The largest single-site golf tournament in the world has reached its capacity approximately a month and a half before it begins.
The 43rd Play Golf Myrtle Beach World Amateur Championship is sold out at 3,000 players.
The tournament will be played Aug. 31 to Sept. 4 on approximately 60 Grand Strand golf courses.
An alternate waiting list has been created and is still open in the case of withdrawals from the tournament, and is available on the World Am tournament website.
“So 3,000 has been the goal number. That’s the magic number to fill our [participating] golf courses,” said tournament director Scott Taylor. “This year it has been a cumulative effort of all parties involved to get to where we are, and we’re grateful to be in this position. It’s exciting.”
The World Am features 12 divisions and more than 60 competitive flights, with 30 courses being utilized daily. The championship round for flight winners on Sept. 4 will be held at the Grande Dunes Resort Course.
Golfers from 49 states and 17 countries are registered, with participants ranging in age from 20 to 93. Approximately 2,700 are men and 300 are women.
The tournament once featured 5,000 players in 2000, but has dipped just below 3,000 players in recent years.
Registration will be held at the PGA Tour Superstore’s Myrtle Beach location on Aug. 29-30, and the welcome party on Aug. 30 will be held at the Ole Smoky Distillery in Broadway at the Beach.
The tournament has a tournament within a tournament with a Pairs Competition that can be entered by any two players in the event, with a grand prize being a four-night, four-round golf trip back to Myrtle Beach.
The World’s Largest 19th hole expo and cocktail party at the Myrtle Beach Convention Center following the opening four rounds will feature vendors, food, drinks and entertainment.
The 19th Hole will be hosted for a second year by the St. André Golf three-person comedy troupe that is composed of Aaron Chewning, Hannah Rae Aslesen and Jonathan Pawlowski.
Notable guests who will take part in on-stage discussions and events while interacting with tournament participants include The Bryan Bros., Charlie Rymer, and Brian Katrek and John Maginnes, who will be broadcasting their Katrek and Maginnes on Tap radio show on SiriusXM live from the convention center.
Live entertainment over the four nights will include a night of karaoke and the bands Fantasy, The Parks Brothers, and SNAP.
Taylor said all 19th Hole vendors from 2025 are returning and Darlington Speedway will additionally have a presence.
The 19th hole also features a long putt contest, golf simulator, 50-yard shot onto a replica green of the TPC Sawgrass’ par-3 17th hole using distance-limited golf balls, and additional games and contests. Random drawing prizes with an aggregate value of $20,000 will be awarded over the week at the 19th Hole.
“Our focus is to continue to make the 19th Hole a fun experience, and continue to elevate that experience year over year,” said Taylor, the director of events for Golf Tourism Solutions, the marketing, technology and golf events operation agency that promotes the Myrtle Beach market.
GTS operates or assists in the operation of seven events annually, including the upcoming Style Driver Fall Classic from Nov. 16-19, which will feature 600 players competing as two-person teams with different formats daily on 16 courses that are among the most prestigious in the area.
Next year, it will assist in the hosting of an NCAA Regional at TPC Myrtle Beach that will be hosted by Coastal Carolina, which doesn’t guarantee CCU’s participation.
Last year’s World Am winner, Scott Collette from Knoxville, Tennessee, hit the ceremonial opening tee shot at the PGA Tour’s ONEflight Myrtle Beach Classic at The Dunes Golf and Beach Club in May.
