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MYRTLE BEACH, SOUTH CAROLINA – MAY 08: Sam Ryder of the United States plays his shot from the ninth tee during the second round of the ONEflight Myrtle Beach Classic 2026 at Dunes Golf & Beach Club on May 08, 2026 in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. (Photo by David Jensen\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n
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The ONEflight Myrtle Beach Classic<\/a> is a PGA Tour stop that pulls double duty as a travel pitch for the Grand Strand, a 60-mile run of Atlantic coastline that has been a cornerstone of American golf tourism for decades. More than a typical title sponsorship, the event functions as a full-funnel marketing play\u2014driving awareness, shaping demand and ultimately converting viewers into visiting golfers.<\/p>\n A co-title sponsor pairing of a private jet broker and Visit Myrtle Beach underscores Myrtle Beach\u2019s high-volume golf inventory\u2014more than 80 courses dot the Grand Strand, a concentration of holes that rivals a Krispy Kreme conveyor line when the \u2018Hot Now\u2019 sign blinks on and the glaze starts flowing.<\/p>\n Events played at storied public venues like Pebble Beach, TPC Sawgrass and Torrey Pines already double as consumer-facing showrooms, where the setting sells almost as much as the competition. Watch it on Sunday, and if it resonates, book that buddy trip for next season. At the Myrtle Beach tour event, that dynamic isn\u2019t just a byproduct. It\u2019s the primary strategic driver<\/p>\n Staged at the Dunes Golf and Beach Club<\/a>, the opposite-field event played concurrently with the Truist Championship, is less a traditional sponsorship and more a coordinated push, a tour stop that also functions as a travel commercial. It\u2019s not subtle but that\u2019s the point of a destination built on access, volume and repeat visitation. Put a jet company next to a tourism board and you\u2019re covering both ends of the funnel: the ride and the reason.<\/p>\n Myrtle Beach\u2019s magnetism to golfers in colder climes with shorter playing seasons is a double whammy of scale and volume. The market has long been built around a simple, high-volume loop: beach, tee time, dinner, repeat. Package it, discount it, and keep the tee sheets full. The tournament doesn\u2019t introduce that model but does amplify it on a national stage, particularly as recent local reporting<\/a> has pointed to some weather-driven softness in occupancy and tourism tax revenue.<\/p>\n Even so, the destination\u2019s longstanding pull remains evident among players with deep familiarity with the market. Brooks Koepka, one of the biggest names in the field is playing the event for the first time, though it\u2019s not his first-time spending time in the area. <\/p>\n \u201cI was here when I was a kid\u2026 I think most kids my age that lived on the East Coast came up here as a family trip. The place hasn\u2019t changed, which is good to see,\u201d Koepka said earlier this week.<\/p>\n Promotion Notions<\/p>\n Annual promotions like Can-Am Days<\/a>, which offer steep discounts to international visitors, underscore how aggressively Myrtle Beach manages demand, using pricing to keep rooms and rounds filled across shoulder seasons.<\/p>\n That pricing strategy often shows up in how trips are packaged and sold. Tim Macdonell, CEO of Toronto-based Elite Sports Tours<\/a>, a travel agency specializing in gameday experiences, said Myrtle Beach\u2019s appeal to his largely Canadian clientele lies in the ability to blend spectating with playing. While you can\u2019t watch the Knicks at Madison Square Garden and then run a pickup game there the next day, pro golf is unique in that fans can literally step into the experience. Catch a tournament round and then play that same course at a later date or step onto a nearby track of similar caliber the very next day.<\/p>\n \u201cMyrtle Beach offers different levels of courses that can appeal to different skillsets of golfers,\u201d Macdonell said.<\/p>\n The market\u2019s range of courses and price points is a key draw for value-conscious travelers. \u201cCanadians are particularly value-based travelers,\u201d Macdonell added, noting that promotions that narrow the currency gap can materially influence booking decisions and help stabilize travel even as cross-border demand fluctuates. Even as trips to the U.S. dipped in 2025<\/a>, he said sports-driven travel, especially that which is tied to golf, has remained more resilient, driven by the time-sensitive nature of live events and the continued post-pandemic surge in the sport\u2019s participation.<\/p>\n Player Perks<\/p>\n The May 7\u201310 event features 120 players and a $4 million purse. Even the payout doubles as a marketing tool. Alongside the $720,000 winner\u2019s check sits a $250,000 ONEflight flight credit, less a novelty than product placement wired directly into the top of the leaderboard. <\/p>\n Also all players who make the cut receive a five-hour flight credit. That\u2019s the type of perk players notice. \u201cThat jet was awesome\u2026 I felt like I was in a movie,\u201d Blades Brown<\/a> said of using his ONEflight credits last year to travel between an event in the Bahamas to La Quinta, California. \u201cI was, like, this is a $40 million jet. It was a little bit better than Southwest, I would say.\u201d<\/p>\n If the tournament is the marketing, the area courses are the inventory\u2014and Myrtle Beach has built one of the deepest public-golf portfolios in the U.S., spanning marquee designs, mid-tier volume plays and package-friendly tracks.<\/p>\n Myrtle Beach doesn\u2019t just host a Tour stop\u2014it packages a playable product at scale, with an extensive roster of courses feeding the same well-oiled tourism engine that Visit Myrtle Beach polishes this week. The Dunes Club provides the broadcast backdrop, but the real business is in the breadth of tee sheets up and down the lengthy swath of Carolina coastline. <\/p>\n Fairway Abundance<\/p>\n At the top end of the spectrum are venues like the host course itself, the Dunes Golf and Beach Club, which is playable to guests staying at partner hotels or via golf package provider bookings. The Robert Trent Jones Sr. stunner\u2019s signature 13th head-trip known as \u201cWaterloo,\u201d the culmination of the vaunted Alligator Alley stretch of holes. The intimidating par-5 features a sharp dogleg wrapping around a lake that flips conventional strategy on its head. <\/p>\n \u201cYou\u2019re almost hitting away from the hole off the tee and then turning back across the water,\u201d Australian pro Ryan Ruffels<\/a> said. \u201cThe further you hit it, you can actually be getting farther from the green because the hole kind of turns back on itself.\u201d It\u2019s a design quirk that had legendary sportswriter Dan Jenkins quip, \u201cthe only way to reach the green is to charter a boat.\u201d<\/p>\n Other top of the marquee names include Caledonia Golf & Fish Club, the studio art major turned golf course architect legend Mike Strantz\u2019s debut solo design that trades oceanfront exposure for a canopy for gracious live oaks and marsh carries. For sister course True Blue, just across the street, Stranz went bigger in scale and scope, the Willem de Kooning to Caledonia\u2019s Claude Monet.<\/p>\n