MURRELLS INLET | Being a South Carolina resident with a PGA Tour victory and more than $11.45 million earned in 279 career tour events, William McGirt figured he’d be a prime candidate for a sponsor exemption into the Myrtle Beach Classic from tournament officials.
But as he saw 12 sponsor exemptions awarded, including to seven players with ties to South Carolina – many with lesser resumes – McGirt realized he would have to earn his way into the area’s inaugural $4 million PGA Tour event.
That he did, and he did it in spectacular fashion in the Monday qualifier at TPC Myrtle Beach.
Needing an eagle on the par-5 18th hole to get into a playoff for the fourth and final qualifying spot, McGirt caught a fortuitous break when his tee shot bounced off a tree into the fairway, then hit a downwind 3-wood over water from 278 yards to 15 feet and made the eagle putt to shoot a 5-under-par 67. He birdied the first playoff hole to advance.
“It would have been nice to get one, let’s put it that way,” McGirt said of a sponsor exemption. “I was very much [perturbed]. . . . I was like, ‘I’m going to go earn my way into it.’ And fortunately I hit a hell of a 3-wood and hell of a putt to get into the playoff, and I made birdie, but Mickey definitely helped me out in the playoff.“
McGirt defeated Liberty alum Mickey DeMorat of Florida on the first hole of the playoff (the 18th) after DeMorat put two shots in the water. Virginia native Brandon Berry won the 57-player qualifier with a 9-under 63, while PGA Tour veteran Brian Davis of England and former world No. 1 amateur Braden Thornberry also earned Thursday tee times at The Dunes Golf and Beach Club with 66s.
McGirt, 44, had his 11-year-old son Mac on his bag Monday, but will hire another caddie since Mac is too young to caddie in a PGA Tour event.
“It’s a calming voice,” McGirt said. “Ninety-five to 98 percent of his golf is played with me. When we’re home I mean we play all the time. So it’s just familiarity, having somebody to talk to and occasionally somebody to tell you to get your head right. It’s just a lot of fun being able to share the experiences with him. He’s caddied in three, four or five Monday qualifiers for me now and he’s starting to get the hang of it.”
McGirt reached the par-4 16th hole at 4 under and made bogey after his approach shot into a stiff wind on the par-4 came up short in the rough, then he made a key par on the par-3 17th after pulling his tee shot left of the green. “I had a hell of an up-and-down on 17,” McGirt said. “I made a 6- or 7-foot curler to even have a chance on 18.“
He pulled his tee shot left on the 18th hole towards trees and an out-of-bounds fence.
“It didn’t hit [the tree] hard, I thought it went through it. I thought, ‘Yep, here we go, it’s going to go right through it and go out of bounds,’ then I see something bounce in the fairway and I went, ‘Really?’ I told [Mac], ‘Let’s go take advantage of it.’
“. . . We had 278 to the hole and it was probably one of the top five 3-woods I’ve ever hit in my life to about 15 feet, and I swear the putt, I thought was going to stay high, then when it started turning I thought it was going to turn completely out and it caught the hole and somehow went in.”
McGirt is a native of Fairmont, N.C., which is about an hour’s drive from Myrtle Beach and close to the S.C. border. The 20-year pro has lived in South Carolina essentially since he enrolled at Wofford College and he now lives in Bluffton.
“I get to play in front of some family and friends on a golf course I absolutely love,” McGirt said. “I haven’t played it in maybe 27 years, but the few times I’ve played it I absolutely love it. It’s a fantastic golf course.”
McGirt’s PGA Tour win came in the 2016 Memorial Tournament and his three runner-up finishes came at the 2015 Sanderson Farms Championship in Mississippi and 2012-13 Canadian Opens.
McGirt had two left hip surgeries within a year of each other in 2018 and ’19 in an attempt to repair a labrum and bone-on-bone condition, and it kept him from competitive golf for about two years.
“The last four years since I’ve come back from the two hip surgeries . . . it’s just been a lot more down than it’s been up, but the positive side of missing two years and having hip surgery was getting to be home with (two children) and watching them grow up,” said McGirt, who years ago played in the Father & Son Team Classic on the Grand Strand with his father. “I’m kind of at a point now where me playing golf is a whole lot less important to me than watching them grow up and taking [Mac] to his tournaments and caddying for him.”
McGirt played for six months in 2018 knowing surgery was looming, he said in part because he was unsure what medical extension he would receive from the tour, and he made less than $1 million in earnings that season in 26 events with three top-10s.
“The last four months it was miserable,” McGirt said. “I couldn’t sleep because every time I moved it would wake me up. There were times it felt like somebody was jamming a knife in my hip.”
Since his return to the highest levels of competition in 2021, he has missed 28 of 49 cuts on the PGA Tour with a top finish of a tie for eighth at the 2022 Travelers Championship, and four of six Korn Ferry Tour cuts. He is 0-for-2 in cuts on the Korn Ferry this year, and 1-for-2 on the PGA Tour, with a tie for 43rd three weeks ago in the Corales Puntacana Championship in the Dominican Republic.
He is fully exempt on the Korn Ferry Tour based on his PGA Tour status for this year only, he said. “But it ain’t my idea of fun. I’ll go play some out there but I don’t see me playing anywhere close to a full schedule,” he said.
McGirt still feels pain occasionally in his hip, especially on hilly courses.
