Myrtle Beach’s Dunes Club ‘going to another level,’ making changes ahead of PGA Tour stop

Staging high-profile tournaments is part of the Dunes Golf and Beach Club’s DNA.

Organizations that have determined champions over the Myrtle Beach treasure include the USGA, the PGA of America, the PGA Tour and both national and state amateur associations.

Ben Crenshaw, Raymond Floyd, Murle Lindstrom and Hale Irwin are among the champions crowned at the acclaimed Robert Trent Jones layout.

Now, Dennis Nicholl said, “We’re going to another level.”

Indeed, the PGA Tour’s Myrtle Beach Classic, which will be played May 9-12, 2024, means a lot of non-stop activity for now, plenty of moving parts going forward and some decisions to be made with incomplete data.

“It’s all good, but it’s a lot, too,” said Nicholl, the PGA professional in his 16th year at the Dunes.

The golf course is always in prime condition, but the PGA Tour dropping anchor at the north end of Ocean Boulevard made recent activity around the club “the busiest since I’ve been here,” Nicholl said.

The club could draw on its experience in staging other premium events, yet this is different. They didn’t have TV towers for the USGA’s 2017 Women’s Amateur Four-Ball, for example, and the PGA Senior Tour Championships in the late 1990s had limited fields.

“So much has changed” in terms of preparation, Nicholl said. “This is bigger, much bigger.”

The tournament will be part of the Tour’s FedEx schedule and will be played opposite of the Wells Fargo Championship, a signature event. The Myrtle Beach tourney will feature a full field with a purse of $3.9 million and join the RBC Heritage, set for April on Hilton Head Island, as PGA Tour events in South Carolina.

A marketing agency named Sportfire will run the tournament. Darren Nelson, who previously directed the Tour’s Barbasol Championship in Kentucky, moved to Myrtle Beach to oversee the operation.

But the club had to make some physical changes. Off-course projects included resurfacing the parking lot, expanding the putting green, building a chipping area and doing work around the ponds on holes 1, 10 and 18.

“The PGA Tour had a ‘must have’ list and an ‘ask wish list’ for the golf course, and we had to make minimal changes,” Nicholl said. “We resodded and laser-leveled the championship tees, built a new tee on No. 8 and added length to No. 14.

“The golf course had been about 7,200 yards and that’s plenty at sea level. With the changes, we stretched to about 7,400 yards and a par of 71. The (pros) hit the ball so far now, but they’ll find plenty of golf course.”

Other changes included creating some run-off areas around some of the elevated greens, especially the par-5s. Balls will find a collection area rather than stopping on the fringe for an easy chip.

“No. 8 will be a par 4 rather than a par 5, but 4 and 15 (relatively short holes of elite golfers) will still be par 5s,” Nicholl said. “There will be some holes to attack, others to play for par.”

He gave a salute to superintendent Steve Hamilton and his crew for yeoman’s service.

“There would be two or three tractor-trailer loads of sod some days and they just had one growing season,” Nicholl said. “We’ve just completed the overseed, which we hadn’t done since 2008, to make sure we’re ready in May.”

But like any first-time event, there are unknowns.

Officials know there is interest: More than 3,000 people signed up for 800 volunteer positions. But Nicholl wonders if the galleries will be 5,000 a day or 10,000 — or some other number.

“A guessing game, and the size of the galleries impact the number of shuttles to the golf course, the number of Port-a-Johns and concessions,” he said. “Plus, we’ve got to order merchandise. You obviously don’t want to order too little and run out on Thursday, or order too much and have a bunch left over. But all those are good problems to have.”

Then, there’s the day-to-day play to be considered between now and May. Always in demand, the course will restrict tee times to members on weekends closer to tournament time, and Nicholl must juggle spring staples such as member tournaments.

“There’s a lot to adapt to,” he said, “but we will be ready.”

That’s nothing new — the Dunes Club is always ready.

Chip shots. Congaree Golf Club in Ridgeland has been selected to stage the 2025 Arnold Palmer Cup, a Ryder Cup-style tournament featuring top men’s and women’s college golfers. The event, set for June 5-7, 2025, pits a team from the United States against an international squad. The tournament represents a partnership between two of golf’s leading philanthropic organizations, the Congaree Foundation and the Arnold and Winnie Palmer Foundation. ... The Waccamaw Golf Trail, a collection of 12 courses in Georgetown County, has been re-named the Hammock Coast Golf Trail. The list of courses includes Caledonia, True Blue and Pawleys Plantation. ... The individual champion in the General Hackler Collegiate Championship, played at the Dunes Golf and Beach Club, will earn a spot in the PGA Tour’s Myrtle Beach Classic.