On Grand Strand Golf: Mayor’s Cup expands to include all city courses

After a full decade of calling Whispering Pines Golf Club home, changes to the 11th annual Mayor’s Cup this year will make the amateur tournament more of a true city championship and could bring it renewed life.

The tournament will incorporate the three courses that are in the Myrtle Beach city limits, as the 54-hole event will move from Whispering Pines to Pine Lakes Country Club to the Grande Dunes Resort Course over its three days from Nov. 18-20

The tournament dates are Friday through Sunday.

“It’s been at Whispering Pines for quite a while and since there are three courses technically in the city of Myrtle Beach, I thought we’d involve all of them and give the participants a good variety,” said Chip Smith, owner of Atlantic Golf Management, which operates Whispering Pines. “It’s the Mayor’s Cup and the city open championship. It gives people a taste of three different golf courses all together.”

Smith and Founders Group International general manager Tom Plankers, whose company owns and operates both Pine Lakes and the Grande Dunes Resort Course, joined forces to reorganize the tournament.

An entry fee of $249 includes a tee gift, lunch each day and a post-tournament awards banquet at Grande Dunes.

The men’s and women’s tournaments have been combined into the same dates this year, and there are six divisions, as both men and women have an Open Division for those 49 and under, a Senior Division (50-64) and Super Senior Division (65 and over). There will be flights within the divisions.

The format is gross stroke play, so there will be no net winners. Each division will be flighted based on scores following the second round, and prizes will be awarded to the top three places.

The tournament is open to anyone 18 or older, so there are no residence requirements.

Tee times are reserved at each course for a sellout of 100 players.

“From the phone calls and emails we’re getting and everything else we think it’s going to be a very well-received event. I think it’s going to sell out,” said Keith Stanzel, Whispering Pines director of marketing and sales.

Entry applications can be picked up in the pro shops of the participating courses. Call the Whispering Pines pro shop at 843-918-2305 for more information.

With three courses being used, the tournament has the potential to accommodate hundreds of players.

“If it’s successful this year we can grow the field,” Smith said. “I think it has a lot of possibilities to do that. Under the right scenario we could be playing at all three courses each day and rotating. It has the potential to be a large deal.”

Four among best

Golf Magazine unveiled its biennial list of America’s “Top 100 You Can Play,” a ranking of the nation’s best public-access courses, in its September issue and four Grand Strand layouts made the cut.

Two are in the top 40.

Caledonia Golf & Fish Club in Pawleys Island, a 6,526-yard par-70 designed by Mike Strantz, is No. 29 after being at No. 27 in the 2014 ranking. The Dunes Golf and Beach Club, a 7,370-yard par-72 designed by Robert Trent Jones, has moved up three spots since the last ranking to No. 39.

Both True Blue Golf Club, another Strantz design that is a 7,126-yard par-72, and the Davis Love III-designed course at Barefoot Resort, a par-72 that measures 7,047 yards, maintained their rankings from 2014 at Nos. 77 and 85, respectively.

The magazine also named the top 20 course you can play in South Carolina and the Strand dominated the list with six courses in the top 10 and 13 in the top 20.

On the S.C. state list are No. 3 Caledonia, The Dunes Club (4), True Blue Golf Club (6), Barefoot Resort Love (7), Tidewater Plantation & Golf Club (8), TPC Myrtle Beach (10), Barefoot Resort Fazio (12), Grande Dunes Resort Course (13), Barefoot Resort Dye (14), Myrtle Beach National King’s North (15), Heritage Club (17), Pawleys Plantation (18) and Legends Resort’s Heathland Course.

Among the top 20 courses in North Carolina, Leopard’s Chase at Ocean Ridge Plantation in Sunset Beach is No. 9, Tiger’s Eye at Ocean Ridge is No. 12, Rivers Edge Golf Club in Shallotte is No. 16 and Cape Fear National in Leland is No. 18.

