McCarty, Litchfield CC garner annual Myrtle Beach area golf honors

Longtime Glens Group employee Ryan McCarty and Litchfield Country Club, which is celebrating 50 years in business in 2016, have been named the Grand Strand golf employee and course of the year by the Myrtle Beach Area Golf Course Owners Association.

McCarty is the general manager of Shaftesbury Glen Golf & Fish Club and Shaftesbury Suites, and director of marketing and public relations for The Glens Group, which manages and markets four courses: Shaftesbury Glen, Heather Glen Golf Links, Glen Dornoch Waterway Golf Links and Possum Trot Golf Club.

Duties in his positions include overseeing day-to-day operations in golf, merchandising, food and beverage, event planning and staffing.

He shared GM duties at both Shaftesbury Glen and Wicked Stick Golf Links for a few years before Wicked Stick closed last August.

During a renovation project at Shaftesbury this past winter that included drainage improvements and the addition of waste areas on several holes, McCarty worked daily on the upgrades with the maintenance crew.

He is involved with numerous groups aimed at improving the Myrtle Beach golf industry, serving on the boards of marketing cooperative Myrtle Beach Golf Holiday, Golf Holiday marketing and the T-Links booking engine. He has also been selected to head the 15-course Best of Myrtle Beach Golf Co-op.

McCarty, 37, grew up in the Pittsburgh area and worked at a couple courses there before moving to Myrtle Beach. His grandparents were snowbirds and he came to the area annually around Thanksgiving. “I was familiar with the area and knew I wanted to be in the golf business so this was the place I wanted to be,” McCarty said.

He was hired as an assistant at Heather Glen in 2000 and got the head pro job there for a short time before moving to Shaftesbury, where he was first the head pro before being promoted to GM about six years ago. Shaftesbury is the host course for the Conway High boys and girls golf teams, and the club is home to the South Carolina Golf Center and S.C. Junior Golf Academy.

“I’m proud to get it and feel honored my peers voted me in,” McCarty said.

Litchfield Country Club opened in 1966 as one of the first five golf courses on the Grand Strand and inspired the development of 10 more golf courses along the Waccamaw Neck. Most of those courses now comprise the Waccamaw Golf Trail.

The Willard Byrd design features a Lowcountry look and feel with live oaks and ornamental plant and flower beds and has maintained consistent conditioning and consistency in leadership with head pro Christa Bodensteiner, who first worked at the course 22 years ago and has been the head pro since 2001, and superintendent Barry “Digger” Barthleman.

The course employs 65 people in various positions and the club and its parent company, Founders Group International, donate thousands of rounds annually to raise money for local charities. It has hosted several charity tournaments over the years and is the home course for the Lowcountry Preparatory School.

Its tennis venue, Litchfield Racquet Club, features 17 clay courts and hosts an annual event to benefit Teach My People, which supports youth development programs.

The course has a practice facility, clubhouse and separate building housing a restaurant.

McCarty and Litchfield CC will be presented with their awards during the September meeting of MBAGCOA.

Both McCarty and Litchfield CC are now up for the state course and employee of the year awards as chosen by the South Carolina Golf Course Owners Association. Litchfield is also eligible for nomination for the National Golf Course Owners Association’s national course of the year award.

Criteria for the S.C. course owners employee award includes professionalism, integrity and outstanding service; exceptional quality of work and results; contribution and involvement in the local and state community; and significant contribution to the game/industry.

S.C. Am at DeBordieu

Many of the top amateurs in the state will be on the south end of the Grand Strand this week competing for the Billy Lewis Trophy in the 85th South Carolina Amateur Championship from Thursday through Sunday at the 7,012-yard par-72 DeBordieu Club in Georgetown.

A youth movement in the tournament began in 2009, and over the past seven years the event has been won by both high school and college players. Seventy-eight players in this year’s championship are under the age of 24 and many of them have accomplished junior and amateur resumes.

Inman’s Trent Phillips, 16, is coming off a victory at the Palmetto Amateur in Aiken, is ranked 31st among juniors in the United States, and is first in both the S.C. state junior and amateur point rankings.

This year, Phillips also finished second in the Azalea Invitational amateur at the Country Club of Charleston and won the S.C. Junior Championship, which was won in 2014 and ’15 by Jack Parrott of Columbia and Christian Salzer of Sumter, who are also entered this week.

The past three S.C. Amateur champions are all in college, and Keenan Huskey of Greenville (University of South Carolina), Andrew Novak of Mount Pleasant (Wofford) and Carson Young of Pendleton (Clemson) are grouped together in a threesome that tees off in the morning Thursday and afternoon Friday.

Clemson’s Bryson Nimmer of Bluffton, the Atlantic Coast Conference Freshman of the Year and an All-ACC Selection, recently finished in sixth at The Players Amateur at Berkeley Hall in Bluffton and played well at the Palmetto Amateur as well.

The tournament is not bereft of older talent, as Todd White of Spartanburg is among the top career amateurs in the nation.

White won the S.C. Amateur back in 1990, and the high school teacher has been busy in recent years. He was member of the 2013 Walker Cup team and a co-champion of the inaugural USGA Amateur Four-Ball Championship in 2015. He recently finished seventh at the Palmetto Amateur, 14th at the Jones Cup Invitational and 13th in the Azalea Invitational, made the round of 16 at the 2016 USGA Four-Ball, and advanced through a 2016 U.S. Open local qualifier.

