A chance to ‘get together and celebrate the game’ now realistic for SC golf community

Amid the coronavirus outbreak that changed the world, golf profited from being an outdoor, non-contact sport and experienced a revival. Players flocked to courses and the demand for playing opportunities remains strong 20 months from the pandemic’s American onset.

Tournaments resumed relatively quickly, but one strength of the game, camaraderie, suffered. Safety protocols curbed food service at many clubs and post-round gathering to replay the good shots and bad ones over a beverage almost disappeared.

In addition, events like the Columbia Golf Ball, a fund-raiser for junior golf which annually drew large crowds, could not be held for two years.

“We have missed the opportunity for the golf community to get together and celebrate the game,” said Biff Lathrop, executive director of the South Carolina Golf Association.

To at least partially fill the void, the South Carolina Junior Golf Foundation again will stage a fund-raising oyster roast — a downsized Golf Ball — on Dec. 11 at Junction 800 in the Columbia Vista with a limited number of tickets available.

The roast — with safety precautions still in place — sends a message that, barring another increase in coronavirus cases, golf in South Carolina will return to the “2019 normal.”

The annual celebration called “Golf Day,” canceled in 2021, is on the schedule for Jan. 8, 2022 at Columbia Country Club. The program includes yearly awards presentations and inductions into the state’s Golf Hall of Fame. The Columbia Golf Ball is set for the Thursday of Masters week in April.

“We tried to have the Golf Ball this spring and again in October, but everything got so crazy,” Lathrop said. “We just couldn’t make it work with the delta variant still out there.

“We have had our tournaments, but we haven’t had the opportunity to really connect like we want to with all those who love the game. We had a roast last year and the one in December will be a chance to get together again.”

More evidence of the “2019 normal” — the 2022 schedule is coming together nicely. The major tournaments begin with the Partners Championship in March at Spring Valley CC and the Windermere Club. The South Carolina Amateur is set for August at the Dunes Golf and Beach Club in Myrtle Beach, and Florence CC will hold two high-profile junior events — the SCGA Junior Championship and the SCJGA’s Grant Bennett Junior tournament.

An innovation introduced in January and expected to become more prominent is the SCGA’s smart phone app MySCGA. It has been downloaded more than 6,500 times, and Lathrop would like to see the program used more extensively.

“The app has all things SCGA,” he said. “A player can get news, scores, record a score, sign up for tournaments and everything else. It’s a great tool for our organization, and the best thing is that it’s free. All you need is a (Golf Handicap and Information Network) number from the USGA.”

The app is available in the App Store and Google Play.

“Golf has been fortunate during the pandemic, and we’re obviously looking ahead for better times,” Lathrop said. “We learned some things in coping with safety protocols that will help us going forward, and the main thing I’m anxious for is for the camaraderie to return.”

The next opportunity to gather more nearly like the “2019 normal” comes in December at the oyster roast.

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