Hootie & the Blowfish Discuss Their Induction Into the Myrtle Beach Golf Hall of Fame

Prior to Wednesday’s induction ceremony, Play Golf Myrtle Beach’s Charlie Rymer sat down with the band to get their thoughts on what it means to them to be enshrined for their charitable efforts on behalf of South Carolina youth and junior golf.

Charlie: So Myrtle Beach is known as “The Golf Capital of the World,” and you guys are going into the Hall of Fame here tonight. What does that mean to you?

Soni: For me, being here in Myrtle Beach, this is one of the first places that these guys dragged me out to golf back in the day when we just had a van and we’re driving around playing small gigs. We didn’t have much money, but we also didn’t have anybody interviewing us. We golfed a lot, and this is one of the places that we always were assured to get in a golf round before the gig that night. And so they sort of convinced me, “You should start golfing.”

And that was probably ’89, ’90, around there, and these guys were my first teachers and it was here in Myrtle Beach.

Dean: So you know, four or five hours on the golf course during the day was just a real big break, and then to be able to get back to golf the way we had been through Monday After the Masters and junior golf. That’s just amazing to see what that’s turned into and it’s just really cool to see.

Charlie: Mark, let’s talk about that a little bit. This will be the 25th year for the Monday After the Masters, and it’s grown to be this amazing event that other artists are copying. It’s gotten to be the largest single-day fundraiser in South Carolina every year. When it started, year one, did you have any idea that it would become what it’s become?

Mark: We didn’t, obviously, we just had what we thought was a great idea with South Carolina Junior Golf, with Happ Lathrop and the gang. And they had this great idea of being able to bring pros in after Augusta and after The Masters, and before Hilton Head, and have them come play in a pro-am. And it started humbly, trying to raise money in Columbia, and after coming to Myrtle Beach 17 years ago, we’ve been able to grow it into what you’re talking about.

And so a lot of thanks to that goes to Myrtle Beach Golf Holiday and Bill Golden and those folks for just seeing the vision of how big we could turn this what we’ve turned it into. So, nobody had any idea that we could do that, but it took more than just our vision to do that.

Charlie: And Darius, you guys have changed lives by this event that you have here in Myrtle Beach every year that is an unbelievable amount of fun. But after those two days, there’s a lot of money sitting there that goes to help kids. That’s something you gotta feel great about.

Darius: Oh, absolutely. When we started, we didn’t know what it’d become and now seeing how much we could help kids, not just in South Carolina but all over the country, just by getting together with our friends and playing a round of golf and playing some music and having couple drinks, and we get to raise all this money … It feels great to know that you can do that and that you’re helping people, but you’re also having fun and like you said, all these people want to come in and participate and have fun with us, and it’s a fun time, but it’s also a time where we know where it feels awesome to know you’re helping people.