Founders Group International investor Lily Xue said earlier this year that she was planning to bring 30 or more business leaders and entrepreneurs to Myrtle Beach from China sometime in November, and the group arrived in Myrtle Beach on Saturday.
They were scheduled to be in the U.S. from Nov. 1-10 and the Myrtle Beach portion of the trip lasted just three days through Monday.
FGI, whose ownership consists of investors from China, purchased 22 courses between Sept. 2014 and April, and the vacationing group visited several of the layouts. About a dozen were scheduled to play TPC Myrtle Beach on Sunday and the Grande Dunes Resort Course on Monday, but their plans were altered due to inclement weather.
The Grande Dunes outing was expected to feature friendly competition between approximately a dozen Chinese players and a dozen local residents.
The group stayed at the Caribbean Resort Villas on the ocean, and in addition to golf the trip included a boat ride on the Intracoastal Waterway for non-golfers, a trip to Brookgreen Gardens and shopping at Broadway at the Beach and/or Tanger Outlet.
Prior to visiting Myrtle Beach, they spent a few days in Washington, D.C., attending a multi-day business class at the Virginia Darden School of Business.
The group was a mixture of men and women who were either company executives or entrepreneurs representing several areas of China, and they all attended the prestigious Cheung Kong Graduate School of Business in Beijing with Xue, who lives in Nanjing.
The trip was intended to be fun and introduce the businessmen and women to the Grand Strand, though it could potentially lead to business investments – golf and otherwise – if they are interested in what they have seen.
Competing with coast
The coastal areas of Myrtle Beach, Hilton Head Island and Charleston get much of the attention and promotion when it comes to golf in South Carolina.
Other areas of the state are joining forces in an attempt to compete and bring some attention to their quality and plentiful golf offerings.
“People don’t realize that the upstate and non-coastal areas of South Carolina have great golf, too,” said Strauss Moore Shiple, the longtime project manager for a part of the state known as the Olde English District.
Shiple was instrumental in helping form the new “Mountains to Midlands” golf marketing alliance that represents a partnership of four regions extending from the center of the state to the extreme northwest tip.
The areas are referred to as the Olde English District (OED), The Upcountry, Lake Murray Country and the Old 96 District.
The new cooperative has created personalized Mountains to Midlands (M2M) golf and travel packages, and it covers some scenic and historic areas of the state.
The OED includes the area where the golfing Sandhills to the north meet the Lowcountry to the south and east and is situated along the stretch of Interstate 77 from Rock Hill to Columbia. The OED also extends east to Cheraw State Park Course.
Lake Murray Country is located in the heart of the state and is centered in the capital of Columbia and Lake Murray, which is surrounded by three rivers and features 650 miles of shoreline. It features 33 courses, including Windermere Club and Oak Hills Golf Club.
The Old 96 District includes the Greenville-Spartanburg corridor, stretches north of Augusta, Ga., and runs along the Georgia border approaching I-85. The area includes The Patriot at Grand Harbour, Mount Vintage Plantation, The Links at Stoney Point and Hickory Knob.
The Upcountry includes the Blue Ridge Mountains, and among its layouts are the Walker Course at Clemson University, The Preserve at Verdae and Woodfin Ridge Golf Club.
Veteran friendly
For the fourth consecutive year, the Military Times publication and website has named the Golf Academy of America one of the best colleges for veterans. Myrtle Beach has one of the GAA’s five campus locations in the U.S.
The golf academy’s 16-month program balances classroom studies, practical experience and understanding of both the game and the business of golf.
College leaders have placed emphasis on helping active duty military and veterans with the transition from service to a civilian life and career, and the school employs a General Manger of Military Student Initiatives, Mike Betz.
The GAA boasts it is the largest and longest-running two-year golf college in the world.
Up and running
The South Carolina Junior Golf Academy at Shaftesbury Glen Golf Fish Club got off to a good start on Nov. 1 with 31 junior golfers participating in the academy’s first nine-hole tournament.
Players from Charleston, Florence, Conway, Myrtle Beach, Aynor and Surfside Beach participated in one of three divisions.
The fall tournament series will consist of seven weekly tournaments, and the academy will include the weekly tournaments, personalized practice routines and a fitness routine. Seasonal series cost $125, but the introductory fall series is free.
For the ladies
The Carolinas Golf Association (CGA), which oversees amateur golf in the Carolinas, has hired Maggie Watts as Director of Women’s Golf.
Watts will coordinate and conduct women’s events such as championships, qualifiers, and one-day tournaments along with assisting at select junior girls’ events beginning in early December. She will also administer women’s golf educational seminars and the development of new programs.
Watts has spent the past two years as a tournament manager with the Virginia State Golf Association (VSGA). Her responsibilities there included running VSGA women’s championships, qualifiers, high school championships, and rules workshops. She was previously a tournament operations intern with the American Junior Golf Association (AJGA), graduated from Radford University in 2010 as a four-year member of the golf team, and earned a Master’s degree in Sports Administration from Eastern Kentucky.
After more than 14 years with the CGA, Director of Women’s Golf and Membership Services Tiffany Priest is moving to Birmingham, Ala., in December with her husband, Andy, who was also a CGA staffer.
Collecting exemptions
The Grand Strand-based Swing Thought Tour has been awarded an event exemption for one of its players into the Web.com Tour’s 2016 Air Capital Classic presented by Aetna, being held June 23-26 at Crestview Country Club in Wichita, Kan.
It’s the sixth year the Air Capital Classic has partnered with the Swing Thought Tour, which was formerly the NGA/Hooters and now also includes the former eGolf Tour.
It’s the Swing Thought Tour’s second exemption in 2016, joining one in the Rex Hospital Open in Raleigh, N.C. Georgia Tech alum J.T. Griffin earned that exemption via his sponsor’s pro-am victory earlier this season. Swing Thought operators plan to secure more 2016 exemptions to benefit its members.
The tour received a developmental tour-record 11 exemptions for the 2015 season including four into the BMW Pro-Am Championship, two into the Rex Hospital Open, and one each into the the Air Capital Classic, News Sentinel Open, Utah Championship, United Leasing Championship and Digital Ally Open.
It has received 44 exemptions since the start of the 2010 season, including three into PGA Tour events: the 2012 and ’13 Reno-Tahoe Open and the 2013 Sanderson Farms Championship.
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