Golf Tour Guru

BY JUSTIN JARRETT | PHOTOS BY RUTHE RITTERBECK

When John Robinson’s regular Saturday golf group all but dissolved because several members joined the Golfweek Amateur Tour, Robinson reluctantly followed despite reservations about playing the game he loved in a competitive environment.

“I don’t know if scared is the right word,” said Robinson, a former tennis pro turned real estate agent. “But I was a little nervous to put my game out there and let people I didn’t know see how bad I was.”

When he finally mustered the nerve to give it a shot, Robinson entered an event at the Country Club of Hilton Head, and his handicap landed him in the C flight with like-skilled players.

He won the flight.

“At that moment I was absolutely hooked with the tour,” he said. That was 2013, and Robinson rarely misses a tournament on the Hilton Head-

SPEARHEADED BY Savannah circuit. He often tries to enter events on one of the 48 other local Golfweek

PRESIDENT DENNIS Amateur Tour chapters around the country. The Golfweek Amateur Tour was the MCCORMAC, GOLFWEEK brainchild of Dennis McCormac, who in 1995 launched a local golf league in AMATEUR CONTINUES Charlotte and dreamed it might grow to include upwards of 100 players. His twist: GROWTH AS A Use players’ handicaps to set up a flight system, then discard them and settle it on

COMPETITIVE TOUR the course. “I played golf competitively and I knew there were plenty of guys out there who wanted to compete again, but the only thing they could get in was net tournaments, and you know what happens there,” McCormac said, referring to the practice of overreporting, or “sandbagging,” one’s handicap to get an edge on the field. “With five flights, you’re usually within two or three strokes with anyone playing in your flight, so you feel like you’ve got a chance every Saturday.” He wasn’t counting on how many casual golfers had the urge to test their game under competitive conditions. Or the internet. Word spread through the Carolinas, and McCormac soon added tours in the Upstate and Triad regions, and when he went online, things escalated quickly.

In 2022, the Golfweek Amateur Tour and the spinoff Senior Amateur Tour held a combined 1,128 events nationwide, and this year McCormac, who moved his base to Hilton Head full-time in 2016, estimates the tours will have a combined 8,800 returning members across 49 Golfweek Amateur Tour and 29 Senior Amateur Tour chapters with the potential to reach 10,000 this year or next.

“Over the last 10 to 15 years we’ve seen about 5 to 10 percent growth every year,” McCormac said. “We never really saw a hiccup.”

In fact, membership spiked 15 percent during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, when golf was viewed as one of the few sports that could be enjoyed safely. Things leveled off a bit last year, but McCormac is confident the uniqueness of the tour and the exceptional player experience will continue to attract new golfers.

The national championship brings nearly 1,000 golfers who finish atop their local standings to Hilton Head each October for a season-ending bash.

The field is separated into five flights based on players’ handicaps, ranging from 0-3.9 for the championship flight to 19 and above for D flight, allowing everyone to ostensibly have a shot at hoisting a trophy and pocketing a paycheck.

“The greatest thing for me is the camaraderie, but the other thing for me is the challenge of competing,” Robinson said. “I play golf to see how good I can be. I’m never going to be a great player, but I want to see how good I can be, and I think this tour is a great avenue to make yourself as good as you possibly can.”

McCormac knew there were enough casual golfers with a competitive spirit to make the tour fly, but he didn’t realize the tour had a secret weapon.

“The thing I never saw that was going to happen is the friendships and camaraderie between these guys,” McCormac said. “Just last weekend they had a four-city Ryder Cup in Myrtle Beach and guys drove in from Tidewater (Va.) and Charleston and D.C., and I mean, just as soon as the season was over. There’s all kinds of other tours that have Ryder Cup-type events in the offseason or they have some type of tournament within the tournament because they become such good friends and like to compete against each other.”

The 2023 tour begins Jan. 7-8 with the Icebreaker at the Robert Trent Jones Course at Palmetto Dunes and Harbour Town Golf Links. For more information, visit amateurgolftour.net

BY THE COASTAL DISCOVERY MUSEUM

On this enchanted island tucked in the Atlantic and surrounded by sprawling, rich coastal lowlands, there’s a way of life that’s very aware and appreciative of the crown jewel we’ve been given. We take good care of the sea turtles. We work to preserve and present the unique history of the land and its peoples throughout time. We teach certain cultural ways of life from one generation to the next — or at least we make that effort. So, we may think we’ve marked the box on preservation and celebration of everything that goes into having become “America’s No. 1 Island” for several years running. The truth is there’s so much more depth and story beneath a beautiful surface we’ve barely begun to scratch. The curators of the Coastal Discovery Museum take deeply to heart their part in that job and strive more each year to — figuratively and literally – churn the earth.

