The most eventful happening at the 41st PlayGolfMyrtleBeach.com World Amateur Handicap Championship that concluded last Friday was a tragic one.
Just a few holes into his first round last Monday at Prestwick Country Club, one of the competitors died on the course from what might have been cardiac arrest.
“Our condolences, thoughts and prayers go out to that family,” tournament director Ryan Hart said. “It’s a tragic incident to have somebody pass away at the event.”
Organizers couldn’t recall another player dying during a round in the tournament’s four decades.
Aside from one person who died but was revived on the course during the event.
Harry Whitt of Virginia collapsed on a tee box at the now-closed Indian Wells Golf Club when his heart stopped during the third round of the World Am in 2018.
Then Indian Wells first assistant pro Bobby McCullough, who took a six-year hiatus from the golf business to serve as a nursing tech in emergency at Tidelands Health Georgetown Memorial Hospital from 2011-16, answered a call in the pro shop about the incident and raced to the scene.
He didn’t feel a pulse, and helped save Whitt’s life by administering aggressive CPR and regaining a pulse before paramedics arrived several minutes later.
Whitt said in 2018 that was on life support on a ventilator later that afternoon at Grand Strand Medical Center, and his immediate family was notified that he might not survive. But within a couple days he was released from the hospital and went to Indian Wells to thank McCullough for saving his life.
Logistically, this year’s event went relatively smoothly for organizers because for the first time in a few years the event wasn’t impacted by inclement weather. Rounds on all five days were played without interruption.
Last year, the arrival on the Grand Strand of Hurricane Idalia forced the cancellation of the tournament’s fourth round, and may have contributed to there being a drop of about 200 players in this year’s event.
“No rain was unusual. It seems like it’s been years we’ve gotten through the event with just kind of perfect weather throughout the entire event. That was huge for us,” Hart said. “Hopefully that will turn into something next year, to where we can grow back a little bit after having the bad weather last year and having the numbers go down a little bit.”
The World Am is the largest single-site tournament on the globe. It featured nearly 3,000 players last week from 18 countries and 49 states ranging in age from 17 to 91.
A Tar Heel takes the title
Upendra Modak of Charlotte, N.C., won the World Am’s Flight Winner’s Playoff on Friday at the Grande Dunes Resort Course to claim the title of world champion.
Modak shot an 81 for a net 68 to finish a net shot ahead of both Ryan Ferreira of Malveira, Portugal, and Nicolas Cote of Voluntown, Connecticut.
Sean O’Donnell (Glendale, Ariz.) won the men’s 72-hole gross division by three shots over Christopher Schultz (La Porte, Ind.) with a 10-under total.
Michael Batten (Louisville, Kent.) easily won the Men’s Senior Gross Division, Orlando Rodriguez (Miami, Fla.) shot a four-round 299 to finish five strokes ahead of Michael Barclay (Cartersville, Ga.) in the Men’s Mid-Senior Gross Division championship, and Jackie Sexton (Cumming, Ga.) won a sudden-death playoff over Jill Pilkington (Lincoln, Neb.) Friday to win the Women’s Gross Division.
Michael Fincham and Michael St. Clair, both of New Bern, N.C., combined to win the Casa de Campo Pairs Competition and received a three-night stay at Casa de Campo in the Dominican Republic that includes unlimited golf.
The ruling party
With thousands of players attempting to play by the extensive USGA Rules of Golf, the World Am is always good for some interesting rules circumstances, breaches and disqualifications.
Here are four that occurred this year courtesy of tournament rules committee members Lew Gach and Martyn Woodhouse:
1, A player left his clubs at Caledonia Golf & Fish Club after a previous round and only realized that when he arrived to play his next round. He rented a set from the pro shop and his own clubs arrived before he made the turn. He wanted to play the back nine with his clubs but that is not permitted by Rule 4.1b. The rental set only had 13 clubs so he was able to add one club from his own set.
2, A player’s ball comes to rest on the fringe but there is a pitchmark between the player’s ball and their intended line of play with a putter. The player repaired the pitchmark before making a stroke then putted over the repaired area. When asked, the player said the pitchmark was there before his ball came to rest. Unfortunately the player was in breach of Rule 8.1a for altering the surface of the ground.
3, A player hit a drive well offline that struck a house (OB) and deflected back onto the course and came to rest in a Red Penalty Area. The ball last crossed into the penalty area from Out of Bounds. Back On The Line Relief and two club-lengths relief would be out of bounds and not allowed. Without a Local Rule allowing relief on the opposite edge of the red penalty area that is the same distance from the hole as the estimated point where the ball last crossed the edge of the penalty area, the player’s only option was stroke and distance – i.e. re-tee hitting 3. All options are not always available or good.
4, A player’s ball came to rest under the root ball of a tree uprooted during last month’s storm and asked for relief. The host professional was asked if the tree was going to be left that way or removed. He said it was to be removed but was lower on the course’s priority list and had not yet been completed. The player was allowed relief as this was an Abnormal Course Condition.
Gach advises all players: As you are preparing to play in this or any other tournament, please take some time to learn the Basics of the Rules. It can save you penalty strokes and heartache. The following site has numerous short videos that will help you learn and understand the Rules of Golf: https://rules.usga.org/courses/rules-101/
