The giving that led to Hootie & the Blowfish’s election to the Myrtle Beach Golf Hall of Fame was suitably on display in a couple forms Wednesday night during the induction ceremony at Pine Lakes Country Club.
The band’s fellow inductee in the class of 2019, PGA Tour star Dustin Johnson, is an alumnus of the South Carolina Junior Golf Association that the band has supported with millions of dollars in donations.
In addition, and the band announced a donation on stage of $10,000 to Johnson’s own charitable organization that benefits junior golf, the Dustin Johnson Foundation. “It’s a full-circle moment for us because of the junior golf thing,” Hootie guitarist Mark Bryan said.
Johnson, a Coastal Carolina alumnus who will regain the No. 1 Official World Golf Ranking next week, was honored for his success, promotion of the Myrtle Beach golf market and giving back to the community.
The band was recognized largely for the Hootie & the Blowfish Monday After the Masters Celebrity Pro-Am that has been played at the Barefoot Resort Dye Club for the past 17 years and has raised more than $7 million for the band’s foundation, which supports educational and junior golf charities in South Carolina.
“Having so much to do with the South Carolina Junior Golf Association . . . to know the No. 1 golfer in the world came through a program we support so much, also knowing he’s such a great dude, and a great friend and a good human being is awesome,” Hootie lead singer Darius Rucker said.
Attendees Wednesday included Johnson’s fiancée, Paulina Gretzky, and noted golf instructors Michael Breed and Hank Haney, who was Tiger Woods’ coach for several years. Both are doing their shows on SiriuxXM Satellite Radio’s PGA Tour Radio live this week from TPC Myrtle Beach during the Dustin Johnson World Junior Golf Championship, being played for the fourth time Friday through Sunday.
“I’m very proud to be inducted into the Myrtle Beach hall of fame,” Johnson said. “Myrtle Beach has been a huge part of my career, living here and coach [Allen] Terrell. I’m very humbled and honored just to be able to give back to the community that I feel I almost sort of grew up in, and I’m going to continue to do as much for this community and for junior golf in this community. It’s something that’s my passion.”
Dustin Johnson
A three-time All-American and NCAA Player of the Year finalist at Coastal from 2004-07, Johnson won seven collegiate tournaments including the 2005 NCAA East Regional. The three-time Big South Golfer of the Year (2005, 2006 and 2007), the Columbia area native led the Chanticleers to a fifth-place finish at the 2007 NCAA National Championship.
Since turning pro, Johnson has won 20 PGA Tour events, including the 2016 U.S. Open and the World Golf Championships – Mexico Championship on Sunday for his sixth PGA Tour victory.
Johnson has already won twice worldwide this month, capturing the European Tour’s Saudi International on Feb. 3 in Saudi Arabia.
He has won at least one event in each of his 12 years on the PGA Tour and has held the No. 1 spot in the Official World Golf Ranking for a total of 81 weeks, including 64 consecutive weeks in 2017-18. He is currently ranked second and will take the No. 1 ranking back from Justin Rose next week.
Johnson has represented the United States in a combined seven Ryder Cup and Presidents Cup competitions. His PGA Tour earnings exceed $57 million.
His success has benefitted Myrtle Beach.
Johnson, 34, has served as an ambassador for the Myrtle Beach golf industry through a multi-year contract with marketing cooperative Myrtle Beach Golf Holiday and remains tied to the area through his golf school at the TPC Myrtle Beach in Murrells Inlet.
The Dustin Johnson Golf School is run by Terrell, his former CCU coach, and Johnson memorabilia including tournament trophies is on display in the TPC clubhouse.
Johnson donates to causes including junior golf in the area through his foundation, which is headquartered at the TPC, and annually sponsors his namesake junior tournament at the TPC, which features an international field and many of the top juniors in the country and will be played Friday through Sunday.
Johnson will remain in the area for the start of the tournament and will be at the grand opening of the 4,000-square-foot performance center Thursday morning at his golf school.
Ceremony emcee Bill Golden, president of the Grand Strand’s Golf Tourism Solutions technology and marketing agency, rattled off the contributions of Johnson’s foundation:
It has donated more than $500,000 to help offset the cost of instruction for more than 70 local children through his golf school.
It provides $20,000 worth of golf equipment annually to juniors whose families can’t afford it, and through the local Lion’s Club it purchases seeing-eye dogs for visually-impaired children via the Leader Dogs for the Blind program.
