‘All kinds of fun stuff’: Caddy girls put unique twist on 1st tournament in Myrtle Beach
Meghan Tarmey has worked, volunteered or participated in hundreds of fundraising golf tournaments representing The Caddy Group.
She is now going to combine many of her favorite features from those events into the first Caddy Group charity tournament, which will be held in Myrtle Beach this summer.
The Caddies for a Cause fundraiser, also being dubbed The Caddy Girls Experience Golf Tournament, will be held at Arrowhead Country Club on June 26. It will feature up to 36 foursomes playing in a scramble format, and nearly 30 teams have been sold since registration began late last week.
“We’re going to have all kinds of fun stuff on the course that’s a little different,” Tarmey said. “Basically what we’re doing is we’re taking everything that we’ve seen at all of the hundreds of events we’ve worked from coast to coast, we’re taking our favorite parts and putting them into this event, and then we have some new fun games and ideas that also are going to happen. There will be live scoring and awards and stuff like that, but generally this is supposed to be fun.”
The Caddy Group was founded by Tarmey as the Myrtle Beach Caddy Girls in 2005 when she was a student at Coastal Carolina University. It became The Caddy Girls and eventually The Caddy Group.
It has expanded to several cities and golf destinations throughout the U.S., and she pitched the business on an episode of ABC’s Shark Tank in 2014.
The business specializes in providing fun and golf-knowledgeable fore caddies that are also often contracted for events as bartenders, brand ambassadors and hostesses.
Entry fees for the Myrtle Beach tournament begin at $750 per four-person team. Each team receives one caddie, unlimited beverages, on-course food, at least nine on-course vendors, a swag bag including custom hats, prizes, and live tournament scoring.
Features will include a Bloody Mary bar at registration, cigar cart, and a Beer Olympics event involving several holes.
A $1,000 team entry includes four invitations to a caddie pairings party on June 25 at RipTydz Oceanfront Grille & Rooftop Bar with drink tickets and hors d’oeuvres. Sponsorship foursome packages start at $1,500, and the most expensive team package of $2,500 includes a half-day pontoon boat rental on June 27 with two Caddy Girl bartenders, but it has sold out.
Some of The Caddy Group’s top customers and caddies from around the country are flying to Myrtle Beach for the event.
“So we wanted to make it more of a weekend experience rather than just a one day event,” Tarmey said. “They’re itching to get out. They’ve been locked down for months.”
Funds raised support The Caddy Group’s 501(c)(3) nonprofit FAM Foundation (Females Aiding through Mentorship).
FAM’s purpose is to inspire, educate, and empower women through mentorship, guidance, and volunteering. FAM hosts free seminars and ongoing mentorship to assist with education, inspiration and motivation, delving into topics including financial planning, tax filings, resume building, goal attainment and self-defense.
“We basically build in little workshops we feel young women need to survive and learn things they may not learn in school, or mentor them to be a better person,” Tarmey said. “Our whole thing is to inspire girls to start volunteering.”
FAM’s partner abroad is Project Genesis in Chimaltenango, Guatemala, which supports more than 120 children living in extreme poverty by providing them with basic needs, health care, education, mentoring, and vocational programs.
The Caddies for a Cause tournament is a prototype for a series of fundraisers that Tarmey plans to hold every few months in other markets. “We want to brand our own tournaments entirely,” she said. “We decided it was finally our time to take what we’ve learned. We feel we have the knowledge now to do it.”
Under Armour sponsoring tournaments
Under Armour sales representative Kenn Francis is bringing more tournament golf to Myrtle Beach with the inaugural Carolinas Match Play Championship in March and a new Myrtle Beach chapter of The Junior Tour powered by Under Armour.
The match play event is a 45-hole two-person better-ball event sponsored by Under Armour and sanctioned by the Carolinas PGA Section on March 6-7 at Arrowhead Golf Club. Six teams per flight will play five nine-hole matches followed by a shootout for flight winners. Up to 10 flights will be based on total team handicap, and pros and all amateurs are eligible.
A $450 entry fee per team includes $100 per player in Under Armour gear and food both days. A winner’s purse will be $3,500 with a full field of 120 players.
