One significant Myrtle Beach golf tournament is canceled, another is trudging forward
One of the largest golf tournaments on the Grand Strand was canceled this summer because of COVID-19.
The largest single-site tournament not only in the area but the world is still scheduled to be held next month, however, albeit with some major changes designed to protect against the spread of the coronavirus.
The PlayGolfMyrtleBeach.com World Amateur Handicap Championship is scheduled to be played on 60 Myrtle Beach area courses from Aug. 31 to Sept 4.
Family Golf Week, featuring what was going to be the 23rd National Father & Son Team Classic and the Parent & Child Team Classic, was scheduled to be played last Wednesday through Saturday but was canceled by organizer East Coast Golf Events.
“It’s Family Golf Week so we’re putting families first, both our families and we consider our participants being an extended part of our family. Their safety was priority,” said Mike Buccerone, president of East Coast Golf Events and East Coast Golf Management. “When it came down to it at the end, with logistics and safety, we just felt it was best we take a step back this year. We all believe we did the right thing. We’ll get through it and come out of this thing better and move forward.”
Family Golf Week in 2019 featured more than 650 players from more than 40 states and three foreign countries.
The event had 580 players registered before the proliferation of the virus in the U.S. and was still projected to have about 580 participants when East Coast announced the cancellation on June 29.
“We were well on our way to what we thought was close to 800 this year, which would have been an increase of about 15 percent over the year prior,” Buccerone said. “Right up to the day when we decided to make the announcement we were still trending right around 580. People were not ready to give it up. They wanted to come. Even with the [coronavirus] spike we were getting it wasn’t a deterring factor.”
East Coast announced in May it planned to hold the Family Golf Week tournaments but without scheduled gatherings including a welcome party, demo day and post-tournament awards.
“Not being able to do some of the events that we’ve done in the past, we just felt it was in our best interest and the interest of everybody to just postpone it, let everybody be safe and get through this year,” Buccerone said.
Buccerone said full refunds were offered and some teams chose to accept them, but more than 500 participants chose to take advantage of an offer to roll their entry fees into next year’s event with a $300 discount off the $995 cost per two-person team.
Approximately 40 teams chose to travel to Myrtle Beach anyway and East Coast booked them golf rounds and accommodations where needed. “Some people did come and enjoy their vacation,” Buccerone said. “We got them on golf courses like you would if it was a normal golf package.”
Because of the relatively late cancellation, it was too late to cancel items ordered for gift bags valued at more than $500 per player.
So more than 500 welcome packages containing more than a combined 6,000 items were handed out or shipped to players who registered for 2021. The packages included $250 PGA Tour Superstore gift cards that can be used at any store location in the U.S.
“We’ve incurred a lot of additional unforeseen expenses this year but we believe in the event. All the sponsors helped out,” Buccerone said. “It’s different times, challenging times, but we’re moving forward and looking forward to next year.”
The Golf Tourism Solutions technology and marketing agency that promotes the Myrtle Beach market assists East Coast with the event and operates the World Am.
GTS has eliminated the nightly World’s Largest 19th Hole expo and cocktail party after the first four rounds of the World Am, and has instituted other changes to encourage social distancing during the event.
Each player will be given his own golf cart, the number of players at each course will be cut from approximately 100 to a maximum of 72, participants will play in threesomes with tee times rather than shotgun starts to stagger the times participants arrive at courses, and free range balls will be placed on ranges to avoid touch points.
The World Am has featured 3,000 or more players in each of the past few years and GTS and World Am tournament director Scott Tomasello said there are more than 2,200 players registered. The entry fee will remain $495.
“We’re just focusing on the fact that this tournament is going to be golf-specific,” Tomasello said. “If you would like to enjoy golf and adhere to all the guidelines, we’re going to provide a safe environment for those willing to do so.”
The GTS-operated Veterans Golf Classic was rescheduled from May 17-20 to Sept. 27-30 and was sold out at 450 players. The majority have remained registered and spots that open from cancellations will be reopened at veteransclassicgolf.com.
