This Myrtle Beach golf industry organization has disbanded after three decades
The Grand Strand Golf Directors Association held its first meeting on Aug. 5, 1990 at Buck Creek Golf Club.
After 30 years, it is now joining the name of the host course as a thing of the past.
The organization that has played a role in the success of the Myrtle Beach area golf industry for the past three decades has disbanded.
The GSGDA essentially brought golf package providers and golf course professionals – and others who were in businesses associated with the golf industry such as theater and restaurant representatives – together for monthly outings and meetings, and held annual fundraisers for the betterment of the community.
The initial meeting at Buck Creek, which is now named Aberdeen Country Club, consisted of 25 people, and the GSGDA grew into having an annual limit of 200 members at its peak.
The five founding members were Wren Harrell, Mike Millen, Barbie Chestnut, Gail Martin and Becky Donevant, who served as the de facto chair of the board.
“Their vision was to have an organization where they would help one another and grow the package business,” said 25-year GSGDA member A.J. Gohil, who was a board member and a past GSGDA president and vice president.
“It served a huge purpose,” said Gohil, currently East Coast Golf Management vice president of sales and business development. “Anyone who could provide a service to visiting golfers, they were welcomed to be members.
“It was a good time for people to build their relationships. Belly-to-belly relationships were built. For me personally, it’s what made me successful, and helped the golf courses I represented be successful because of the relationships we built by meeting at least once a month together as a group, as a golf industry.”
Independent golf package providers – who combine accommodations and rounds for visiting golfers – and hotel golf directors were the foundation of the organization. Pre-booked packages have been the driving force for the Grand Strand’s peak spring and fall golf seasons.
The monthly golf outings and meetings would move to different golf courses every month so members could see the product they were selling, and guest speakers were brought in to further educate the membership on topics often related to the golf and tourism industries.
“By playing the golf courses the golf directors got to experience the layout, the conditions, got to know the staff, so they were better educated in selling that golf course to visiting golfers,” Gohil said. “That was huge.”
The GSGDA also supported charitable causes. Money raised through its annual Charity Challenge Golf Tournament supported organizations such as Horry County Disabilities and Special Needs, Helping Hand, Help 4 Kids and the Grand Strand Humane Society.
A scholarship fund was established in 1993 to offer college grants to area students in the amount of $2,500 per year with a maximum of four years per student.
The GSGDA has awarded over 100 college scholarships and raised in excess of $350,000 for both scholarships and charitable causes, Gohil said.
“While we are all saddened by the end of such a fine organization, we are incredibly proud of its many accomplishments.,” Gohil said.
In its heyday, up to 120 members regularly took part in monthly outings, but that number was cut to about 50 over the past couple years.
“It was just time to shut it down the way things have changed,” Gohil said. “The industry has changed. There’s so much happening online. It’s not like it was in the old days where you had 100 hotels and 100 golf directors, one at each hotel. Now you might have one golf director taking care of 10 hotels from their home or a satellite office. There aren’t as many hotel directors, and people are working from all different locations and it’s harder to get them out.”
Four-Ball canceled
The coronavirus has claimed another area golf event.
The Wachesaw Plantation Club Four-Ball Invitational, which was scheduled to be played at the private club in Murrells Inlet from Oct. 23-25, has been canceled out of safety concerns regarding the coronavirus.
Head pro Joe Gagliano and tournament chairman and Wachesaw member Mike Daniels made the joint decision to cancel the event, which has annually attracted quality fields of more than 100 mid-ams, seniors and super seniors representing numerous states since its inception in 2009.
“[We] evaluated the various scenarios that might have allowed us to host the event this year, but after our evaluation there were too many obstacles to overcome,” Daniels said. “We have a large senior and super senior contingent and players from states all over the country that would have to quarantine for 14 days upon their return home.
“Joe and I felt strongly that if we could not execute this event at the highest level, while protecting the health of the players, guests and our staff, it is best that we cancel the Four-Ball this year.”
They will attempt to play the 12th Wachesaw Four-Ball in October 2021.
Walk it out
Many Grand Strand courses have allowed walking as a means of social distancing since the onset of the coronavirus, and Founders Group International will continue to allow walking for at least the remainder of the year.
A slow pace of play has been a potential reason for courses to require the use of carts, but the Strand’s largest course owner and operator with 21 courses in the market said walkers have routinely played in less than four hours over the past few months.
Walkers will be responsible for carrying their bag or bringing a pull cart and will still have to pay rates that include cart fees.
FGI’s courses are Aberdeen Country Club, Grande Dunes Resort Course, Litchfield Country Club, Long Bay Golf Club, the PineHills and Palmetto courses at Myrtlewood, Pawleys Plantation Golf & Country Club, Pine Lakes Country Club, River Club, River Hills Golf Club, TPC Myrtle Beach, Tradition Club, Wild Wing Plantation, Willbrook Plantation, International World Tour Golf Links, Burning Ridge Golf Club, Founders Club at Pawleys Island, and Colonial Charters.
Juniors seek title
Led by three players who have helped build the team into a local dynasty over the past few years, 12 juniors from The Dunes Golf and Beach Club will be trying to capture a title Thursday in the PGA Junior League’s Carolinas PGA Section Championship.
The team of players ages 8-13 has been dominant. According to head coach and Dunes Club assistant Ryan Wolf, it has won 22 consecutive regular season matches and has won the Myrtle Beach league title three consecutive years.
The CPGA U13 championship at Mid Pines Inn and Golf Club in Southern Pines, N.C., features four finalists, and The Dunes Club will face a team from the Country Club of Spartanburg in a nine-hole match with a two-person scramble format in the morning semifinals. The finals will follow in the afternoon.
The Dunes Club team features three 13-year-olds who have been on the squad for several years each – Madison Messimer, who is ranked in the top 20 in the world among 13-year-old girls, Carter Long and Owen Wilkes.
“Once [Madison] got on the team it brought everyone’s level to compete up on the team,” Wolf said. “Competing year after year they got used to competitive golf. The confidence has increased so the playing level has increased.”
The Myrtle Beach area has several teams playing out of Wachesaw Plantation, River Oaks Golf Club, Legends Resort and Grande Dunes representing Founders Group International. The Dunes Club has three teams and Legends has multiple teams.
The CPGA championship usually features all-star teams from areas of the Carolinas, but because of the coronavirus, teams from one course are being kept intact, so the champions of local leagues advanced to playoffs, and The Dunes Club has defeated four teams to reach the final four.
This story was originally published August 12, 2020 at 3:49 AM.
