Myrtle Beach Classic 2024: Charlie Rymer Visits Dunes Club for PGA TOUR Event Update (Part I)

It’s been non-stop action already at The Dunes Golf & Beach Club since Myrtle Beach’s top-rated golf course was announced as the host site of the first-ever PGA TOUR event to commit to the Grand Strand: the Myrtle Beach Classic, which begins in spring 2024. In Part 1 of a two-part video update, PlayGolfMyrtleBeach.com’s Charlie Rymer and Dunes Club PGA Head Professional Dennis Nicholl discuss what has transpired since the initial announcement with property renovations, event management announcements, volunteer opportunities and more.

Charlie Rymer:
We’re at one of my favorite places in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, The Dunes Golf and Beach Club, and I’m with one of my favorite people, Dennis Nicholl. He’s the Head PGA Professional. And Dennis, there’s not much going on here at Dunes Club. It’s not like you guys got a PGA TOUR event coming to Myrtle Beach for the first time ever next year. Tell me: when you found out that Dunes was going to host a PGA TOUR event, what went through your mind?

Dennis Nicholl:
Yeah, well, I mean we’ve talked about it for years, right? What’s the next big event we can host here? Whether it’s a LPGA Senior Tour, PGA, made-for-television event, all these things we talk about at the club, we’ve been talking it about for decades. And out of the blue, just a couple of months ago, I got notified that lo and behold, a PGA TOUR event is coming to The Dunes Club. So it was kind of a shock at first, but then the reality set in of what that means to us as a staff and as a membership and a team, and it’s like someone rang a bell and it’s been wide open since.

Charlie Rymer:
One of the things I’ve always thought about Dunes, and I’ve been coming here since I was about five or six years old, is, “Man, this would be a great golf course for a PGA TOUR event.” Now that’s become reality. Do you have any doubt that this facility can host the best golfers in the world?

Dennis Nicholl:
No, I mean, we’ve hosted major events in the past. Obviously the Senior Tour Championship was one of the tops, but we’ve had the PGA of America’s Professional National Championship, the USGA’s been here recently with the Women’s Four Ball. So we’ve had all players of all calibers play at this level. And the golf course itself, we’ve always said it’s ready to go. It’s just bring the fans and bring the spectators, put the ropes up, and we can have a tour event.

Charlie Rymer:
As a resident here in Myrtle Beach, I had quite a few people ask me right after the announcement, “How can I get involved?” It takes a lot of volunteers. You have to have a volunteer chairman. How has the golf community in Myrtle Beach embraced The Dunes Club with the PGA TOUR event coming?

Dennis Nicholl:
Yeah, so far it’s been nothing but positive. I mean, the excitement level out there is off the charts with the community. Just recently, the PGA TOUR announced Sportfive is the operator that’s going to run the event. They’re going to be on site, they’re hosting the Barbasol this week coming up, and the tournament director there is going to move to Myrtle Beach for the next four years and operate our tournament.

So right around mid-August here, we’re going to have a pretty good idea of, website will be up where all the volunteer information, sponsor information, all the things you need to know about the tournament, that’s going to be announced shortly. And then it’s just going to be wide open from this August until next May when we have the tournament.

Charlie Rymer:
When you first heard the announcement, obviously you knew, hey, there’s going to be a lot of things that are going to have to happen between now and that first year, the PGA TOUR event, any of those things been a big surprise for you?

Dennis Nicholl:
Honestly, no. I mean the PGA TOUR asked, weren’t anything crazy. Nothing that we had to do the course, because we all knew the course was fantastic already. So very few steps there to get to where we need to be for a tour event. And like we said, we’ve been talking about a lot of these other projects behind the scenes for years. So all it did is just accelerate them and I think they’re going to be great in the long run. So no surprises.

I think the only thing is it’s just all of them at the same time. That’s kind of crazy is the compression of it. There’s dump trucks, tractors, excavators, sod layers, like every day. It’s a construction site here and we’re still trying to operate golf with our members around all this. And so for operationally that’s been a little bit of a challenge to make sure we keep the experience great for our members and the guests and be able to create a PGA TOUR venue within a year. And most courses have two or three years to plan. We have 11 months, so.

Charlie Rymer:
I know there’s a lot to get done. I also know that you and The Dunes Golf and Beach Club are up to the challenge. It’s really awesome that the PGA TOUR is coming right here to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, the Golf Capital of the World!