The consistently good conditions of Grand Strand golf courses over the past several decades is being celebrated with the 2025 class of the Myrtle Beach Golf Hall of Fame.
Dr. Bruce Martin, a longtime plant pathologist with Clemson University based at a research facility in Florence, and Arthur L. ‘Max’ Morgan Jr., an area superintendent and director of agronomy for more than four decades, will be the next two inductees.
They will be the first members from the fields of agronomy and plant science in what will be a 38-person hall when they are enshrined on Sept. 24 at Pine Lakes Country Club, where the Hall of Fame Garden resides.
“It’s an extreme honor,” said Morgan, Founders Group International’s vice president and director of agronomy. “I couldn’t believe it when [FGI president] Steve Mays told me. I got all choked up. I mean it’s a lifetime dream. You dream when you’re in business to leave a mark somewhere, and I’m really honored they consider me worthy enough to be in the hall of fame. I’ve worked with many of the people in there so I’m really excited about it.
“I’m very excited to go in with Dr. Bruce Martin. He’s been instrumental in Grand Strand golf and troubleshooting. . . . He’s known throughout the world, not just Myrtle Beach and not just South Carolina.”
For several reasons, the Grand Strand is an area that is particularly difficult to maintain healthy grass. Its climate falls in a transition area for warm- and cool-weather grasses, which creates stress on both at different times of the year. Bermudagrass, the predominant grass on area courses, goes dormant in the winter and courses often overseed with cool-weather grasses rye and poa trivialis. The transition periods create stress on the grasses and require a lot of maintenance. The area also had dozens of courses through the 1990s with bentgrass greens, which were stressed in summer heat.
“Back in the day we all had bentgrass and boy that stuff is hard to keep alive during the summer, so we would rely on Dr. Bruce and his expertise to keep our greens alive during the summer,” Morgan said.
The coastal soil is sandy, which allows for drainage but also washes away soil nutrients such as nitrogen, potassium, calcium and phosphorus that are crucial for grass growth.
The area is often hit by tropical storms and hurricanes that damage and flood courses, and since a lot of area courses were built within housing developments, trees that have matured over the years on adjacent homeowner property restrict the sun and air flow that help Bermudagrass grow.
Martin and Morgan have been among the leaders in the area to overcome the challenges.
Dr. Bruce Martin
As the plant pathologist at the Clemson Pee Dee Research and Education Center in Florence, Martin was the Myrtle Beach golf market’s go-to guy when turfgrass conditions were deteriorating.
Whenever a golf course superintendent encountered dying grass or spreading disease and didn’t have an answer, they would get a sample to Martin and he’d invariably research a cure that would save the course’s condition and subsequently its financial stability.
Martin is a native of Conway, Arkansas, and earned a biology degree at Hendrix liberal arts college there. He became interested in plants in his final two years at Hendrix.
He was painting houses after graduation when he was asked if he wanted to enter graduate school, and he went on to earn a Master’s degree in plant pathology at Arkansas and later a Ph.D in turf projects from N.C. State.
He began helping the market in 1987, when as a turfgrass professor at Horry-Georgetown Technical College, he established a diagnostic lab to assist area superintendents.
At Clemson, Martin became one of the industry’s foremost authorities on turfgrass disease and nematode management. He retired after 30 years in 2018.
He provided critical diagnoses of turfgrass issues, pioneered treatment programs and conducted innovative trials to find solutions for the Myrtle Beach golf community.
His presence was valuable to area supers when courses transitioned to ultradwarf Bermudagrasses like Champion, MiniVerde, TifEagle and Sunday.
Reflecting his prominence in his field, Martin has actually named some of the diseases golf courses have battled.
In addition to solving problems with grasses in South Carolina and throughout the U.S., Martin has been summoned to numerous countries including Australia, Argentina, Brazil, England and Spain to solve issues.