The junior tour for ages 6-18 features six nine-hole individual stroke play league matches on weekend afternoons from mid-March to early May at Prestwick Country Club, River Oaks, Whispering Pines, Brunswick Plantation, Arrowhead and Wachesaw East.
Players receive Under Armour swag, are placed in four co-ed age divisions and earn points to qualify for regional and national championships. The spring league national championship will be held July 16-18 at Walt Disney World’s golf courses.
The tour has Covid policies and procedures for the protection of players.
Golfers interested in either the match play event or junior tour can contact Francis at 843-457-5366 or kfrancis@UAJuniorTour.com. Junior tour registration opened on Feb. 1 at www.uagolftour.com.
Chuck Wike Junior Tour growing
Instructor Chuck Wike based at International Club of Myrtle Beach has been running a small and inexpensive local junior golf tour that has grown in popularity since he created it five years ago.
The Chuck Wike Junior Golf Tour, which costs $200 for a series of eight 18-hole events, features 40 players for this year’s winter tour. The tournaments are being played at Indigo Creek, International Club and Wachesaw East.
It’s a family affair, as Wike allows parents and coaches to walk or ride alongside the players and offer instruction. “It’s definitely a tour for kids who are learning to play golf,” he said. “It’s a developmental situation so kids can move on and maybe play high school golf.”
Wike said he started the tour largely for the kids he instructed to give them competitive tournaments. The tour features children ages 6-18 and about half of them are Wike’s pupils.
The tour features some boys high school golfers predominantly from Socastee, St. James and Waccamaw who are gearing up for their seasons this year.
The tour has another eight events in the summer as it works around the spring and fall golf seasons in the area. “The golf courses have been so good about letting the kids play,” Wike said. Wike said half of the membership fee goes to the golf courses and the other half to player awards and benefits.
He said he can take on more than 40 members this summer with more daylight. Interested players can contact Wike at 843-251-4209.
DuBose moves to PGA Golf Club
After a couple decades in the Myrtle Beach golf market, Clay DuBose has been hired as the Director of Golf Courses and Grounds at the PGA of America-owned PGA Golf Club in Port St. Lucie, Florida.
DuBose is responsible for directing and administering all agronomic practices, golf course maintenance and conditioning at the three-course facility, and overall management of operations that relate to the golf courses, common grounds and buildings.
PGA Golf Club features 54 holes of Championship golf designed by Tom Fazio and Pete Dye including the Wanamaker Course, which is ranked 17th in Golfweek’s “2020 Best: State-by-State Courses You Can Play” rankings, and Dye Course, which is ranked 25th.
DuBose managed the golf course maintenance operations at the Fazio-designed TPC Myrtle Beach for the past four years. TPC Myrtle Beach is one of two courses in South Carolina, along with the Ocean Course at Kiawah Island Golf Resort, to be awarded five-star ratings by Golf Digest. The facility was also named “South Carolina Golf Course of the Year” by the S.C. Golf Course Owners Association.
DuBose spent several years at Tradition Club and was Founders Group International’s south end regional superintendent for four years, overseeing course maintenance at Tradition Golf Club, Willbrook Plantation, River Club and Litchfield Country Club.
He was previously at Diamond Back Golf Club and the Pete and P.B. Dye-designed Prestwick Country Club.
“With Clay DuBose’s vast expertise with grasses in a southern climate, and his experience with golf courses designed by both Tom Fazio and Pete Dye, he is a tremendous addition to our facility,” said PGA Golf Club GM/Director of Golf Jeremy Wiernasz. “. . . With Clay’s talent and skill set, we are well-positioned to enhance the experience for PGA members, club members and our guests.”
Preseason Classic sells out
The seventh annual Myrtle Beach Preseason Classic, which was held Feb. 1-3 on nine Grand Strand courses, sold out with 300 golfers from 22 states. This year’s field grew by 50 percent.
The 54-hole, two-man team event operated by Golf Tourism Solutions featured a different format of play each day and players were flighted based on their USGA handicap. The tournament entry fee was $199 per person.
Rounds were held at Barefoot Resort’s Love Course, True Blue, Rivers Edge, Aberdeen, Arrowhead, River Club, Sandpiper Bay, Tradition Club and Wild Wing.
This story was originally published February 16, 2021 at 11:15 AM.
