The PGA Tour has set the dates for the second playing of the Myrtle Beach Classic.
Event organizers announced Monday, July 8 that the tournament will be played next May 8-11 at The Dunes Golf and Beach Club.
It’s the same week as the inaugural tournament – the first regular season PGA Tour event ever played on the Grand Strand – which was held this past May 9-12 and was won by Chris Gotterup.
“Year one exceeded our expectations, and the community is eager to see what is in store for year two,” said tournament director Darren Nelson of event operator SportFive in a news release.
Last year’s Myrtle Beach Classic had a $4 million purse and was played simultaneously with the Wells Fargo Championship at Quail Hollow Club in Charlotte, N.C., an elevated PGA Tour event with a $20 million purse.
The tournament will again have a 132-player dual-tournament field and is expected to have a similar purse.
With Quail Hollow Club hosting the PGA Championship, the season’s second major championship, next May 15-18, the Myrtle Beach Classic will coincide in 2025 with the Truist Championship at The Philadelphia Cricket Club.
Truist was announced on Aug. 6 as the new title sponsor of the tour’s traditional stop in Charlotte, and the $20 million event will be held in Pennsylvania before returning to Quail Hollow Club in 2026.
The one-year relocation could presumably allow the Myrtle Beach event to attract more golf fans within the Grand Strand’s drive market.
The first-year Myrtle Beach event drew more than 40,000 spectators, organizers said, including more than 15,000 for the third round on a Saturday, and also featured two free concerts, corporate hospitality options, and a public Fan Zone between the 17th and 18th holes.
It generated a total economic impact of $15.4 million according to Destinations International (DI) calculations as reported by the Myrtle Beach Area Chamber of Commerce, which calls DI the worldwide standard for measuring the effect events have on communities.
The chamber, which is the event’s title sponsor, also reported in a news release on Thursday, Aug. 15, that 52 percent of Myrtle Beach Classic attendees visited the Grand Strand from outside of the area including 12 countries, as tracked by Zartico, a U.S.-based data science company.
“The success of the inaugural event sets the stage for the Myrtle Beach Classic to become an annual stop on the PGA Tour schedule for many years, driving continued growth for the region, and establishing a lasting legacy for the community,” Nelson told On The Green Magazine. “With the generation of $15.4 million in economic impact from the 40,000 plus spectators in attendance, Myrtle Beach has further cemented itself as a top travel destination and elevated it’s status on the global sports stage.”
Nine charities based in Horry and Georgetown counties were awarded a total of $225,000, according to tournament operators, and event attendees purchased more than $600,000 in merchandise produced by local vendor Native Sons and more than $700,000 in food and beverages.
The event received eight hours of live coverage on Golf Channel.
Additionally, The Q at Myrtle Beach qualifier featuring touring pros and social media golf influencers broadcast on Play Golf Myrtle Beach’s YouTube channel generated more than 530,000 hours of watch time and a million YouTube views, according to the Golf Tourism Solutions marketing and technology agency that promotes the Grand Strand market.
Tickets for next year’s tournament will go on sale this fall and volunteer registration will open in early 2025. More information can be found on the tournament website.
“We’re incredibly excited for year two of the Myrtle Beach Classic as plans are well underway to make it even bigger and better with an enhanced fan experience that includes more seating, entertainment options and vendors,” Nelson said in a release. “We’re committed to building on this success to make the tournament another unforgettable experience.”
Organizers say The Dunes Club may be more challenging for the tournament’s second playing. Gotterup won with a 22-under-par 262 but was the only player better than 16 under.
“The players can expect that the golf course will be very similar to last year,” said Dunes Club director of agronomy Steve Hamilton in a release. “There won’t be any major changes for 2025. This golf course now can be as challenging as the tour wants to set it up. I think you’ll see that the rough will be a little taller. It was at two inches this year. Maybe we will get it as high as three inches next year, depending on the weather.”
The Myrtle Beach Classic winner is again expected to be awarded a spot in the PGA Championship field. The season’s second major championship will be contested at Quail Hollow Club in Charlotte, N.C., in the subsequent week from May 15-18, 2025.
Since the playing of the 2024 Myrtle Beach Classic, many of the tournament’s competitors have enjoyed great success on the PGA Tour.
Among them, Davis Riley won the Charles Schwab Challenge in Texas in late May, Robert MacIntyre won the RBC Canadian Open the next week and Scottish Open in July, and Davis Thompson won the John Deere Classic on July 7 a week after finishing second in the Rocket Mortgage Classic.