In 2005, Martin was named one of the 10 most influential people in the South Carolina golf industry by the S.C. Golf Course Ratings Panel. His accolades include the Carolinas Golf Course Superintendents Association’s Distinguished Service Award, the Clemson Alumni Award for Distinguished Public Service, and the GCSAA’s prestigious Col. John Morley Award in 2014.
Max Morgan
Having overseen agronomy at dozens of courses and mentored numerous superintendents in his 44 years and counting in the Myrtle Beach golf market, Morgan has impacted the playing conditions for more Strand golfers than perhaps anyone else.
The six-year Navy veteran who helped operate a nuclear submarine carrying 16 nuclear missiles as a nuclear machinist mate found his passion for golf while stationed at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii, and it would soon become his life’s work.
“Near the end of my career I decided I didn’t want to be in the nuclear field the rest of my life,” Morgan said. “It was very interesting but not that much fun. I didn’t want to do shift work at a power plant. I thought maybe I could go to turf school and become a superintendent. I didn’t even know what they did for a living, I didn’t know anything about anything.”
He left the armed service and chose HGTC’s turf program among those in the country, and enrolled in December 1980. He first worked at Pine Lakes Country Club during his schooling.
He then held superintendent roles at Waterway Hills, Marsh Harbour – where he earned his first head super position – Eagle Nest, and Myrtlewood Golf Club before taking a position at the three-course Myrtle Beach National Golf Club in 1999.
In 2003, he took on the responsibility of overseeing nine additional courses under the operation of Myrtle Beach National Company, and kept the position through a merger with Burrough & Chapin Golf Management that created National Golf Management, which managed 23 courses. He held that position from 2012-15 until Founders Group International (FGI) bought 10 of the courses about a decade ago.
Morgan remained in the same role for FGI and currently oversees 21 golf courses in the Myrtle Beach area as FGI’s vice president and director of agronomy.
He has emphasized forging strong relationships between maintenance crews and pro shop staff to provide the best experience for golfers.
“It’s been really fun. It’s just been a blast. I love golf. I play at least once a week. I always have,” Morgan said. “. . . I just enjoy the hell out of it, and to be in the business and have control of the golf courses that I play on has been really special.
“I’ve met thousands of interesting and great people in the golf business. You always say the golf business is the people business, whether it’s golfers or your fellow workers or your vendors, your owners, other professional people, it’s just a great business to be in.”
Morgan has used his experiences as an avid golfer to make decisions on course maintenance and the layouts of holes. He’s found trees and bunkers that he thought should be eliminated, even a nemesis bush or two.
“One day I was playing a match at King’s North and I hit my ball in a waste bunker on 14 and I think it went in this cluster of pampas grass we used to have there. Anyway I had them remove that after that,” Morgan joked. “. . . I mean it was kind of unfair.”
Hall history
The Myrtle Beach Golf Hall of Fame was created in 2008 to honor individuals who have had an indelible impact on the Strand golf industry.
The charter inductees were Clay Brittain Jr., Cecil Brandon, Carolyn Cassidy Cudone, Jimmy D’Angelo, General James Hackler Jr. and Robert White.
The other members are Charlie Thrash, Phillip Graham, George ‘Buster’ Bryan, Charlie Byers, Paul Himmelsbach, Jack Himmelsbach, Gary Schaal, J. Egerton Burroughs, J. Bryan Floyd, Edward Jerdon, Casper Leon Benton, George Hilliard, Critt Gore, Russell ‘Doc’ Burgess, Sandy Miles, Phillip Goings, Edward Burroughs, Kelly Tilghman, Vernon Brake, Bob LeComte, Ed Bullock, Larry Leagans, Dustin Johnson, the four members of Hootie & the Blowfish collectively, Mickey McCamish, Larry Young, Doc Lachicotte, Gene Weldon, Matthew Brittain and Jim Woodring.
The Hall of Fame Garden in the courtyard behind the Pine Lakes clubhouse includes a permanent display of inductee plaques.
