Visitors to the PGA Tour’s Myrtle Beach Classic
Courtesy Visit Myrtle Beach
MYRTLE BEACH, SOUTH CAROLINA |
Stroll down the hallway heading toward the grill room in the clubhouse at the Dunes Golf and Beach Club and the story of professional golf along what is called the Grand Strand comes to life. There is a large black-and-white photograph of the graduating class from the 1973 PGA Tour Qualifying School finals played here. Look closely and there’s winner Ben Crenshaw with his long hair and, over his shoulder, there’s Gary McCord. Dr. Gil Morgan and Larry Nelson are there, too. The Senior Tour Championship was played at the Robert Trent Jones Sr. design from 1994 through 1999, a big-money finale that crowned Raymond Floyd, Hale Irwin, Jay Sigel, Jim Colbert, Morgan and McCord as champions. In 2014, Michael Block won the PGA Professional Championship at the Dunes Club. Webb Simpson won the Southern Amateur at the Dunes in 2005 and, back in 1962, Murle Lundstrom won the U.S. Women’s Open here on the edge of the Atlantic Ocean, just a few years before the whole place became synonymous with golf. The Grand Strand is a 60-mile stretch of South Carolina coastline extending north and south from Myrtle Beach, which hosts more than 17 million visitors annually and is home to more than 80 golf courses. It has a little of everything: tacky beach stores, all-you-can-eat buffets, a boardwalk, a giant SkyWheel by the ocean, an impressive strip of high-rise hotels along the beach, Topgolf and PopStroke, high-end restaurants and golf courses. Plenty of golf courses. Dennis Nicholl, director of golf at the Dunes, recalls having a conversation with Tracy Conner, president of the Myrtle Beach Area Golf Course Owners Association, a few years ago and asking, “If we’re the golf capital of the world, why don’t we have a tour event here?” When local officials decided more than 50 years ago to make Myrtle Beach a destination, golf was at the core of the effort. According to Visit Myrtle Beach, the PGA Tour event’s title sponsor, more than 3.2 million rounds are played annually up and down the strand. With approximately 38,000 permanent residents, Myrtle Beach swells to more than 300,000 during the busy summer season. For a place that markets itself as the golf capital of the world, Myrtle Beach will welcome the PGA Tour for the first time when the $4 million Myrtle Beach Classic debuts May 9-12 at the Dunes Club. It’s being played opposite the Wells Fargo Championship, a $20 million signature event just over three hours away in Charlotte, North Carolina, where most of the tour’s top stars will tee it up. It hasn’t dampened the enthusiasm for what feels like a long-overdue stop at the Dunes. Dennis Nicholl, director of golf at the Dunes, recalls having a conversation with Tracy Conner, president of the Myrtle Beach Area Golf Course Owners Association, a few years ago and asking, “If we’re the golf capital of the world, why don’t we have a tour event here?” No. 9 at the Dunes Golf and Beach Club Courtesy Golf Tourism Solutions As it turned out, the tour began having conversations about coming to Myrtle Beach in late 2022. With the support of Visit Myrtle Beach as well as Discover South Carolina and Golf Tourism Solutions, key questions were answered. In late April last year, Conner told Nicholl and superintendent Steve Hamilton that the tour was finalizing a four-year agreement to play at the Dunes. “I thought it would be a Korn Ferry Tour event, but when we heard it was a PGA Tour event, it was hard to process immediately,” Nicholl said. “When he told Steve and me it would happen [this] May, our faces went white.” Fast forward one year and the Dunes is ready. The second-oldest course in Myrtle Beach, the Dunes is a classic old-school design featuring tree-lined fairways and elevated greens. It doesn’t sit on the ocean – the par-3 ninth hole plays toward the Atlantic and offers a striking view of the Dunes’ new beach club – but lagoons, marshes and a large lake with a corner known as the Singleton Swash are key features. No. 13 concludes Alligator Alley at the Dunes. Courtesy Golf Tourism Solutions The 11th through 13th holes are known as Alligator Alley, and there’s no shortage of the creatures around the Dunes. The par-5 13th, which plays like a horseshoe around the swash, is one of the most renowned holes along the strand. Like most beach courses, the wind plays a big role at the Dunes, and the prevailing southwesterly breezes will add an extra bit of bite to a layout listed at 7,347 yards for the tour event. With a short runway to the inaugural event – which will feature Myrtle Beach native Vanna White of “Wheel of Fortune” fame as a celebrity guest on site – all of the championship tees were rebuilt, the putting green and chipping areas were expanded, a second short area was created and various other projects were completed. With 875 members and hosting approximately 3,000 visitor rounds each year, the Dunes was already a busy place. Adding the tour visit accelerated multiple projects. The finishing green at the Dunes Courtesy Golf Tourism Solutions When it came time to begin soliciting volunteers late last year, more than 4,000 asked to receive information. When registration went live in October, more than 1,500 volunteers signed up in eight hours. Ticket sales, originally expected to be around 4,000 per day, are approaching 10,000 per day. Every hospitality venue around the 18th green sold out, and more have been built around the 17th hole including a small fan zone with various attractions. “We thought year one would be like an introduction and we could learn from it,” Nicholl said. “We don’t have time to learn. We are doing it.” At a place built around golf, the PGA Tour is finally coming to town. © 2024 Global Golf Post LLC