It has also given to the Waccamaw Youth Center and area high school golf teams, and the South Carolina Junior Golf Assocation, of which he is an alumnus.
“We just built our golf school here and pretty much all the money I make from the golf school goes back into it to support junior golf in this area,” Johnson said. “I’m proud to stand here in front of you guys and hopefully I can continue to make you all proud.”
Hootie & the Blowfish
The Columbia-formed band’s members –Rucker, Bryan, bassist Dean Felber and drummer Jim Sonefeld – regularly played golf and shows on the Grand Strand in the 1980s and early ’90s and returned in 2003 with their fundraising event.
The tournament has annually raised between $200,000 and $500,000, according to organizers, and the success of the event on the Strand has led to the creation of a $3 million endowment.
Myrtle Beach nabbed the event with a sponsorship, marketing and operations agreement after it was played in Columbia and Kiawah Island over its first eight years.
“We started in Columbia then we moved it around. I don’t know if we were trying to find a home, we were just trying to put on the tournament in cool places,” Rucker said. “Myrtle called us and said they had this deal for us and they were going to make it great and they were going to do all this stuff for us, and the first day we came here they did more than they said were going to do.
“I think we realized early on this was the perfect place to have it because you have everything you want here.”
The tournament has brought stars and attention to the Strand, and has been symbiotic for the area and band.
“Every year that event gets better, and it’s a true partnership,” Golden said. “It’s not one way. We all benefit greatly.”
Golfers Tiger Woods, Arnold Palmer, Tom Watson, John Daly, Jim Furyk, Davis Love III, Annika Sorenstam and Nancy Lopez have participated, as well as sports and entertainment stars Bill Murray, Samuel L. Jackson, John Elway and Dan Marino.
National television and radio shows have broadcast live from the tournament for several years, including ESPN’s former Mike & Mike in the Morning show for five years from 2011-15, SiriusXM shows, and several Westwood One sports talk shows on CBS Sports Radio and NBC Sports Radio. A one-hour Hootie MAM highlight show has also run on Golf Channel.
The event has been hugely popular since moving to Barefoot. Spectator tickets have sold out in each of the past 12 years. Approximately half of the 6,000 adult spectator tickets are available to the general public and the others are disbursed through sponsorship packages.
“Twenty-five years ago now we got together with the South Carolina junior golf program in a very humble event in Columbia, South Carolina at Spring Valley Country Club with the idea of raising money by playing music and playing golf,” Bryan said. “We had no idea it could turn into what it has turned into today. . . . Yes we’re at 25 years now but we’re still growing, and here’s to helping more and more kids and raising more money.”
Bryan was one of four cast members of the Golf Channel reality-type show “Road Trip: Myrtle Beach” in 2008 and was a guest on Golf Channel’s 30-minute “Golf Advisor Round Trip” travel show that featured the Grand Strand in an episode that premiered in November.
The band reminisced Wednesday about playing shows in the last 1980s and early 1990s at large and small now-closed Myrtle Beach clubs including the Purple Gator and Apple Annies before the release of their first album, Cracked Rear View, which is the eighth-highest selling album of all time, according to the band.
“When you think about the late ’80s and early ’90s before any fame or fortune came our way, those are some of the humble days I think we remember in Myrtle Beach, just playing random golf courses and doing small bar gigs, those are some good times, too,” Felber said.
The Hall
Wednesday’s dinner and induction ceremony was $100 per person and raised money for Project Golf, a Grand Strand-based charity with a focus on junior golf.
Johnson and the band bring the Myrtle Beach Golf Hall of Fame membership to 27.
Other members are: General James Hackler, Cecil Brandon, Clay Brittain, Carolyn Cudone, Jimmy D’Angelo, Robert White, George ‘Buster’ Bryan, Charlie Byers, Paul Himmelsbach, Gary Schaal, J. Egerton Burroughs, J.Bryan Floyd, Edward Jerdon, Casper Leon Benton, George Hilliard, Critt Gore, Russell ‘Doc’ Burgess, Sandy Miles, Phillip Goings, Edward Burroughs, Kelly Tilghman, Vernon Brake, Bob LeComte, Ed Bullock and Larry Leagans.
This story was originally published February 28, 2019 9:25 AM.
