On Grand Strand Golf: Former PGA Tour players to take part in Sunbelt Tour pro-am

Grand Strand residents will have a chance to play with some past members of the PGA Tour, Web.com Tour and Champions Tour in November on one of the area’s private courses.

The Sunbelt Senior Professional Tour will be holding a pro-am on Nov. 9 at The Surf Golf and Beach Club in connection with its Myrtle Beach Senior Match Play Championship from Nov. 10-12 at The Surf Club.

The pro-am will serve as a seeding qualifier for the match play tournament, which is being moved back to The Surf Club in North Myrtle Beach after several years at River Hills Golf & Country Club. Proceeds will benefit the Sea Haven youth shelter home and emergency crisis service.

Teams of three amateurs will pair with one of 30 Match Play pros in the pro-am. The cost is $600 per team or $200 per player, though Sunbelt Tour founder and operator Don Barnes of Longs said organizers are trying to fill most of the teams through sponsorships in the hopes of raising more money for the tournament. A $1,000 sponsorship includes a team entry, and larger donors get more teams.

The pro-am will include breakfast prior to a 10 a.m. shotgun start and lunch following play.

Businesses and individuals interested in participating can contact Tom Prough at 843-492-3414 or Charlie Webster at 843-855-2079. The Surf Club and Webster’s Golf & Gaming Tours of Little River are major sponsors.

Five-time PGA Tour champion and past U.S. Ryder Cup Team member Ken Green, who is the only professional ever to play on a major tour with a prosthesis, has been playing in Sunbelt Tour events this year and is hopeful to play at the Surf Club, according to Barnes. Green lost his right leg following a 2009 car accident in which his wife, brother and dog all died.

There will likely be other past PGA Tour members participating alongside area amateurs.

Earlier this year, Marco Dawson of Merritt Island, Fla., won the opening Sunbelt tournament at Suntree Country Club in Melbourne, Fla., and three weeks later he won the Conquistadors Classic in Phoenix, Ariz., on the Champions Tour. In July he became the second Sunbelt member to win the British Senior Open Championship.

Other top names who have played on the Sunbelt Tour this year and might participate in the Surf Club pro-am include five-time PGA Tour winners Danny Edwards of Scottsdale, Ariz., and Blaine McCallister of Jacksonville, Fla. Edwards has played in most of the Sunbelt Tour’s 2015 events.

Other Sunbelt participants who have won on the Champions Tour over the years include North Carolinians Walter Hall and Mike Goodes, Georgian James Mason and Rod Spittle of Ohio.

Sea Haven is being displaced from it current location across from the former Bay Tree Golf Plantation because of an expansion of McLeod Seacoast Hospital, and is in the process of building a new home on S.C. 57 in Little River, not far from the intersection of 57 and 9.

Sea Haven depends heavily on community support and is especially in need of funding because of its move and cuts in federal grants.

Sea Haven’s mission statement is “to improve the overall well being and safety of homeless and forgotten youth ages 13-21 by extending a helping hand to these youth whose lives may be in disarray.”

Some Surf Club members are also on the Sea Haven board, “So it was good time to do it,” Barnes said. “They need the money badly.”

The Sunbelt Tour has held events at The Surf Club in past years, and Barnes saw an opportunity to fill a void left by the move of the Carolinas Open from the club after several years. River Hills was also purchased by a company based in China in the past year.

“With the change in ownership at River Hills, and the fact that the Carolinas Open was gone from The Surf Club, I thought it was a good opportunity to get back to that club,” Barnes said.

The Match Play event is expected to have a purse of $37,500 and 48 players – 16 in each of three divisions: ages 45-54, 55-64 and a Legends division for ages 65 and over. The winner of each division will earn $5,000, each semifinalist will earn a check and there will be 18-hole consolation tournaments in each division with the top three being paid.

Barnes doesn’t expect many players to commit before mid-October, but past PGA Tour winner Randy Glover of Clinton is helping recruit players for the pro-am and tournament, and his brother and fellow former PGA Tour member Russell Glover has also committed.

The Sunbelt Tour is in its 20th season.

Playing with legends

Jackson Cole of Pawleys Island and West Brunswick High senior Landon Patterson of Shallotte, N.C., will have their moment in the sun this week on the Monterrey Peninsula in California.

They are among the 81 teenagers involved in The First Tee youth development organization who were selected to participate in the Champions Tour's Nature Valley First Tee Open at Pebble Beach.

The 12-year, $2 million tournament is held on both Pebble Beach Golf Links and Poppy Hills Golf Course, and the juniors learn their pro and amateur partners at a pairings party on Sept. 22.

Juniors from The First Tee chapters qualify for the event based on golf skills, a written essay and overall character.

It will be a unique experience for all of the First Tee juniors.

Nine members of the World Golf Hall of Fame are in this week’s 54-hole event, which begins Friday: Colin Montgomerie, Fred Couples, Mark O’Meara, Hale Irwin, Tom Kite, Vijay Singh, Tom Watson, Ben Crenshaw and Sandy Lyle. Montgomerie and Singh are making their first appearances in the event, and Singh is making his first Champions Tour start of the 2015 season this week and fifth career start.

Others in the field include 2015 U.S. Presidents Cup Captain Jay Haas, defending champion John Cook and defending junior-am champion and two-time U.S. Open winner Lee Janzen.

Fifty-four First Tee chapters are represented in the field, and more than 630 First Tee participants have had the opportunity to experience the event over its 12 years.

The event will be broadcast on Golf Channel from 6-8:30 p.m. Friday, 6-9 p.m. Saturday and 6:30-9 p.m. Sunday.

Spurrier on Feherty

Palmetto State residents may take special interest in this week’s Feherty show on Golf Channel at 9 p.m. Wednesday.

University of South Carolina football coach Steve Spurrier is host David Feherty’s guest, and invited Feherty to his home in Crescent Beach, Fla.

According to Golf Channel, Spurrier discusses the lessons he’s learned from nearly four decades of coaching, balancing work and family and his passion for golf.

Feherty also gives the former Heisman Trophy winner lessons for improving his game on the golf course, and the two discuss the art of throwing a visor.

This story was originally published September 21, 2015 at 6:59 PM with the headline "On Grand Strand Golf: Former PGA Tour players to take part in Sunbelt Tour pro-am."