Booming golf market puts SCGA in unique pinch as it plans 2022 tournaments
Participation in golf is booming, a fact that creates a good-news, bad-news scenario in the Palmetto State.
The contradiction leads to a challenge — albeit a welcome one — for administrators like Biff Lathrop, who heads the South Carolina Golf Association.
On a recent trip to a junior tournament at the Country Club of Charleston, he learned that 36,000 rounds had been played over the Charleston municipal course by the end of July.
“That’s crazy good,” he said. “I don’t know how they can pull that off, getting that many rounds played in seven months. That just illustrates the demand.”
Tee sheets probably are not that full everywhere, but the days of heading to the course on a whim and expecting to find the first hole open are over, at least for now.
That’s the good news. And the bad is not really bad, just challenging.
“We’re planning for next year, and golf clubs are so busy that it’s hard for them to give up their courses (for tournaments),” Lathrop said. ‘We’re working with them to see what’s the best route for all concerned.”
The SCGA’s biggest tournament, the South Carolina Amateur, is set for the Dunes Golf and Beach Club in Myrtle Beach next August. Securing sites for other big ones remains a work in progress.
“We understand,” Lathrop said. “Having so many people playing golf and wanting to play golf is a good thing.”
“Good” describes the 2021 tournament season in South Carolina. After the pandemic-mandated protocols created adjust-on-the-fly scenarios a year ago, a sense of normalcy returned to events.
“Safety of players and officials remains the top priority, but most things are like we’ve done through the years,” Lathop said.
Golf obviously profited from being an outdoor, non-contact sport. On the other hand, the SCGA’s indoor fund-raisers took a hit. The pandemic forced cancellation of the Columbia Golf Ball for the second straight year.
“Again, safety matters, and we’re not going to put people at risk,” Lathrop said. “We hope to do something in the fall, but I doubt if an event with 400 or more people indoors is going to happen. We had a small oyster roast last year and we might do that again.”
Overall, he called 2021 “a good year” with the possibility for more pluses.
“Recreational play is up at all levels — juniors, men and women, seniors,” Lathrop said. “We have more players sign up for our tournaments than we have space for. We’ve had great competition, and we have South Carolina players who have excelled nationally.”
Among the latter is West Columbia’s Jensen Castle, who won the U.S. Women’s Amateur and this weekend is representing the United States in the Curtis Cup competition. Seneca’s Austin Ernst is on the U.S. squad in next week’s Solheim Cup. Columbia native Dustin Johnson won the postponed-until-November 2020 Masters and Aiken’s Kevin Kisner and Greenville native Lucas Glover won 2021 PGA Tour tournaments.
“On and on,” Lathrop said. “We have three of our seniors (Eddie Hargett, Walter Todd and Rick Cloninger) in the U.S. Senior Amateur this weekend. We had three guys (Jacob Bridgeman, Jonathan Griz and Trent Phillips) qualify for match-play in the U.S. Amateur. Dustin (Johnson) is No. 2 in the world and Kevin (Kisner) is in the top 35 or so.
“Golf in South Carolina is really good.”
But about those 2022 tournament sites?
“All good,” he said. “With so many people playing, that’s a good problem to have.”
Chip shots. Former USC Aiken stars Dane Burkhart (Aiken) and Scott Usher (Charleston) captured the SCGA’s Mid-Amateur Four-Ball title at Bull’s Bay GC in Awendaw. Kyle Bearden and Blake Austin, both from Barnwell, finished second. ... The College of Charleston duo of Jack Parrott (Columbia) and Jodie Tindal (Rock Hill) combined to win the CGA’s Carolinas Mixed Team title at the Wild Dunes Resort’s Harbor Course on the Isle of Palms. Parrott, a graduate transfer, played four seasons at USC. ... Jayne Pardus (Mount Pleasant) surged from behind to claim the CGA’s Carolinas Women’s Senior Amateur for the second time in three years in Rutherfordton, North Carolina.