Tim Cate, whose office is at Ocean Ridge, designed Leopard’s Chase, Tiger’s Eye and Cape Fear National, and Rivers Edge is an Arnold Palmer design.

One Foot out

With the decision by the owners of Meadowlands Golf Club to close its FootGolf course in April, it’s believed that the hybrid sport is now only being offered locally at two Grand Strand properties.

Sister golf complexes Tupelo Bay Golf Center in Garden City Beach and Harbour View Golf in Little River added FootGolf to their offerings last summer and the sport remains quite popular at both locations, particularly at night as both facilities are lighted and remain open late.

FootGolf is a combination of soccer and golf and its holes on the Strand have been set up to play alongside and intersperse with golf holes. The rules generally mirror the rules of golf, with 21-inch-diameter cups.

Meadowlands introduced the sport to the Strand in the summer of 2014.

While Meadowlands loses a feature, it’s sister course, Farmstead Golf Links on the S.C./N.C. border, is gaining one. Course operators are building a practice putting green adjacent to the 10th tee box to go along with one closer to the clubhouse and first tee box so players beginning a round on the 10th will have more opportunities to practice putting before teeing off. The practice green should be open by Oct. 1.

Wyndham has storylines

The final PGA Tour event in the Carolinas in 2016 is upon us, and Jim Furyk will play competitively this week for the first time since he shot a tour-record 58 on Aug. 7 in the final round of the Travelers Championship.

He’s among the headliners at the 77th annual $5.6 million Wyndham Championship at Sedgefield Country Club in Greensboro, N.C.

Four of the top 10 and 11 of the top 30 golfers in the current FedExCup point standings, as well as 10 of the top 30 golfers in the Official World Golf Rankings are entered.

The world’s highest-ranked players in the field include Rickie Fowler (eighth) and Patrick Reed (14th), who both played in the Olympics in Rio this past week, PGA Championship winner Jimmy Walker (17th), Hideki Matsuyama (19th), J.B. Holmes (21st), Furyk (23rd), Brandt Snedeker (24th) Scott Piercy (27th), Rafa Cabrera Bello (29th) and Kevin Kisner (30th).

Some of the leaders in FedExCup points in the field include Snedeker (sixth), Reed (eighth), Justin Thomas (ninth), Kisner (10th), Kevin Na (12th), William McGirt (14th), Walker (15th), Hideki Matsuyama (19th), Jason Dufner (22nd), Fowler (29th) and Bill Haas (30th).

The Wyndham is now the penultimate chance for golfers to earn Ryder Cup points before the top-eight U.S. players qualify for the team on Aug. 29, so the field also features a heavy contingent of golfers near the bubble including Holmes (seventh), Reed (eighth), Snedeker (ninth), Fowler (12th), Piercy (13th), Haas (14th), McGirt (16th), Furyk (18th) and Dufner (19th).

Most significant to many in the field is the fact the tournament is the last opportunity for players to get into the top 125 in FedExCup points to earn entry next week into The Barclays at Bethpage State Park, the first of four playoff events.

If the tournament track record is an accurate indication, scores should be low this week.

Sedgefield Country Club, which debuted as host of the tournament in 2008, has been the easiest par-70 on the PGA Tour schedule.

In 2015 alone there was a 61 and five 62s that contributed to an overall scoring average of 68.858. The course’s two par 5s – Nos. 5 and 15 – ranked as the second-easiest of the season with a scoring average of 4.45.

Joining the field in a PGA Tour qualifier Monday at Bermuda Run Country Club featuring more than 80 players were Josh Broadaway of Dothan, Ala., Jesse Hutchins of Statesville, N.C., Adam Hart of Columbia and Michael Johnson of St. Simons Island, Ga. All four players shot 5-under 66s and a playoff wasn’t needed.

Patrick Lundy of Little River shot a 75 and Cory Martin of North Myrtle Beach a 78 in the qualifier.

This story was originally published August 15, 2016 at 9:51 PM with the headline "On Grand Strand Golf: Mayor’s Cup expands to include all city courses."