Following his final chemotherapy treatment on March 20, Thistle Golf Club general manager Kevan Moore asked his wife, Sharon, to drive him through the course’s parking lot on the way home.
That day marked the unveiling of an elegant standing clock between the clubhouse and driving range, and it was the culmination of Moore’s vision for and transformation of that portion of the property.
“That clock was the ending, exclamation point for that area, and he just wanted to see it,” Sharon said. “And he cried like a baby and so did I, because . . . it meant so much to him that Thistle had a clock, just like the elite golf courses.”
That was Moore’s final visit to Thistle. He died at the age of 63 on March 31 after a battle with pancreatic cancer.
Moore was one of two notable area course operators who died last week.
Dick Roberge also passed away at the age of 91. He was the founding head pro at the now-closed Island Green Golf Club and was also a pro at Burning Ridge Golf Club before his retirement.
Golf was Roberge’s second profession.
Prior to his time on the Grand Strand, Roberge was a professional hockey player and coach who was the inspiration for Paul Newman’s character in the movie “Slap Shot.”
Kevan Moore
Moore’s passing occurred on the nine-year anniversary of his hiring at Thistle. He worked as a pro shop employee for less than two years before being promoted to GM.
Moore had a vision to elevate the 27-hole facility in Sunset Beach, N.C., that he implemented over the past several years.
It included building a bar in front of the driving range that golfers could access while making the turn, adding a fire pit court with seating fronted by the four-sided clock that illuminates at night, and adding a rock waterfall to the side of the clubhouse that matches one at the front clubhouse entrance.
“This whole area was a vision of his for the facility that really came together,” five-year Thistle head pro Brian Eckley said. “The last piece was that clock. It’s a beautiful clock. It’s cool.”
The area with the range bar, starter shack that he had built, fire pit, clock and waterfall will be renamed and dedicated in Moore’s honor with a plaque, Eckley said.
Moore was diagnosed on Nov. 7 and spent several weeks in hospitals battling the cancer, including Novant Health New Hanover Regional Medical Center in Wilmington and Duke University Hospital in Durham, N.C.
The club already held a small remembrance gathering for staff members and has planned a larger celebration of Moore’s life at the club at 5 p.m. May 17 that will include pastors from Seaside Methodist Church and a bagpipe player.
The club is also planning an annual invitational in his honor to raise awareness for pancreatic cancer research. “He loved Thistle, he loved the people there, he loved the community and just being a part of it,” Sharon said. “It was family, and he was a family man.”
Moore entered the golf industry in his 50s.
He ran his family’s convenience store in Greensboro, N.C., for many years before selling it, moving to Sunset Beach, N.C., and getting involved in the golf business, part time at first.
He started at Sea Trail Golf Resort, moved to Thistle as a pro shop worker in 2017 and was promoted to general manager by owner Jack Davis.
The club has undergone many improvements under Moore.
Thistle is nearing the completion of a three-year renovation project that includes the replacing of all greens and other improvements on each nine, one at a time over three summers.
The Stewart nine is closing June 1 for its renovations and could reopen as early as mid-September, while the Cameron nine temporarily closed in 2024 and Mackay nine closed in 2025.
Also over the past few years, Thistle has built stacked sod faces into its bunkers throughout the course.
“It was all about the customer service and the customer experience, so when they left Thistle they felt good about playing golf there,” Sharon said.
The club had special events under Moore, including nine-hole captain’s choice shootouts every two weeks on Tuesdays that grew to 144 players with waiting lists. Thistle hosted a par-3 shootout that is now called Kevan’s Par-3 Shootout on Wednesday – the same day as the Masters Tournament’s par-3 event. The shootouts are $45 and include dinner, golf rounds as prizes, and a raffle for merchandise and equipment.
The menu for the par-3 shootout was Augusta National inspired – at Moore’s behest – including Pimento Cheese sandwiches.
Moore hired Eckley as the club’s head pro in 2001.
“We didn’t look back. We put together some good teams and outside services,” Eckley said. “He’s been a big part of really getting this facility turned in the right direction.”
Sharon is a retired school teacher who taught exceptional needs children for 36 years and now works the beverage cart and range bar at Thistle. She returned to work Thursday.
They were married for 38 years and have a son, Clint, daughter, Megan Moore Hughes, and five grandchildren.
Both children are West Point graduates. Clint was in air defense and is now an executive with American Orthodontics, while Megan is a major in the Army in explosive ordnance disposal (EOD) stationed at Joint Base Lewis-McChord in Washington state.
“He was just an extraordinary person, very caring, very compassionate, a wonderful husband, father, grandfather, friend,” Sharon said. “A super leader who could read a room very well and just knew people. He led with his heart but was also a very keen businessman. . . . He was very much a visionary person. He saw the potential in Thistle and how it could grow and become the extraordinary golf course it is today.”
The Moore family motto, set by Kevan and Sharon, is GFFG: God, Faith, Family, Goals.
Moore is an anatomical donor to Elon University, so his body will be used for research at the school. “The ultimate gift that he is giving back is really giving up himself in that capacity,” Sharon said. “That’s just another example of the type of person he was.”
In lieu of flowers, the Moore family is requesting donations be sent to either Seaside Methodist Church in Sunset Beach, N.C., or pancreatic cancer research.
Dick Roberge
Roberge was one of the true characters in the Myrtle Beach golf market for a couple decades in the 1980s and ’90s.
In addition to being a pro at Island Green and Burning Ridge, he also worked the bag drop at TPC Myrtle Beach for a time, making quick friends with his affable personality and stories.
“He was a wonderful man,” said Craig Kenley, a former area pro who worked for Roberge putting carts up at night as a teenager and later hired him at Island Green as a part-time assistant. “He loved cigars and could tell a story like nobody else. He would hold court on the back of those steps at Island Green. He was hard to forget. If you met him he was a friend for life.”
Those stories emanated from his first profession.
Roberge played 17 seasons as a high-scoring forward with the Johnstown Jets minor league hockey team in Pennsylvania from 1954-72 and became known as “Johnstown’s Gordie Howe.”
He spent two years as a player-coach and two seasons as a head coach of the Johnstown franchise following his retirement as a player.
Roberge’s 1974-75 Jets won a North American Hockey League championship and inspired the comedy motion picture “Slap Shot” based on a book by Nancy Dowd, the sister of Jets player Ned Dowd.
As coach of the team, he was played in the movie by Paul Newman, and he appeared in the film as a referee.
The team was called the Charlestown Chiefs in the movie, and featured a trio of Hanson brothers who wore glasses and were prone to fisticuffs. They were played in the movie by actual Johnstown Jets players Steve Carlson, Jeff Carlson and Dave Hanson.
Roberge accumulated 1,741 regular-season points that were believed to be the most among any minor league hockey player in history, according to the Johnstown Tribune-Democrat, which said Roberge scored 100 or more points in a season 10 times, including 63 goals and 139 points in 1964-65.
He left a lasting impression on two communities.
“He was a mentor when I got into the golf business,” Kenley said. “His biggest thing was remember people’s names. Guys would come who hadn’t been to Island Green for 10 years and he would know who they were. It was uncanny, and I became that way. . . . That’s why everybody loved him. He was revered there by the members.”
Roberge hosted the Socastee High School golf team matches and practices at Island Green.
“Junior golf was really big on his radar. He really rolled out the carpet for us,” said Kenley, who played on the Socastee High team.
One of Roberge’s daughters, Dottie, married longtime area head pro Bert Brown and was an administrator in Horry County Schools.
