On Grand Strand Golf: First Tee fundraiser to offer affordable golf to locals

A new annual fundraiser for The First Tee of the Grand Strand youth golf and development organization will give golfers in Horry and Georgetown counties an opportunity to play more than 30 area courses for $30 each.

The First Tee of the Grand Strand Club has an annual fee of $125, and members can play any of the 22 courses owned and operated by Founders Group International or the 11 courses in the two counties that East Coast Golf Management either manages or includes in its marketing cooperative.

“The reason FGI stepped up to the plate was because in Horry County there is no one else right now helping the children,” said Founders Group International general manager Tom Plankers, a board member of the Carol S. Petrea Youth Golf Foundation of Shallotte, N.C., which oversees the First Tee of the Grand Strand. “Our company and East Coast Golf Management are going to step up to help the kids because it doesn’t seem like anybody else in this town is doing it.”

Courses in the First Tee Club in 2016 include TPC Myrtle Beach, International World Tour Golf Links, Grande Dunes Resort Course, Long Bay Club, King’s North at Myrtle Beach National, Pawleys Plantation, Pine Lakes Country Club, Wild Wing Plantation, River Club, River Hills Golf & Country Club, Founders Club at Pawleys Island, Tradition Club, Willbrook, Wild Wing Plantation, Wachesaw Plantation East and Farmstead Golf Links.

Club membership offers just one round at each of the participating courses and will run from Jan. 1 through Dec. 31, though memberships are already for sale. Interested golfers can register online at www.thefirstteethegrandstrand.org or call 843-443-7888. Registration is also expected to be available at kiosks at the Strand’s two PGA Tour Superstore locations by late November and possibly at other retail locations.

The program is for locals to support the local organization, and golfers must have a valid driver’s license with an address in one of the two counties to qualify.

“We look at it as a way to give back to the community in Horry and Georgetown counties for their help with the kids,” said East Coast director of sales Gene Weldon, a past Petrea Foundation board member. “We’ve got 50,000 kids we’re trying to reach between the ages of 6 and 18.”

It is similar to the First Tee of Brunswick County Player Card, which is $100 and offers golf on 25 Brunswick County courses for $28 per round. Approximately 2,700 were sold in 2015. The card included 11 Strand courses in S.C. in 2015 but those will be excluded in 2016 with the creation of The First Tee of The Grand Strand Club.

“It will be our primary fundraising vehicle,” said First Tee of the Grand Strand executive director Rich Abraham. “If things work out it will be half of our funding.”

Tee times must be booked within 48 hours of the round, and the club rate is not valid on FGI courses in the peak months of April, May and October.

The number of participating courses could increase if either Founders Group or East Coast expand. FGI is owned by investors from China and purchased its 22 courses between Sept. 2014 and April. The four-year-old East Coast manages four Strand courses and has more than 20 in its rapidly expanding marketing partnership.

The First Tee Club program is in addition to courses accepting the Myrtle Beach Golf Passport discounted rounds card distributed by the Myrtle Beach Area Golf Course Owners Association, and some East Coast courses also offer discounts to MyGolf members.

Founders Group is also becoming the title sponsor and East Coast the supporting sponsor of The First Tee’s Todd Welden Future Generations Invitational, which is scheduled to be held for the fourth time next July at Caledonia Golf & Fish Club. The tournament’s proceeds contribute to First Tee programs and the Carolyn Cudone Memorial Scholarship Fund.

Golf Channel personalities Kelly Tilghman of North Myrtle Beach and Charlie Rymer of Fort Mill have participated in the tournament for the past three years and have filmed segments that have aired on the network’s Morning Drive show.

The First Tee of the Grand Strand hopes to establish a permanent home in Horry and/or Georgetown counties, and funds from membership sales may assist in achieving that goal.

“This vehicle will provide the strength so we can really get on with pursuing that,” said Rusty Petrea, who founded the Petrea Foundation and First Tee of Brunswick County with his wife, Carol. “There are certainly some good potential spots to work. I think the financial side of it has been the reason we haven’t been able to work it hard. This opens that back up again.”

Abraham said the organization is reaching more than 10,000 children in Horry and Georgetown counties through its After School and Saturday programs as well as a National School Day program that is in the physical education curriculums of all 11 Georgetown County elementary schools and 14 of 27 Horry County elementary schools. The fall After School programs have doubled participation since the spring with 122 participants at six locations.

Abraham said the organization is working with leaders of Coastal Carolina University’s PGA Management Program to have students volunteer as coaches in the spring.

The First Tee is in search of more volunteer coaches, and they, along with chapter program directors, will have an opportunity to experience The First Tee’s three-day national Level I training at River Hills in February.

“We can have fully trained coaches out there in every program and that’s significant for our chapter,” Abraham said. “This is the type of thing that takes us into a whole new operation as far as the impact for the kids.”

Hall takes over

Don Hall, who was the executive director of the Boys and Girls Club of the Grand Strand in Myrtle Beach from 2006-14, is the new executive director of the First Tee of Brunswick County.

Hall recently replaced Rebecca Albin, who resigned this summer after leading the organization for more than four years and has taken another job in Brunswick County.

Hall was most recently the executive director of the Teachers’ Supply Closet, a non-profit that provides free school supplies to K-12 teachers at 37 schools in the counties of Charleston, Dorchester and Berkeley.

On to Second Stage

Patrick Lundy of Little River has been assigned Southern Hills Plantation in Brooksville, Fla., as his site for the Second Stage of the Web.com Tour Qualifying Tournament.

Coastal Carolina graduate Charlie Winegardner has been assigned Oak Valley Golf Club in Beaumont, Calif., and CCU grad Andrew Dorn, a three-time All-Big South Conference selection who played in the 2014 U.S. Open and completed his college eligibility in May, is at Deerwood Golf Club in Kingwood, Texas.

The sites of Lundy and Dorn are two of three hosting play from Nov. 10-13, while Winegardner’s site is one of two hosting play from Nov. 17-20.

Lundy said he knows little about Southern Hills Plantation so he’ll rely on practice rounds to become acquainted with the layout.

Jimmy Brandt of Auburn, Ala., who won Golf Channel’s Big Break Myrtle Beach that aired last fall, is at Plantation Preserve Golf Club in Plantation, Fla., from Nov. 17-20.

Others in the second stage include USC alum Wesley Bryan of Chapin, Clemson alum and Charleston resident D.J. Trahan, Charleston’s Nick Flanagan, Bronson La’Cassie and Ryan Nelson, Chris DeForest of Daniel Island, Mark Anderson of Beaufort, Matt Bettencourt of Duncan, Corbin Mills of Easley and Adam Hart of Columbia.

Players advancing through the second stage to the final stage will have at least conditional status on the 2016 Web.com Tour. The Q-School finals are Dec. 10-13 at PGA National in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla.

This story was originally published November 2, 2015 at 9:32 PM with the headline "On Grand Strand Golf: First Tee fundraiser to offer affordable golf to locals."