Sea Trail sale still on hold, Marsh Harbour closed until 2004

MYRTLE BEACH, S.C. (April 8, 2003) - It is April in the Grand Strand. Fairways are full of lily-white northerners just happy to set foot on green grass and smash oversized driver against overpriced ball. The azaleas are blooming. Temperatures are climbing into the 70s. Beer tastes colder.

And Sea Trail Plantation still hasn't changed hands. Signature Horizons, Inc. of Atlanta, Ga. agreed to purchase the 2,000-acre golf resort and residential development in Sunset Beach, N.C. in Dec. 2002 for $45 million. The closing, which was originally scheduled for Jan. 2003, has now been postponed indefinitely.

"A lot of it (the delay) has to do with the war," said Robert B. Prag, president of the Del Mar Consulting Group, Inc. and a spokesman for Signature Horizons, Inc. "From a financing perspective, lenders are more methodical during war time."

Prag said he is confident the sale will be completed in the near future, but he would not speculate on a date given the "war and the current state of the economy."

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Signature Horizon officials have said that the delay is unrelated to the dismissal of numerous, high-ranking Sea Trail employees between July and December of last year and the potential litigation surrounding their terminations. Any litigation against Sea Trail's current ownership would not transfer to the new ownership, Signature Horizons executive vice president John Mansfield told MyrtleBeachGolf.com earlier this year.

Sources within Sea Trail have indicated the closing has been put off due to concerns over the property's decaying infrastructure. Mansfield, however, maintains that Signature Horizons has performed a thorough inspection and evaluation of the resort's physical plant, three golf courses, clubhouses, and roadways.

Marsh Harbour likely to skip 2003 fall golf season

Golfers hoping Marsh Harbour will re-open this fall could be out of luck. A spokesperson at LaDane Golf Management, LLC said the course is still in need of major repairs, and a management group has not been selected to operate the once-popular facility.

"We are working on it but we don't have a definite date," said Paula Buis, a consultant with LaDane Golf Management, LLC.

Sources close to MyrtleBeachGolf.com said the 25-year-old Dan Maples designed course will not reopen until Feb. 2004. Buis would not provide comment, but she did confirm Williamson has no intention of selling the course, contrary to recent rumors.

"All I can say is that we are not selling," Buis said. "We will reopen the course and we'll probably manage it. We've interviewed a number of golf course management firms and we aren't comfortable with what they offer."

According to Buis, repairs will include replacing the 25-year-old irrigation and pump system, maintenance on a series of bridges, remodeling or reconstructing the original clubhouse, and general landscape and turf improvements.

"We could open the course to the public at any point but that is not the product that we want to provide for golfers," Buis said. "Marsh Harbour has developed a reputation for excellence and that is what we want to restore before we open."

The King headlines Golf Writers Association of America's 50th Anniversary Championship

Myrtle Beach Golf Holiday hosted the 50th Annual Golf Writers Association of America (GWAA) Championship April 4-6. More than 160 golf writers gathered in Myrtle Beach for the three-day event and the played three of the area's most storied courses - the Dunes Club, Pine Lakes International Country Club and the Surf Club.

To help celebrate the GWAA's 50th anniversary, Arnold Palmer attended a private media banquet at the Dunes Club on the event's final night.

"Hosting the 50th annual GWAA championship and having Arnold Palmer speak at the awards banquet was extremely special," said Jim Davis, tournament coordinator. "The event annually exposes the Myrtle Beach area to the national media, which has helped establish the Grand Strand as the nation's premier golf destination."

Tournament participants included writers from numerous national golf publications and major daily newspapers from across the nation. The GWAA event has been held in Myrtle Beach since its berth in 1954 at a fish fry. That year, Jimmy D'Angelo - the Godfather of Myrtle Beach golf -- asked golf writer Larry Robinson to invite golf writers to a testimonial dinner for Dunes Golf and Beach Club architect, Robert Trent Jones.

Among the eight GWAA members who attended that first year were representatives from The New York Journal-American, The Detroit News, the Pittsburgh Press, and Herbert Warren Wind, who became the chief golf writer for Sports Illustrated. Many golf writers and historians point to the tournament as the beginning of the "golf boom" in the Myrtle Beach.

A small, spiral-bound book entitled "Bad Shots, Good Times. 50 Years of Stories from the GWAA Championship," circulated among participants during the week. The book contained anecdotes from the Championship's storied past, many of which centered on Charlie Bartlett and Bob Drum.

Bartlett, a golf writer with the Chicago Tribune, once took a 22 on the Dunes Club's famous par-5 13th hole. A notoriously terrible golfer, he played the entire hole with a 9-iron. When faced with going over or around the lake that guards the hole's elevated green, Bartlett elected circumnavigation. A plaque on the 13th commemorates his anti-heroic feat.

No tell-tale GWAA book would be complete without a Drum story. The legendary Pittsburgh Press golf writer and CBS commentator once found his clothes locked in the car of the Rochester Democrat's Bruce Koch on Easter Sunday. Drum used a 7-iron to bust out Koch's window and snare his wardrobe. Known to cuss like sailors, Koch and Drum got into a shouting match in front of the Dunes Club's members and their wives that ultimately led to them being banished from the event for years.

Field for Monday After the Masters Tournament taking shape

The Hootie and the Blowfish Monday After the Masters Celebrity Pro-Am Golf Tournament can now count Tom Watson among its participants next Monday. The list of commitments for the tournament's ninth edition includes an impressive array of PGA Tour professionals and celebrities. Among them:

Former Miami Dolphins quarterback Dan Marino, ESPN college football analyst Kirk Herbstreit, former Dallas Cowboys fullback Daryl Johnston, former Chicago Bears quarterback Jim McMahon, former USC standout and Green Bay Packer Sterling Sharpe, Edwin McCain, Daytona 500 Champion Michael Waltrip, and the PGA Tour's John Daly, Peter Jacobsen, Matt Kuchar, Robert Gamez, Joel Kribel, and Chris Riley.

Tickets for Monday's tournament are $10 and can be purchased at the House of Blues outlets and www.hob.com, the Barefoot Resort and Golf clubhouse and at either of the Golf Dimensions locations at 2301 Hwy 17 S. in North Myrtle Beach and at 3423 Hwy 501 Myrtle Beach. Children ages 16 and younger will be admitted for free. Ticket for the Hootie and Friends concert are $35 and are available through ticketmaster.