Entrant Lee Palms was the last non-collegiate golfer to hold the S.C. Am trophy, winning in 2008 at Musgrove Mill Golf Club, and finished second to Huskey last year after posting a 10-under 278.

Thomas Todd of Laurens and Jarrett Grimes of Columbia, who each qualified Monday for the 2016 U.S. Mid-Amateur Championship, join White and Palms as veterans who might contend.

Seven of the top 10 ranked players in the S.C. Golf Association’s Player of the Year standings are in this year’s field.

Former winners of the S.C. Am include 2009 U.S. Open champion Lucas Glover, 2011 FedExCup champion Bill Haas, PGA Tour winner D.J. Trahan and current Web.com Tour member Mark Anderson.

Entrants from the Grand Strand include Rion Moore Jr. of Georgetown, Judson Holliday of Aynor, Austin Frick of Myrtle Beach, Adam Langford of Murrells Inlet, and Jackson Cole, Trey Salley and Roy Hunter of Pawleys Island.

Tee times run from 7:30-9:20 a.m. and from noon-1:40 p.m. Thursday and Friday before the field is cut to the low 70 players and ties. Sunday’s final round is scheduled to begin at 8 a.m. Spectators are welcome but will have to walk the course. Live scoring will be available at http://bit.ly/2apOU6X.

The tournament is open to males 14 and older who have a handicap index of 10.4 or better. Participants must be residents of South Carolina who are exempt or advanced through qualifiers.

Sole adds location

The Mel Sole Golf School has opened a second location on the Grand Strand to go along with a new location at the Tupelo Bay Golf Center in Garden City.

As of Monday, the 25-year school operated by South Africa native Mel Sole is doing business at Sea Trail Golf Resort & Convention Center in Sunset Beach, N.C.

The school was forced to find new locations after being displaced from both Pawleys Plantation and the Grande Dunes Resort Course this spring.

Sea Trail Resort includes three golf courses, two clubhouses and two practice facilities.

PGA of America Class A teaching pro David Olberding, who has been with the Sole Golf School for more than 20 years and was recently running the Grande Dunes school, is the Sea Trail lead instructor.

Instruction will be available year-round, and include one- to three-day programs focusing on all aspects of the game. Sole emphasizes keeping the swing as simple as possible and working with each individual’s unique capabilities, and video analysis is included.

The Sole school has been ranked among the “Top 25 USA Golf Schools” by Golf Magazine since 1999. Sole began teaching on the Strand in 1989 with his own swing instructor and teaching mentor Phil Ritson at the Phil Ritson Golf School at Legends Resort. He moved the school to Pawleys Plantation in 1991.

There are five Mel Sole Golf School locations, including Furman University Golf Club in Greenville, Holiday Valley Resort Golf Course in Ellicottville, N.Y., and Club de Golf Malinalco in Malinalco, Mexico.

World Am deadline

The online entry deadline for the 33rd Myrtle Beach World Amateur Handicap Championship, being played on approximately 60 Grand Strand courses from Aug. 29 to Sept. 2, is Friday.

The tournament is expected to have between 3,100 and 3,400 players for the fourth consecutive year and players can register at www.worldamgolf.com. After Friday, players with up-to-date and verifiable handicaps will be able to enter by phone (800-833-8798) or email (wahc@golfholiday.com) for about another week.

The tournament had a $50 price increase this year. Early entry through May 19 went up from $475 to $525, the cost increased to $575 until June 28 and has been $625 since.

Junior event nearing

The registration deadline is Wednesday for the Hurricane Junior Golf Tour’s Myrtle Beach Junior Open on Aug. 13-14 at True Blue Golf Club.

The entry fee for the 36-hole event is $195 for members and $245 for non-members.

There are four boys divisions ranging from under 10 to ages 16-18, and two girls divisions of under 13 and ages 14-18.

Points are awarded in multiple junior golf organizations, and winners in each division qualify for the 2016 Tour Championship from Dec. 3-4. Players can register at hjgt.org.

The Hurricane Tour returns to the area for the Myrtle Beach Junior Challenge from Sept. 24-25 at Myrtle Beach National’s West Course.

Free junior event

The inaugural Sandpiper Bay Golf & Country Club Junior Tournament will be played Saturday, Aug. 13, with tee times starting at 9 a.m.

The tournament should be particularly attractive to parents and players because it’s free. Supported by The First Tee of Brunswick County, the event includes lunch and prizes and has three-, six- and nine-hole divisions for players ages 7-17. Players can call the Sandpiper Bay pro shop at 910-579-9120 to register.

Vaugh impresses

Keegan Vaugh of Myrtle Beach tied for 17th among 135 players in the Boys 14-15 division of the Optimist International Junior Golf Championships at PGA National Resort & Spa in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla.

Vaugh fired rounds of 72, 80 and 74 to finish at 10-over 226 Friday, 17 shots behind winner Austin Greaser of Vandalia, Ohio.

Vaugh played during the second weekly phase of the tournament. The third and final phase began Monday and includes Madison Elliott of Little River in the Girls 15-18 division. She is tied for 50th after shooting an 81.

This year’s event features more than 660 qualifying players ages 10-18 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.

This story was originally published August 1, 2016 at 10:38 PM with the headline "McCarty, Litchfield CC garner annual Myrtle Beach area golf honors."