The two-person team event will be played on 12 courses with formats of best ball, scramble and modified alternate shot over three rounds. At least one player on each two-person team must have served in the five branches of the U.S. military including the Coast Guard.
A national audience
A member of The First Tee of Coastal Carolinas, which includes Horry, Georgetown and Brunswick counties, is one of just seven members of the youth golf development organization’s inaugural First Tee College Scholarship Program.
He learned of his scholarship live on Golf Channel through an announcement by 43rd U.S. President George W. Bush, The First Tee’s honorary chair.
Boldt is a recent graduate of South Brunswick High School who has been an active member at First Tee of Coastal Carolinas for 14 years. He will be attending East Carolina University and majoring in Public Health, Pre-Health Professions. His scholarship offers up to $5,000 per year for four years.
Boldt and his twin brother Jackson, who will be attending N.C. State this fall, survived a horrific auto crash in 2017 that took the lives of their grandparents to continue with their academic and athletic futures, and have been giving back to the community.
Though The First Tee has lost some of its usual funding sources because of the coronavirus, it is holding its annual Future Generations Tournament at Caledonia Golf & Fish Club on Tuesday and is anticipating up to 25 teams. Having recovered from a scary bout with COVID-19, Murrells Inlet resident and former Golf Channel personality Charlie Rymer is the host and emcee.
A national qualifier
Ryan Tyndall of The Reserve Club in Pawleys Island reached a playoff for the title in the Carolinas PGA Professional Championship last week, and in doing so qualified for the 54th PGA Professional Championship from April 25-28, 2021 at PGA Golf Club in Port St. Lucie, Florida.
Tyndall shot a 1-under 71-71-73–215 to enter a playoff with four other players at Daniel Island Club. It was won by Tommy Gibson of Old Town Club in Winston-Salem, N.C., who birdied the first two playoff holes to earn $8,500. Tyndall made par on the first playoff hole and earned $4,162 along with the other three runners-up.
The top nine players qualified for the PGA of America’s national championship – formerly called the national club pro championship. The top 20 finishers there qualify for the PGA Championship, one of pro golf’s four majors.
PGA opportunities
The 2021 PGA Championship will be played at the Ocean Course on Kiawah Island just south of Charleston the week of May 17-23, and there are opportunities for Strand residents to attend or participate as a volunteer.
People can register now for an opportunity to purchase tickets beginning in August at pgachampionship.com/register, or apply for volunteer positions at pgachampionship.com/volunteer.
In addition, the PGA of America is encouraging diverse and locally-owned vendors to provide sourcing in support of the tournament. Businesses that are locally-owned or owned by minorities, women, LGBT, disabled or veterans are invited to participate in the PGA VendorMatch program.
Companies can register through July 31 at PGAVendorInclusion.org to potentially interview with larger, direct vendors for opportunities during the tournament. The PGA says it’s committed to building a supply chain representative of America’s population, and a variety of services are needed including food products, temporary housing, florals and labor.
The 2020 PGA Championship is scheduled for Aug. 6-9 at TPC Harding Park in San Francisco. The PGA Championship will return to the Carolinas for a second time over five years in 2025, when Quail Hollow Club in Charlotte, North Carolina will host for a second time.
Local runner-up
Adrian Anderson of Murrells Inlet and St. James High finished second to Alexia Siehl of Fort Mill in the South Carolina Junior Girls Match Play Championship at the Hackler Course at Coastal Carolina.
Siehl and Anderson were even through 17 holes in the championship match of the Carolinas Golf Association event and both hit approach shots to approximately 7 feet on the 18th hole. Anderson barely missed her putt and Siehl drained hers for the win.
Community effort
If Friday is an indication, the residents around Brick Landing Plantation Golf Club in Ocean Isle Beach, N.C., are buying into the reopening of the course.
More than 70 volunteers from the community gathered at the course in 90-degree heat to hand-pick weeds from its greens over four hours, which they accomplished. The course has been closed since January.
A group of five residents formed the company Community Partners Golf LLC to lease the course with an option to buy and plans to reopen in mid- to late September. It is trying to attract investors from the community to secure the property’s future financial health.
