On Grand Strand Golf: Love golf and have a phone? You can earn $10,000 and a trip

Myrtle Beach Golf Holiday has created one of its most ambitious promotions to date.

The marketing cooperative is giving away $10,000 and a free golf vacation through a promotion it has dubbed the “Myrtle Beach Golf Is Great Video Contest.”

Individuals or groups of golfers are urged to shoot a video on a golf course that is 3 minutes or less and explains – hopefully with some creativity – why they think golf is great.

“Golf gets some negative publicity from time to time, and we’re trying to stimulate some consumers to tell us why they love the game and why they love playing it, and if it includes why they love playing it in Myrtle Beach that’s even better,” Golf Holiday president Bill Golden said. “Our goal is to try to stimulate some content and some positive commentary on golf.

“We’ll do a public relations initiative and push this information out when we get it all done. It will certainly provide great content for us to use in time.”

Entrants can post their videos to Facebook or YouTube with the hashtag #GolfisGreat and share the link with Golf Holiday. The video must be posted and a submission form entered by Oct. 1.

Originality will be highly valued.

Videos have started to roll in, and many are quite entertaining.

Golf Holiday ran some TV spots promoting the contest on ESPN during Coastal Carolina’s games in the College World Series and has some on Golf Channel. The contest is also prominent on Golf Holiday’s Facebook page.

“We’re getting some momentum now,” Golden said. “We’ve never done this before, and I don’t know if anybody has done this in the golf space, necessarily. So it will be an interesting test for us, but we wanted to see if we can have some fun with this and reward somebody.”

Some videos will be posted on the Golf Holiday website and/or Facebook page as they arrive. The public will identify the top-10 finalists through a vote after Oct. 1 and Golf Holiday officials will determine the winner.

“The goal is to create some viral videos, some shareable content, and just have some fun with it,” Golden said. “As we begin to circulate some of these videos and put them up, and people get an idea what these videos are about, hopefully they get the idea that, ‘Hey, we can do that. Let’s go out and produce a video to top that.’

“Most of them will be of a good length to put on social media. In the end it’s not necessarily about Myrtle Beach but the fact that we’re behind it and trying to stimulate some positive commentary and positive vibes for the game of golf.”

Open to traveling

Zack Byrd of Murrells Inlet is on a virtual tour of the United States this summer as he bounces from one state open to the next in an attempt to earn some money and keep his game sharp.

In the past six weeks, Byrd has played in open tournaments or qualifiers for them in Massachusetts, Wyoming, Colorado and Iowa, and was traveling Monday from Iowa back to Colorado for the Colorado Open.

He is having some success after a relatively slow start.

His travels began in May when he flew north for a qualifier in Massachusetts, and he tied for 26th in the Mass Open from June 13-15 at Worcester Country Club with a 6-over 71-76-69–216 for a minor payday.

He tied for fourth in the Wyoming State Open on July 10 at Airport Golf Club in Cheyenne, Wyo., with a score of 9-under 71-67-63–201 and earned $2,356, and flew to Colorado for a qualifier July 12 at Eagle Ranch in Eagle, Colo., where he shot 69 to tie for fifth.

He then flew to Iowa for the Waterloo Open at the Irv Warren, Gates Park and South Hills courses in Waterloo. The tournament concluded Sunday, and Byrd shot a 17-under 68-67-64–199 to finish 10th and earn $3,350.

So he has closed with rounds of 63 and 64 in his past two tournaments. “I’ve hit it well the last two weeks. I just haven’t putted well the last two first rounds,” Byrd said.

The Colorado Open is Thursday through Sunday at Green Valley Ranch Golf Club in Denver.

He returns home Monday, but still has scheduled the Iowa Open from Aug. 14-16 at Lake Panorama National Golf Course in Panora, Iowa, Nebraska Open from Sept. 9-11 at Elks Country Club in Columbus, Neb., and New Mexico Open from Sept. 13-15 at Sandia Resort & Casino Golf Club in Albuquerque, N.M.

Massachusetts and Colorado were the only state opens that had qualifiers. The other tournaments he has entered required only registration.

Byrd is traveling for two weeks with Cody Martin, a friend from Kentucky who is also playing. Martin tied for 18th in Wyoming and tied for 51st Sunday among the 55 players who made the cut in the Waterloo Open.

Entry fees for the state opens are generally manageable. The Waterloo Open was the most at about $1,000, but that included a caddie in the pro-am and the purse was $192,000 with $55,000 to the winner.

Iowa and Colorado are about $600 each, Wyoming was $325, Massachusetts was $300 and both Nebraska and New Mexico are $300-$400 or so.

“Entry fees are pretty cheap,” said Byrd, who owns a small travel agency. “It’s less expensive than playing on any tour, and I’m pretty good at keeping expenses down. I’ve gotten pretty good at being poor.”

The Colorado Open has the top purse of all state opens, Byrd said, with $250,000 up for grabs including $100,000 to the winner.

