Dunes Golf & Beach Club to Host Carolinas Amateur Championship

July 12, 2011

logan harrell.jpgThe Carolinas Amateur Championship, signature event of the Carolinas Golf Association (CGA), heads back to the famed Dunes Golf & Beach Club in Myrtle Beach, SC, July 14-17.

The 97th Carolinas Amateur will be the sixth held at the Dunes Golf & Beach Club.  The first Carolinas Amateur was played at Sans Souci Country Club (now Greenville CC in Greenville, SC) in 1910, less than a year after the CGA was organized in Charleston. The championship was played at the Dunes Club for the first time in 1953 and returned in 1968, 1970, 1979 and 2001.

 

The Carolinas Amateur was a match play competition until last year when the format was changed to 72 holes of stroke play. The 2010 championship, held on Pinehurst (NC) Resort’s No. 8 course, was won by 18-year-old Logan Harrell of Huntersville, NC.

Both Harrell, who shot 72-66-68-67—273, 11 under par, and 2010 runner-up Scott Harvey of Greensboro, NC are entered in this year’s championship.

The CGA received 457 entries for the 2011 championship, which is open to male amateurs who are legal residents of either North Carolina or South Carolina, who are members in good standing of a CGA member club, who are at least 13 years old, and who have a current USGA handicap index of 5.4 or less at a CGA member club.

A starting field at the Dunes Golf & Beach Club will have approximately 144 players, attained through exemptions based on past performance and through a series of 18-hole sectional qualifying tournaments held in late June. 

 The par-72 Dunes Club course, a Robert Trent Jones creation perennially ranked among the top layouts in the Carolinas, will play at 6,978 yards for the top Carolinas amateurs.

In addition to the five previous Carolina Amateurs held there, the Dunes Golf & Beach Club has been a gracious host for other CGA major events. The Dunes was site of the South Carolina Amateur Match Play Championship in 1975, 1982, 1984 and 1986; the South Carolina Junior in 1977 and 1978; the Pro-Amateur Club Championship in 1987; and the Carolinas-Virginias Team Matches in 1967, 1975, 1981 and 2005.

For more information about the 97th Amateur Championship of the Carolinas Golf Association and other CGA events, visit the championship home page online at www.carolinasgolf.org.

PREVIOUS CAROLINAS AMATEURS AT THE DUNES GOLF & BEACH CLUB

1953: Richard D. Chapman of Pinehurst, NC def. Erwin L. Laxton of Charlotte, NC, 3 and 2.  Qualifying medalist was Gus Sylvan of Columbia, SC.

1968: Allen Powers of Orangeburg, SC def. Billy Womack of Florence, SC, 1 up.  Qualifying medalist was Frank Lock of Aiken, SC.

1970: Leonard Thompson of Laurinburg, NC def. Mike Kallam of Winston-Salem, NC, 3 and 2.  Qualifying medalist was Steve Forrest of Mt. Airy, NC.

1979: Tom Cornelia of Hilton Head, SC def. Larry Boswell of Columbia, SC, 3 and 2.  Qualifying medalist was Scott Hoch of Raleigh, NC.

2001: John Pitt of Wilmington, NC def. Danny Gurley, Chapel Hill, NC, 2 and 1.  Qualifying medalist was Jonathan Hill of Kernersville, NC.