next Thursday, and FGI, the largest golf course ownership and management company on the Strand with 21 courses, has reopened five courses over the past month.
International World Tour Golf Links and River Club reopened in late April/early May, Wild Wing Plantation’s Avocet Course and Willbrook Plantation reopened May 6, and Aberdeen Country Club reopened last Wednesday.
The semi-private Members Club at Grande Dunes was closed to outside play because of the coronavirus in March, opened to public play for a short time, but is closed again for a summer renovation project that includes the installation of new greens.
Arcadian Shores, which is owned by Burroughs & Chapin Co., sent a letter to golf package providers Wednesday stating the course closed on March 23 out of precaution to protect customers and employees and their families, and is in good condition after greens, tees and fairways were aerated on May 7-8.
The Hackler Course is owned by Coastal Carolina University and closed on March 16, about the time the campus closed to on-site classes, and it has reopened despite the campus still being closed to students.
“We’re just happy to be back open,” Hackler Course head pro Chuck Johns said. “I think everybody was getting to a comfortable level that we know what we’re doing and how to prepare for anything that may arise and making sure we’re following safety procedures.”
Reopening is allowing a handful of students in CCU’s PGA Golf Management Program to fulfill work internships at the course that are required for graduation. Courses in other parts of the country where they were scheduled to work have either been closed or have hiring freezes in place.
“That’s the whole reason we have the golf course,” Johns said. “The Hackler Course is a learning laboratory for the PGM.”
FGI closed eight courses in late March to save money once demand dropped with the loss of package rounds in the market that combine tee times and lodging.
“We saw our members and our locals were all out playing golf and enjoying the golf courses, and we still have limitations on what we’re doing with golf carts and we’re still in a lot of cases providing single golf carts,” FGI president Steve Mays said. “So with the demand we had and some of the restrictions we still have in place, we thought it was best to open up those [five] golf courses.
“The golf courses are in such good shape and they’ve been in such great shape throughout the spring it is difficult from an operators perspective to let them sit idle, so we got them open as soon as we could based on the demand in the marketplace.”
FGI is prepared to open its three closed courses if demand warrants it.
“Those golf courses will remain closed until we see demand in the market will dictate for us to open those up,” Mays said. “The good thing is we are maintaining those to the point where when needed we can open those with just a few days’ notice.”
Local play through the spring golf season has helped the industry make up for a portion of $21 million in canceled package rounds as of April 23, plus the additional loss of food and beverage, merchandise and lodging sales that would have come with those rounds.
“There’s no doubt that there has been a tremendous impact on our golf courses,” Mays said. “We lost most of March, all of April and a good part of May from a package golfer perspective. So without question it really hit our golf courses hard financially.”
Mays said he doesn’t anticipate closing any of FGI’s courses permanently because of the past, present and possibly future impacts of the coronavirus, but it remains to be seen what additional measures will be taken against the pandemic.
“A lot of what the future holds depends on how quickly we recover, what the summer’s going to looks like, what the fall looks like,” Mays said. “The fall looks promising right now. Obviously there’s a long ways to go between here and there and we have to see what this virus does and consumer confidence.
“. . . I don’t anticipate us to have to [close a course]. It’s obviously an evolving situation, what demand will be, so we have no intention of closing any golf courses.”
All of the courses that are open on the Grand Strand are following safety guidelines suggested by government agencies and the Myrtle Beach Area Golf Course Owners Association.
“It has been really something special to see this golf community come together over the past couple of months through this crisis and work together to ensure that our golf courses would remain open and provide an outlet for our community,” Mays said.
Mystical Golf revitalizes
Mystical Golf has revitalized its three layouts –The Witch, Man O’ War and The Wizard – with $750,000 in renovations on the three Dan Maples designs combined, according to the company.
The 142 bunkers on all three layouts have been completely rebuilt and now showcase vibrant white sand, irrigation systems on The Witch and Man O’ War have been enhanced and modernized, and the courses’ networks of cart paths and bridges were also upgraded. The Witch alone features more than a mile of bridges through the Waccamaw Swamp.
Upgrades were made to Mystical Golf’s three themed clubhouses – The Witch’s haunted house, The Wizard’s Scottish castle and Man O’ War’s fishing camp. Mystical Golf also overseeded its layouts with ryegrass to keep the courses green through the winter and spring.
USGA cancels more
With the cancellation of four more tournaments on Monday, the United States Golf Association will now only attempt to conduct four of its 14 national championships in 2020, and all qualifying for championships has been eliminated as the coronavirus COVID-19 continues to disrupt the golf calendar.
The latest cancellations are the U.S. Mid-Amateur, U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur, U.S. Senior and U.S. Women’s Senior. The U.S. Women’s Mid-Am was scheduled for Aug. 29-Sept. 3 at Berkeley Hall Club in Bluffton.
The USGA previously announced the cancellation of the U.S. Amateur Four-Ball, U.S. Women’s Amateur Four-Ball, U.S. Senior Open, U.S. Senior Women’s Open, U.S. Girls’ Junior and U.S. Junior.
What remains on the schedule are the USGA’s four oldest national championships: the U.S. Open, U.S. Amateur and U.S. Women’s Amateur, which all began in 1895; and the U.S. Women’s Open, first played in 1946. The men’s open has been pushed back to Sept. 17-20, the women’s open has been moved to Dec. 10-13, and the men’s and women’s amateurs have retained their dates in August.
With no qualifying, each field will be comprised entirely of exempt players.
Qualifying has been an integral part of USGA championships. Last year about 70 players earned entry into the U.S. Open via qualifying, and past U.S. Open champions who began in qualifiers include Steve Jones in 1996, Michael Campbell in 2005 and Lucas Glover in 2009.
The original U.S. Open schedule called for 108 local qualifying and 12 sectional qualifying tournaments. The USGA had received more than 9,000 U.S. Open entries in each of the past eight years.
This story was originally published May 20, 2020 at 2:50 PM.
