Issue 20, November 4, 1996

The Senior Tour Championship Golf Tournament, the season ending championship event for the Seniors Tour, is getting underway today with a practice round. Tomorrow will see another practice round ($10 admission), followed by a pro-am competition Wednesday ($20), and the four-round tournament itself Thursday through Sunday. Tickets for the first two rounds are $20, $25 for the weekday play. A full weekly pass is $75. The Dunes Golf and Beach Club is again playing host.

All qualifying senior players have committed to playing this year. This includes defending champion Ray Floyd and top three money winners Hale Irwin, Jim Colbert, and John Bland. The purse is $1.6 million.

Tickets may be purchased at any Grand Strand area Belk's (in all the enclosed malls), or by calling 803-444-4782.

Golf Holiday, one of the sponsors of the event, is working on plans for a special TPC course to host the event in future years, but this course may not be available until 1999. Another host site is being sought for the next year or two, as the Dunes Club has asked to be paid for hosting the tournament next year. Energizer Batteries, the commercial sponsor of the event, has extended its agreement for several more years.

A recent issue of Golf Digest contained a poll taken of Grand Strand golfers. The respondents were asked about quality, prices, and the relative importance of a golf resort's attributes. The survey found that Myrtle Beach is beginning to loose the old image of inexpensive golf, while still trying to keep rates reasonable. Courses built during the last decade have a higher perceived level of quality. There was some grumbling about prices, although Myrtle Beach rates are below those of competing resorts such as Hilton Head. Golf vacationers to the strand play an average of seven rounds during their trip; most are repeat tourists to the area; and Midwest golfers prefer the spring season, while Mid-Atlantic state visitors come in the fall.

To see another publication's take on the local golf scene, visit my web site, Myrtle Beach on the Net (http://www.mbsc.com), go to the Golfing section of the web links, and click on "Golfweb's Best of Myrtle Beach Courses". Thirty top public access golf courses along the beach are reviewed.

Golf Digest magazine is also involved in a plan to connect Grand Strand area courses into a national reservation system. The Golf Digest Information System contains eleven other golf resorts with over 100 courses. The current Tee Time Network of 70 courses and hotel packages that serves Myrtle Beach will be integrated into the Golf Digest system. Later, individuals with Internet access will be able to tap into the system (I'll be sure to add this to my web page link list when it happens).

The Palace Theater has announced additional Broadway musical productions will be coming to Myrtle Beach, due to the success of 'Cats' which played the theater earlier this year. Booked so far for 1997:

        Crazy For You, March 4-9
        Oklahoma, April 7-13
        The Sound of Music, May 5-11
        West Side Story, September 22-28
        The Will Rogers Follies, October 20-26

Tickets for adults are $28 to $36; special series tickets are also available. Call 800-905-4228 or 803-448-0588 for more info.

Vivace!, the cultural arts festival that was recently held along the strand, was considered a success by the agencies that staged the events. Attendance was excellent, and things went smoothly, aside from some problems with issuing tickets. Approximately 2000 people attended the 42nd Street production, and about 1400 saw the Don Pasquale opera. Plans are already being formulated for next year's festival.

Myrtle Beach's TV channel 43, a longtime religious broadcaster, will become Fox network affiliate WFXB on November 10. The station also plans to eventually increase its power to five million watts. A locally produced newscast at 10 p.m. will be featured in the station's programming lineup. Another local station, WWMB channel 21, had vied for the Fox affiliation, but was passed over because it is owned by ABC affiliate WPDE (channel 15). WWMB will remain a UPN outlet and possibly add the other baby network, the WB.

Over the Thanksgiving Holidays the 27th annual SC Bluegrass Festival will be held at the Convention Center. The lineup this year includes Ralph Stanley, the Osbornes, Mac Wiseman, Jim & Jesse, IIIrd Tyme Out, the Lonesome River Band, Blue Highway, the James King Band, the Johnson Family, the Lewis Family, Del McCoury, J.D. Crowe and New South. Call 706-864-7203 for more info.

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