Make no doubt about it. With its beaches, lodging options, golf courses and wide variety of other attractions Myrtle Beach, S.C., is – at least arguably – the top tourist destination in the Carolinas.
For a week in May, however, it’ll be a bit more than that. It’ll be the site of a PGA Tour event in one of that circuit’s most important months of the year. The PGA Championship, at Quail Hollow in Charlotte, N.C., comes up a week after the ONEFlight Myrtle Beach Classic, which is May 8-11.
The PGA Championship is the second of the four major golf championships of 2025. The ONEFlight Myrtle Beach Classic is in only its second staging, but the first was a success and the second has a new title sponsor. It’ll again be played at the Dunes Club, a layout that has thrived on Atlantic Beach since 1939.
Myrtle Beach’s tournament won’t have all the golf stars that will be at Quail Hollow a week later, but it’ll have a tournament well worth watching again. Chris Gotterup won the initial playing in 2024 with a 22-under-par performance.
The lead-in has been innovative. The Q at Myrtle Beach was introduced before the first staging and was honored as the PGA Tour’s Best In-Class Element award-winner for 2024. The Q features 16 players – eight aspiring pros and eight influential content creators in an 18-hole stroke play competition. It was held on March 3 at TPC Myrtle Beach but the winner will be revealed on YouTube on May 5.
That player’s identity has created pre-tourney interest, as he will get a spot in the Classic field. Last year’s winner – pro golfer Matt Atkins – made the cut in the tournament proper and finished tied for 46th place.
KENTUCKY GOLF TRAIL – This new venture has a new logo and is also drawing interest with one of its courses, Woodford Club in Versailles, hosting a significant tournament. The Bluegrass Women’s Senior Amateur Championship will be played there May 5-8.
The Kentucky Golf Trail, organized by veteran professional Bob Baldassari, has six courses – Woodford, Bardstown Country Club, Gibson Bay, Cherry Blossom, Greenbrier and GlenOaks.
In addition to golf, the tour participants can visit Bourbon distillerys and get behind-the-scenes looks at Kentucky’s rich history of horse racing with tours of the state’s horse farms.
A REAL GOLF MECCA: The numbers don’t lie. The Villages, in Florida, can make a case for being “the single largest golf community in the world.’’
That claim was made after the area’s courses reported 3.4 million rounds were played in 2023. That number tailed off to 2.983 million in 2024, but that didn’t reflect a reduction in golf enthusiasm. Every course had to be closed for at least two weeks last year because of weather-related problems.
Villages courses reported 747 holes of golf were available in 2023. Now the number is 792. It doesn’t seem like the community needs more courses, but we heard of a new 18-hole opening and had to check it out.
Shallow Creek, the 14th championship course in the area, was a lot of fun to play. Kenny Ezell, The Villages course architect with the Clifton, Ezell and Clifton Golf Design Group, created a par-70 layout with six par-3s and four par-5s. It has TifTuf fairways and TifEagle greens. The Villages High School borders the layout, which will be the home course for the school’s boys and girls teams. Shallow Creek also features the Boosters Bar & Grill. It has 50 TVs and a menu particularly notable for its extensive hot dog options.
So, now The Villages course count is 46 executive layouts and 14 championship 18-holers – and more are coming. The Woodlands, an 18-holer, and Meadow View, which will have 27 holes, are in various stages of development. And that doesn’t count practice facilities and putting courses. The Villages has those, too.
Ezell offered this explanation for the extraordinarily rapid growth of golf in The Villages Magazine: “We are going to try to introduce the game to any and everybody that wants to experience the game of a lifetime and what has made The Villages such a hub for golf.’’
COMING SOON: The French Lick Resort, in Indiana, was among the first places in the U.S. to have a short course. There was one on the grounds in the early 1900s, and now there’ll be another one. Sand Creek, with nine holes measuring between 35 and 90 yards, is to open on May 1.
French Lick hosted major championships for both the PGA Tour and LPGA Tour in its early years. It returned with the opening of the Pete Dye Course and renovation of the Donald Ross Course. Now the resort is the host for the Korn Ferry Tour Finals.
Sand Creek, though, will be different than the big layouts and likely will stay open longer than those courses. It’ll have lights for night play and also included piped-in music. Sand Creek will include miniature versions of Dye’s famous “Volcanic’’ bunkers and challenging greens reminiscent of those on the Ross course.
HERE AND THERE: Barely a year after Pinehurst opened its No. 10 course the North Carolina resort is planning for a No. 11. Pinehurst Sandmines was the site for the Tom Doak-designed No. 10 and No. 11, being created by Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw, will be nearby. It’s scheduled to open in 2027.
Myrtle Beach’s World Amateur Handicap Championship has drawn over 3,000 players frequently. Now the field will be limited to that number when it’s played Aug. 25-29. Nearly 1,000 are already in the field through Past Participation Registration.
Dunedin Golf Course, in Florida, has completed a $6 million restoration of its Donald Ross-designed course. The project was directed by architect Chris Spencer.
The Heritage Golf Group has acquired The Club at Cheval in Tampa Bay, FL. It’s Heritage’s 42nd course nationwide and ninth in Florida.