The World’s Largest Amateur Golf Tournament Is Still Going Strong at 40

Every year before Labor Day weekend, thousands of diehard golfers converge on Myrtle Beach for a one-of-a-kind competitive vacation.

MYRTLE BEACH, S.C. – Joao Ivo de Carvalho wasn’t that different from many visitors to the Myrtle Beach World Amateur, bringing a friend from his native Portugal to experience the tournament for the first time.

But not many friends are awestruck at check-in.

“Walking into the PGA Tour Superstore, his chin was down for five minutes,” de Carvalho said. “That’s unbelievably big for us.”

He hadn’t even seen a golf course, or anything and everything else that comes with the world’s largest amateur golf tournament.

He was in for quite a week.

The 40th edition of the PlayGolfMyrtleBeach.com World Amateur, universally called the “World Am,” brought 3,268 golfers to this golf-mad part of the country, spread among 50 golf courses from Georgetown, S.C., to Supply, N.C.—an 86-mile swath of Carolina coastline.

The Myrtle Beach area is long on humidity but short on visitors just before the Labor Day weekend rush, and the World Am fills hotel rooms and tee sheets like no other gathering of amateur golfers in the world.

In the wake of the golf boom during COVID-19, options for golf outings for players of all abilities have multiplied. Equipment companies such as Swag Golf have their own traveling series of events, as do golf media/lifestyle outlets such as The Fried Egg, No Laying Up and Golfers Journal, teeing it up at popular resorts and private clubs that are increasingly willing to open their tee sheets on slow days.

Take a spot at the World Am and you’ll find an official tournament scorecard on your cart come Monday morning, and your flight leaderboard updated by dinnertime. Then you play again on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, all on different courses, and if you win your flight after those 72 holes, congrats, you play Friday for the overall title.

Fifty courses were used for the 3,200-plus players at this year's World Am / Courtesy PlayGolfMyrtleBeach.com World Amateur

“There’s plenty of really good events out there that cater to a certain crowd, but this is I think the closest you can get to the PGA Tour for someone who is a regular golfer,” says Scott Tomasello, the World Am’s tournament director. “It’s not explainable to someone who’s never been here before.”

The first World Am in 1984 lured most of its 600-some players from an ad in Golf Digest, offering a practice round, three tournament rounds and some free food for a $175 entry. Forty years later, the cost adjusted for inflation is just about the same, $599 if you enter early. Now you get four rounds, free food and drinks every night and a bag of goodies at check-in. And there’s no ad in a golf magazine needed to draw thousands.

“We rely heavily on word of mouth, we don’t do a ton of marketing,” Tomasello says. “Really just try to put our best foot forward so that the players want to tell people about it.”

Indeed, 25% of the field this year–which hails from all 50 states and 17 countries–were newcomers. Of the nine players in my foursomes in Flight 6 (there were 64 flights total), seven were World Am rookies.

Depending on what you shot that day, the World Am’s nightly party is the spot to celebrate or drown it out. The Myrtle Beach Convention Center is transformed into the “World’s Largest 19th Hole” with food from local restaurants, alcohol, live music and unofficial mayor/former PGA Tour player Charlie Rymer holding court on the main stage. The only time you’ll reach in your pocket is to try one of the various skills challenges, shop with vendors or tip your bartender.

The stampede to the door of the World Largest 19th Hole, which takes up120,000 feet of Myrtle Beach Convention Center space / Courtesy PlayGolfMyrtleBeach.com World Amateur

The nerve center of the operation, however, is out of range of the music and Rymer’s wisecracks. In a room down the hall at the convention center, the World Am’s tournament committee reviews scores every afternoon as they are electronically sent in (the actual scorecards are delivered too) and makes sure every flight is fair. It’s a thankless job that doesn’t make many friends.

This year 13 players were disqualified for shooting unreasonably below their registered handicaps (they may continue playing but are ineligible for prizes). All handicaps are verified in the weeks leading up to the event–technology has made this much easier over the years–and the flights are set accordingly. There are so many men in the 50-60 and 60-70 age groups that flight indexes are tight, for example a 61-year-old 12.3 handicap will be in a different flight than an 11.1.

And once play begins, some players are revealed to be in the wrong flights. Like the senior player from New Jersey who registered as a 20.3 handicap and proceeded to shoot 82-86 the first two days.

“I’m not that much better than everyone in my field!” he said Tuesday night, pleading his case after a DQ. “I’m not trying to screw anybody!”

The committee makes their decisions during the afternoon by phone but allows players to address their plight in person during the hours of the World’s Largest 19th Hole. The conversations can get so heated that local police officers are stationed at the door.

“It’s not even close–this is the most inaccurate index we’ve seen this year,” replies Ryan Hunt, the committee’s straightest shooter and the one tasked with making many of the unpleasant phone calls and handling the in-person pleas for mercy.

He hates this part of his job, yet it’s crucial for such an enormous tournament to maintain legitimacy.

“It drains you,” he says in a private moment between angry players. “Thirty-one hundred people think it’s awesome, but a few take it out of you.”

The problem is hardly ever sandbagging or outright handicap fraud, it’s usually a neglected handicap. One of the committee’s favorite stories is about a player who was disqualified for shooting unreasonably below his index, and a closer examination of his handicap showed no posted scores since May–in other words he hadn’t played all summer yet crushed it at the World Am. A highly unlikely combination.

A friend of the player sent a letter to the World Am offices a week later.

“I can’t believe you would disqualify my friend, he’s the most honest guy I know. I play golf with him every week.”

Mother Nature played a bigger role in this year's World Am, featuring more than the usual stifling humidity; the threat of Hurricane Idalia forced organizers to cancel the Thursday final round early in the week as a precaution. They issued 3,268 rainchecks, and as it turned out many were used Thursday afternoon as the storm, not as dangerous as anticipated, came through the night before.

Friday’s championship round went on as scheduled, with Christopher Rainey of Drums, Pa., winning the overall title after a round of net 68 (gross 99) at Grande Dunes. Winners over four decades have run the gamut of high and low handicaps, male and female.

Whether from Pennsylvania or Portugal, there’s nothing like the World Am.

“We have competitive golf but not any tournaments like this,” said de Carvalho, a veteran of six World Ams. “My friends hear a lot of stories but when they come here and see it with their own eyes, it’s completely different.”