The ONEFlight Myrtle Beach Classic, to be contested May 8-11 at the Dunes Golf and Beach Club, will have a variety of innovations – from local golf-course agronomists pitching in to free private-jet flights for the 50 players who make the weekend cut.
In the field for the Wednesday celebrity pro-am will be North Myrtle Beach native Vanna White, who has been turning letters for “Wheel of Fortune” since 1983. Kevin Costner and Kurt Russell will also compete.
ONEFlight International, the private-jet title co-sponsor with Visit Myrtle Beach, is taking extraordinary steps to help this week’s event get off the ground. The Denver-based company is offering a five-hour flight credit to the top 50 players after the cut.
A Shag dancing competition will be held from night. Shag is a form of two-person dancing involving smooth footwork that originated in the Carolinas.
This is the second edition of Myrtle Beach’s PGA Tour event, which means refinements from last year’s inaugural tournament. General spectator viewing has been added adjacent to the 18th green, and food truck vendors have been added to create a festival atmosphere at the Fan Zone, located near the 17th green.
More than 20 area agronomy students will be volunteering at the Dunes Club for the week of the tournament, and another 10 students are already working part-time on staff at the Club. In addition, about a dozen golf course superintendents in the area will take time off to help Steve Hamilton, the Dunes Club’s director of agronomy, present the best golf course for the 132 golfers. The helpers will mow greens, rake bunkers, hand water the greens and perform detail trimming.
The Dunes Club has a rich history in championship golf. A Robert Trent Jones Sr.-designed course, the Dunes Club was incorporated in 1948. In addition to last year’s ONEflight Myrtle Beach Classic, the course was host to the season-ending Charles Schwab Cup Championship on PGA Tour Champions from 1994 to 1999, with notables Raymond Floyd, Jim Colbert, Jay Sigel, Gil Morgan, Hale Irwin and Gary McCord claiming titles.
The event this year won’t be a pushover. The primary rough at the Dunes Club is being cut to 2-½ inches. The rough at a typical PGA Tour event can vary, but is generally 2-4 inches tall, with some venues featuring rough as low as 1-½ inches, depending on the difficulty of the design. By comparison, the rough at the U.S. Open is typically cut to between 3 and 5 inches.