From a Mayor to Moving Day, Myrtle Beach World Am Delivers Another Memorable Experience

Now in its 41st year, the world’s largest amateur golf tournament continues to evolve. In his third year playing it, SI Golf's John Schwarb started to get the hang of it.

The 16th hole at Glen Dornoch made for a memorable finish to Flight 13 of the Myrtle Beach World Amateur. / John Schwarb/Sports Illustrated

David Deese answered sheepishly when asked what he did for a living while waiting on the tee.

“I’m a mechanic,” he said, followed by a long pause. “And a mayor.”

I didn’t have “politician” on my Myrtle Beach World Amateur bingo card for playing partners this year, but you never know who you’ll meet at golf’s biggest amateur tournament.

Last week I drove from my home in Indianapolis to the South Carolina golf mecca for the third consecutive summer, meaning at this point that the World Am is now my annual tradition. But I still have a long way to go to catch up to those who have come to Myrtle Beach one week before Labor Day many more times to tee it up with strangers in the closest thing most will ever get to tournament competition.

The third time was the charm for me with no rain, no hurricane watches and some decent scores, plus another group of unforgettable partners.

Swing … Repeat

Sometimes you get the vibe from a partner before you shake his hand, and that was the case with Kevin on the first day. The seven-time World Am participant, and my cart partner, wore a shirt with loud writing on the back:

HOW TO GOLF: SWING SWEAR FIND BALL REPEAT

Alrighty, then. I’ve never seen that much text on a golf shirt, much less on the back of one. But it was a collared shirt, keeping it classy.

Round 1 partner Kevin had a style all his own. / John Schwarb/Sports Illustrated

No complaints about Kevin as a cart-ner though, he was a nice guy while taking one for his team. 

The World Am is a handicapped championship, with mostly net flights out of 63 total flights and 3,000 players. In my case, I was in the men’s 50-59 age group of 50 players with handicap indexes from 9.3-10.7 (middle-age moderate hacks). The format is four rounds of stroke play over four days and the winner of each flight comes back for a fifth day for a final round to determine an overall winner. My flight alone had players from 25 states and Canada—alas I didn’t play with the guy from Hawaii.

For friends of various ages and abilities who travel together, the World Am can be a logistical feat given that more than 50 courses are used from south of Myrtle Beach up into North Carolina. Either you juggle transportation or play in the same flights—which Kevin was doing as a 20 handicap. He recruited a friend to play for the first time this year and didn’t want to separate every day, so he played in his friend’s flight, as the higher handicap is required to do.

He wasn't going to come close to winning the flight, but Kevin played to his number while swinging, finding the ball and repeating. There may have also been some swearing but I can’t pin that all on him.

World of Equipment

Also in my Monday group was Chris, who had a unique addition to his golf bag—a secondary small stand bag that clipped to his main bag. After many tee shots he’d unclip his small bag, containing a couple short irons and a putter, and walk the rest of the hole.

I respected that as a frequent walker back home, but not sure I could do that for four rounds in the sweltering humidity of Myrtle Beach. The setup I saw in my second round was far better for the conditions.

Greg Hogsed (“call me Hoggie”) from Greer, S.C., rigged up a small battery-powered fan above the basket in his cart, just behind the seats, and ran a hose from the fan to a water bag to create a cool mist. He was in my group but alas not in my cart—his playing partner hit the jackpot.

Brilliant: Rigging up a fan for your golf cart in August. Also brilliant: Being paired with the fan's owner. / John Schwarb/Sports Illustrated

And that wasn’t Hoggie’s only novelty, he shunned the driver in favor of stinger irons off the tee for the entire round. Late on the second nine, after watching another bullet, I asked what he was hitting. He smiled and showed me a PXG 2-iron.

In 3,000 golf bags at the World Am (3,001 counting Chris’s little-brother bag), I’d set the over/under on 2-irons at a dozen. Call it another feature of the game’s biggest tournament: seeing gear you might not find back home. 

One Round to Remember

The pressure is real at the World Am, unless you’re used to 72 holes of stroke play where you putt everything out and follow the rules to the letter. On my third go-round, I’m finally getting a little better at it—and this year had four rounds to show for it.

In my first year, 2022, torrential rains hit a couple holes into the first round and I went back to my hotel certain that play was done for the day. I was wrong, the rain stopped and everyone else in my flight slogged through to dreadful scores, which were still better than my no-card.

Last year, Hurricane Idalia skirted the area during tournament week and as a precaution, tournament organizers nixed one round.

But this year the four rounds went off perfectly with no rain, just some soft conditions in parts from the deluge of Hurricane Debby earlier in the month.

First-round butterflies are normal whether you’re in Myrtle Beach or the Masters, I shot a jittery 91 and was in the middle of the pack (the tournament updates leaderboards every evening and if you’re in the top 10, you can see your name on big screens at the convention center during the World’s Largest 19th Hole gathering).   

But things got better from there, culminating with a moving day 79 at Myrtle Beach National’s West course, a tamer layout ripe for a 10 handicap in need of a confidence boost. That moved me into a tie for 10th and a final-round 88 at tight and quirky Glen Dornoch, winding through the woods and alongside the Intracoastal Waterway, inched me up to solo 9th. The top five finishers earn PGA Tour Superstore gift cards. I’ll shoot for that next year.

Arnold Palmer's Myrtle Beach National was the site of the author's best round at the World Am. / John Schwarb/Sports Illustrated

The Pride of Ruby

Funny how you tend to play better with a good group, and the third round was my favorite. My cart driver was Dan from New Hampshire, James from a previous round had returned and the mayor was our fourth. 

Deese was a first-time World Am player, making me look like a veteran, traveling to town with his brother and son. 

His jurisdiction is Ruby, S.C., and when I asked him how big his town was he said “there’s more people on this golf course.”

Myrtle Beach National has 54 holes. The town of Ruby has 350 people. That’s not to say Deese doesn’t hear from a lot of his constituents; he laughed and said you’d be surprised. 

After a couple more minutes discussing small-town politics, we teed off on the 4th hole and returned to far more serious business. A memorable round in another unforgettable week.