“When I think of Hilton Head Island,” marvels the museum’s President and CEO Rex Garniewicz, “I think of its rich history, some of it buried under sand or obscured by the later growth of beautiful live oaks and their lush understory of palmettos and yaupon holly. We are still learning about times past in which South Carolina was a global crossroads. Most traces have vanished above the ground, but when we dig below the surface, we find amazing discoveries like a Ming Dynasty plate. It really makes you think differently about how this place really connected the New World and the Old World.” The museum has physical artifacts like this that you can hold in your hands and connect to the past.

“Our history here is traced in 5,000-year-old shell rings built by Native people; the discovery of the island by Europeans in 1526 and the first Spanish capital of La Florida across the Port Royal Sound established in 1566. Later, there were English colonists growing indigo and cotton - and here at Honey Horn - enslaved Africans, brought here to labor in the fields for generations before experiencing freedom for the first time at Mitchelville. History continues here today in the resilience of Gullah Geechee people on this island and their art, including beautiful sweetgrass baskets sewn on our property.”

Listening to Garniewicz speak in any conversation off the cuff and from memory about any given subject in the Smithsonian-affiliated museum’s interest and purview, you get a sense of the depth and variety of the work they do, from preservation to interpretation and hands-on education. This happens through the museum’s expanding buildings, where objects of historical, scientific, artistic, or cultural interest are stored and exhibited, and through the objects themselves, specimens and live animals the museum keeps for our community, providing content for all ages within their four pillars of concentration: Art, History, Culture, and Nature.

ART: Currently on display is the museum’s newest exhibition featuring beautiful works by artist Lisa Watson that explore the intersection between endangered plants and our built environment. As featured in Forbes Magazine, this installation of original work will be open through February 12, 2023. You can always find information on upcoming shows on the museum’s website, as there is a constant supply of new art to see whenever you visit.

HISTORY: Few people know about the tens of thousands of artifacts the museum has excavated over the years. From stone spear points and shards of pottery through Civil War artifacts the museum is building a collection that will tell our story. “Not only was our property used to house troops in the Civil War,” Garniewicz shares, “we have discovered the location of a gun emplacement on our property and recently received a donated Civil War cannon which we hope to restore and display on our property.” Putting all these pieces of history together is the next stage of the museum’s growth.

CULTURE: Located in the heart of such a culturally rich area with a thriving Gullah Geechee community, the museum is a place for locals and visitors to interact. It is the starting point for the Gullah Heritage Trail Tours, and many days Gullah artists, Michael and Dino will be on the property sewing sweetgrass baskets. They even teach a Saturday class where they share this artform with the next generation.

NATURE: The museum is perhaps best known for their work and contributions to the preservation of our fragile sea island ecology and all the living things that call this place home. Through classes for kids and presentations for adults this is where residents and visitors alike learn to love and live alongside nature. The museum truly does fulfill its mission to inspire people to care for the Lowcountry.

When asked about the most important new initiatives at the Coastal Discovery Museum, Garniewicz shares, “We are very excited to have our new museum-quality collection storage space under construction to preserve all the real objects that physically connect us with this past and bring it to life at the museum. Their protection is so important because we want them to be around another hundred years to tell our story, which is not only a local story, but also a very important part of American history.”

Garniewicz is also looking to expand the museum staff. “With the support of the Community Foundation of the Lowcountry we are also hiring a new history educator,” he says, adding, “We are poised to become a center for displaying and teaching our diverse history. In partnership with other organizations that manage historic properties like the Gullah Museum, Heritage Library, Hilton Head Land Trust, and Mitchelville, we want to put Hilton Head Island on the map as a place on par with Jamestown, Plymouth, or St. Augustine.” This year those efforts continue to expand, protecting the things Coastal Discovery values most. Garniewicz said: “We need your support on several fronts to preserve these fragments of history and bring their stories to light.” They include: • Furnishing the museum’s collections storage space so it can properly house the thousands of artifacts excavated and collected across Hilton Head and throughout the Lowcountry. • Conserving and restoring the museum’s precious artifacts – including Coastal Discovery’s famous painting of William Hilton’s Adventure and newly donated artifacts like its civil war cannon. • Establishing a collections acquisition fund which will allow the museum to collect historic artifacts related to the stories the museum tells, and contemporary works by accomplished artists.

“This year we hope to raise $150,000 in our annual appeal. Your support will help our future visitors remember, learn about and honor those who lived here hundreds and thousands of years ago,” Garniewicz said.

Every Coastal Discovery Museum experience leaves you with a new perspective, expanding the things we’re able to learn, experience, and pass on for new generations to fall in love with and become stewards of, all because someone came before them, preserving and presenting the story with passion and purpose. It’s a place we support because the museum does something for all of us.

If you’re not a member or supporter of the museum, plan a visit to their Honey Horn location and find that one thing that you love. You’re guaranteed to, in the museum’s “somethingfor-everyone” design. Whatever your area of interest and source of inspiration, chances are as high as a King Tide that Coastal Discovery is preserving it — for you, for our community, and for generations to come.

To make a donation, visit coastaldiscovery.org/make-adifference or call 843-689-6767 ext 224.