“It’s just something I’m going to deal with for the rest of my life. I’m delaying a new hip as long as I can. I want to keep the original parts as long as I can,” McGirt said. “. . . I’m at the point now to where if I walked off 18 on Sunday afternoon and hoisted a trophy, it would be a hell of a way to go out if I turned and walked away.”
Thornberry carries heavy resume
Thornberry, 27, is a Mississippi native and resident. He has been a regular member of the Korn Ferry Tour largely since he turned pro in the middle of his senior season at Ole Miss, where he was the winningest player in program history with 11 tournament victories, including the 2017 NCAA national individual title.
He won the 2017 Haskins Award as the top college golfer and 2018 Mark H. McCormack Medal as the world’s top amateur.
Thornberry has played in 10 PGA Tour events and his best showing came as an amateur with a tie for fourth in the 2017 FedEx St. Jude Classic in Memphis, Tenn.
This year, Thornberry has made four of nine Korn Ferry cuts with a top finish of 38th.
His fiancee, Grace, was caddying for him Monday.
“I’m excited about it,” Thornberry said. “I’ve been telling everybody it’s been close lately. I’ve been hitting it really well and usually putting is my strength and lately it’s been I wouldn’t say a struggle because I’m not missing any of the shorter putts, I’m just not making any of those extra 10-, 15-, 20-footers that you’d like to make, and today I actually made a couple of them so it’s nice to get a little momentum and hopefully roll it into this week.”
His 101-year-old great grandmother, Edna Winkler, has lived in Surfside Beach for more than 40 years, so he’s been a regular visitor to and golfer on the Grand Strand.
“We used to come pretty much every year so I’ve probably been here 10 or 15 times and played the TPC three or four times including last March,” Thornberry said. “It’s nice to kind of be comfortable with the area and know some stuff.”
Others gain entry
Berry, 25, the 2021 Patriot League medalist while playing at Loyola Maryland, shot a scintillating bogey-free 9-under 63 Monday.
He played holes three through seven 5-under par with an eagle on the par-5 sixth, and closed with birdies on four of the final five holes.
Berry has just one PGA Tour and one Korn Ferry tour start, both this year.
Davis, 49, is a veteran of 385 PGA Tour events. He has two international victories and five PGA Tour runner-up finishes, including the 2010 RBC Heritage in Hilton Head Island when he called a penalty on himself in a hazard to the left of the 18th green while in a playoff with Jim Furyk.
Bishopville native and Hartsville resident Tommy ‘Two Gloves’ Gainey, a winner of the PGA Tour’s 2012 McGladrey Classic, was 1-under par through seven holes of the qualifier when he was pulled off the course by officials after gaining entry in the Myrtle Beach Classic as an alternate.
Tournament particulars
_ Field: The tournament will host 132 players. The top 60 scorers and ties after the second round will make the cut to the weekend rounds.
_ Purse: The payout is $4 million and includes $720,000 to the winner.
_ FedExCup Points: The Myrtle Beach Classic is one of 36 events offering FedExCup points in the 2024 PGA Tour season and offers 300 to its winner, compared to 500 for winning a regular tour event and 700 for winning a Signature Event, such as the Wells Fargo Championship.
_ Yardage: The Dunes Club is playing as a 7,347-yard par-71 and can be stretched longer with tee marker and pin placements
_ Tee times: Begin at 6:50 a.m. Thursday and Friday and should begin about 7 a.m. on the weekend, and play should conclude between 5-6 p.m. daily.
_ Tickets: Are digital only and available through the MyrtleBeachClassic.com website. General admission grounds tickets are $35 Wednesday, $55 Thursday and Sunday, and $65 Friday and Saturday. A weekly grounds ticket is $240. Digital tickets can also be purchased at the gate. A Club 17 shared hospitality venue ticket is $325 per day and includes beer, wine, food and non-alcoholic beverages, and a cash bar. A few private and shared hospitality tickets on 17 are available. Email Travis Galowski at travis.galowski@sportfive.com with inquiries. Up to four children ages 15 and under are admitted with a ticketed adult. Military and first responders receive free tickets Wednesday and a 25% discount on up to two daily grounds tickets Thursday-Sunday. The course is closed to the public Monday and Tuesday.
_ Public parking: Is at the site of the former Myrtle Beach Mall at 2400 Oak Street and is $15 per day, purchased in advance, or cash or credit card on site. The price is $20 without a digital ticket. That is also the location for ride sharing pick up and drop off.
_ TV: Golf Channel and Peacock will broadcast live from 9:30-11:30 a.m. Thursday and Friday, and 3-5 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. Golf Channel says it is available in 82 million homes in the U.S. and 120 million homes worldwide.
_ Volunteers: Nearly all approximately 1,500 volunteer opportunities sold out within six hours with 20 states represented. The trash removal ecology committee is still accepting volunteer positions that offer several perks including food and drinks in a tent throughout a shift. Register at KeepMyrtleBeachBeautiful.com.
_ Merchandise: Tournament and Dunes Club logoed items will be sold in the clubhouse pro shop and a tent in the Fan Zone.
_ Etiquette: Cell phones should be off or on vibrate at all times, and prohibited items include non-clear bags larger than 6×6 inches, clear bags larger than 12x6x12 inches, and items such as umbrella sleeves, folding chair bags and binocular cases, though the umbrellas, chairs and binoculars are allowed. See a list of allowed and prohibited items here.
