For these students, preparing for Myrtle Beach's PGA Tour event is part of their education (2024)

MYRTLE BEACH — With the Myrtle Beach Classic set for May 9-12, many alterations have already been made to the course at the Dunes Golf and Beach Club.

New tees are on holes 1, 2, 6, 8 and 14 to stretch the yardage. Additionally, a new short-game area has been added, while the practice putting green was expanded by one-third to 12,000 feet. Several trees were also removed, including a tree behind the green at holes 1 and 17.

The Dunes Golf and Beach Club will also have about 30 helpers to prepare the golf course, including 17 from the turfgrass management program at Horry-Georgetown Technical College. HGTC students began prepping the course on April 29 and will continue aiding Steve Hamilton, the course superintendent, through the end of the tournament.

“(I’m) just insanely excited,” said Nick Gillespie, a student in the HGTC turfgrass management program and also an employee at the course. “I can’t really put the feelings into words. It’ll be my first event to work, so I think it’s a great experience, especially at a course that I’m employed at.”

Gillespie will be raking bunkers and mowing greens. He wants to see how a normal private course is set up for a PGA Tour event and how his bosses handle so much pressure.

Students in the turfgrass management program are trained for this. They practice taking care of greens at the program’s turfgrass lab, which is located on campus and provides different grasses for them to tend to.

HGTC is also a sponsor of the Myrtle Beach Classic.

“We are excited to support the Dunes Golf and Beach Club with a tournament in our area,” HGTC Chair and Professor of Golf and Sports Turf Management Charles Granger said in a statement. “This partnership is not merely a sponsorship; it’s a seven-day commitment to excellence. HGTC representatives, including past and current students, will work tirelessly to ensure the success of the event, demonstrating their dedication to both education and community involvement.”

Several other HGTC students who do not work at the course will be volunteering for the event. The list includes Bob Whitman, who is also in HGTC’s turfgrass management program. Whitman has been helping with course prep at TPC Myrtle Beach, which will host the PGA Tour’s qualifier on May 6 to fill the final spots in the Myrtle Beach Classic field.

“It’s an opportunity to learn a lot and to learn how the PGA does something, Whitman said. “When I become a superintendent, I can use that information to get our course to those standards maybe if it’s not there yet … I just started working on a golf course eight months ago, so I’ve learned quite a bit (such as) how the soil reacts with the grass and nitrogen. I thought you just kind of go out and cut grass, (but) it’s very in-depth what you have to do as far as the different techniques and stuff like that.”