Byrd is hoping all the traveling and tournament play will have him prepared for a likely run at the Web.com Tour Qualifying Tournament in the fall.

Cocca wins state am

Bailey Cocca, a Myrtle Beach resident, New York native and recent Coastal Carolina graduate, won her first New York State Women’s Amateur Championship on Friday in a playoff at Elmira Country Club after shooting a 6-over 79-72-74–225.

Cocca wants to play for at least one more year and is trying to determine if she’ll turn pro or remain an amateur in the coming months. Her family owns Coccadott's Cake Shops in the area and elsewhere.

“It kind of buys me more time to figure it out by winning,” said Cocca, who will visit family in New York for another week before returning to the Grand Strand.

Cocca has been working with swing instructor Alasdair Dyer at Barefoot Resort, and they have worked on a swing adjustment for the past couple weeks.

“I’ve been focusing on practicing and working on things I need to work on so I can be ready for [LPGA Tour] Q-School next year,” Cocca said. “I’m definitely not doing Q-School this year. I’m not ready.”

Cocca, who won the New York State Junior Girls Championship twice by the age of 16, entered the final round three shots behind 36-hole leader Marianna Monaco and tied with defending champion Kyra Cox. She was 2 under on the front nine to pull within two shots, pulled even by the 13th hole, and took the lead with a par on the par-4 14th after nearly driving the green.

A Monaco birdie on 16 left the two tied and Cox a shot back. Cocca got up and down for par from a greenside bunker on the par-4 17th, both Cocca and Monaco made rather routine pars on the 18th to force a playoff, and Cox missed a 10-foot birdie putt on the 18th that would have qualified her for extra holes.

Cocca hit a wedge to 12 feet on the first playoff hole, and though she missed the birdie putt, Monaco three-putted for bogey from 15 feet on the back fringe, missing a 3-footer for par.

First Tee air time

Golf Channel will have a film crew at The First Tee of the Grand Strand’s Future Generations Tournament on Tuesday at Caledonia Golf & Fish Club, and a segment from the event is expected to air on the network’s Morning Drive show on either Wednesday or Thursday.

The fundraising tournament tees off at 1 p.m., and Golf Channel associate producer and editor Donald Goertz will be on site and said filming will begin around 11 a.m. It will likely include an event recap, footage and interviews with some First Tee juniors, opening remarks by Golf Channel personalities and tournament hosts Kelly Tilghman and Charlie Rymer, and information about The First Tee of the Grand Strand, Myrtle Beach, and the connection Tilghman and Rymer have to the area, event and organization.

Morning Drive generally airs live from 7-9 a.m. weekdays with replays following from 9-11 a.m. The segment will likely find its way to Golfchannel.com and the network’s social media outlets as well.

Golf Holiday will be streaming a live feed on Facebook from the event from about 12:45-1:30 p.m. using phones or ipads. The time frame could expand and coverage is expected to focus on Rymer and Tilghman, who will be hitting shots for groups on the ninth tee box.

The marketing cooperative will also have a video crew on site that will be utilizing a drone, and will be filming for a recap highlight video that both it and The First Tee can use for promotional material on internet sites and social media.

“It’s just so people can get a feel for the event and to help The First Tee,” Golf Holiday president Bill Golden said.

Juniors in Optimist

Keegan Vaugh of Myrtle Beach and Madison Elliott of Little River are among more than 660 of golf's top junior golfers registered to compete in the Optimist International Junior Golf Championships beginning this week at PGA National Resort & Spa in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla.

Junior golfers ages 10 to 18 will travel from around the world to play in the annual tournament.

Vaugh is entered in the Boys 14-15 division, and Elliott is in the Girls 15-18 division.

Boys in age divisions 10-11 and 12-13, and girls 10-12 will play Wednesday through Monday. Boys 14-15 and girls 13-14 will play July 25-30, and boys 16-18 and girls 15-18 will compete July 30-Aug. 4.

This year’s event features players representing 22 nations, 42 states and four Canadian provinces. Former champions and top finishers of the Optimist International Junior Golf Championships include PGA Tour members Jonathan Byrd, Jason Day and Jeff Overton and LPGA members Brooke Henderson, Stacy Lewis, Brittany Lincicome and Lexi Thompson.

Sease wins at home

Christian Sease of Mount Pleasant, who has been a member of the Country Club of Charleston since he was 5, prevailed in a four-hole playoff on his home course to win the 102nd Carolinas Amateur on Sunday.

Sease, 22, and 2012 Carolinas Amateur champion Carson Young of Pendleton both shot 72-hole totals of 8-under 272 before the playoff for the Richard S. Tufts Trophy. In Saturday’s third round, Sease carded a 7-under 63 that included a hole in one.

Following a six-hour weather delay Sunday, he holed par putts of 10 and 12 feet to extend the playoff before winning with a bogey on the fourth playoff hole.

This story was originally published July 18, 2016 at 8:18 PM with the headline "On Grand Strand Golf: Love golf and have a phone? You can earn $10,000 and a trip."