Play Golf Myrtle Beach’s Patrick O’Brien Wins 18-Hole Qualifier, Spot in “The Q at Myrtle Beach”

Play Golf Myrtle Beach’s Patrick O’Brien holed a 25-yard pitch on his final hole for a birdie and one-shot victory Monday at Thistle Golf Club, in the 18-hole qualifier for the highly anticipated second edition of “The Q at Myrtle Beach.” The victory moved O’Brien one step closer to earning a coveted shot to compete in a PGA TOUR event.

O’Brien overcame a field of 43 Myrtle Beach-area PGA professionals and will now compete against eight of golf’s most prominent YouTube content creators and seven aspiring PGA TOUR players in “The Q at Myrtle Beach.”

The winner of “The Q,” an 18-hole event at TPC Myrtle Beach later this spring, will receive a sponsor’s exemption into the PGA TOUR’s 2025 Myrtle Beach Classic, which will be played May 8-11 at The Dunes Golf & Beach Club.

O’Brien fired a 2-under par score of 69 on Thistle’s MacKay and Stewart nines, finishing one shot clear of Zack Taylor (Hackler Course at Coastal Carolina University). Stuart Clark (Steve Dresser Golf Academy at True Blue Golf Club) came in third place, finishing at even par for the day, while Dallas Johnson (Wedgefield) finished fourth with a 1-over 72.

O’Brien’s final shot could not have ended in more dramatic fashion. He pushed his tee shot right of the green on the 211-yard, par-3 final hole of Thistle’s Stewart nine, with the ball coming to rest at the base of a steep embankment and avoiding the water hazard that surrounds this peninsula green. With just the tip of the flagstick in view O’Brien attempted a flop shot to the edge of the green, with the hope the ball would feed from there down to the hole. The shot instead went straight at the flagstick, finding the bottom of the cup on the fly.

The entirety of the 16-player field set to compete in “The Q at Myrtle Beach” will be announced in the coming days. O’Brien succeeds Shaftesbury Glen Golf & Fish Club’s Ryan Wilkinson as the Myrtle Beach golf industry’s representative in this innovative event, which was honored recently by the PGA TOUR with its 2024 “Best in Class Element” Award.

The 2025 Myrtle Beach Classic will feature a purse of $4 million with 300 FedExCup points awarded to the champion. Chris Gotterup earned his first PGA TOUR win at the 2024 Myrtle Beach Classic, netting a $720,000 payout.

Special thanks to five area restaurants – Oyster Rock ($250) and Boundary House ($100) in Calabash, Clark’s Seafood & Chop House ($100) in Little River, and Benny Rappa the Italian Fisherman ($200) and Joe’s Bar & Grill ($200) in North Myrtle Beach – for providing gift certificates as closest-to-the-pin prizes at each of the par-3 holes at Thistle contested during the competition.

Click an icon below to browse photos from the PGA Professionals qualifier at Thistle Golf Club for “The Q at Myrtle Beach”