MYRTLE BEACH FEATURES

'Hootie' breathes new life into the Grand Strand

By Shane Sharp,
Contributing Writer

NORTH MYRTLE BEACH, S.C. (March, 4, 2003) -- Hootie and the Blowfish are headed to Myrtle Beach next month for their annual Monday After the Masters Pro-Am Tournament. The ninth edition of this wildly popular, celebrity-laden event will be held at the Dye Course at Barefoot Resort on April 14.

There will be rock stars, ex-jocks, and current PGA Tour players. There will be a post-tournament concert staring the aforementioned Blowfish, local favorite Edwin McCain, Sister Hazel, and some other surprise guests.

And most importantly, there will be good times, man, good times.

How good? To put it bluntly, the Grand Strand needs the MAM more than Avril Lavgine needs teenage angst.

If you have fallen in love this chunk of golfing Americana over the years and always thought it worthy of big-name golf tilts, the last few years have been gut-wrenching. Myrtle Beach has had more professional tournaments come and go than FOX has reality shows.

First, there was the LPGA's City of Hope Classic played at Wachesaw Plantation East. Karrie Webb owned this event during its cup of coffee in the late 1990s. But when the only sponsor the tournament could muster went belly-up in 2001, Webb and the gals skipped town.

Then there was the Senior (now Champions) Tour. Myrtle Beach builds a TPC Course just to keep the long running event in the Grand Strand, and how do the not-so-flat bellies say thank you? They pick up and leave for Oklahoma. Oklahoma!

Finally, there was insult to injury when the Canadian Tour recently announced that it was bagging its spring stops at Barefoot Resort. It was nothing personal a couple of Arizona events were eight-sixed as well. But getting dumped by Canada just feels wrong.

Just when it was beginning to look like the Smith group of 24 might pull its annual beer-soaked shotgun tournament from its usual non-surcharge course venue, Hootie and the Blowfish came swooping in from Charleston.

"We think it was a great move and it's something we are excited about," said the band's frontman, Darius Rucker. "We played so many nights here at the Purple Gator (bar). We knew when we played here we'd be able to pay rent (that month)."

My, how times have changed for this band named for two of Rucker's childhood friends. First there was the bar circuit in Columbia, Charleston, and Myrtle Beach in the early 1990s. Then there was the break-through album Cracked Rear View in 1994, and semi-successful follow-ups Fairweather Johnson (1996), Musical Chairs (1998) and cover tune compilation Scattered, Smothered and Covered (2000)

At the press conference for the MAM last week, the band announced the release of a new, self-titled album molded in the singer/songwriter tradition.

"We spent a year working on it, and we really went back to our old roots in terms of the songwriting and style," Rucker said.

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Those very roots make the MAM and its arrival in North Myrtle Beach a major coup for the Grand Strand. Not once in their mercurial rise to fame in the 1990s did Rucker, drummer Jim Sonefeld, guitarist Mark Bryan, and bassist Dean Felber forget where they came from.

Before the ink on their royalty checks dried, the band started the Hootie and the Blowfish Foundation to support educational improvements in South Carolina. The MAM - which the band has supported since its inception nine years ago -- has raised over $1.5 million for the South Carolina Junior Golf Foundation and has funded two state-of-the art junior golf centers in Columbia and Spartanburg.

"We really try to concentrate on education," Rucker said. "You are in New York City and you look at the (New York) Post and you see that we (South Carolina) are 50th in education, and it pisses you off."

So impassioned is Rucker about the band's cause, he has no trouble selling spots in the MAM to a slew of high profile participants. Dan Marino, former South Carolina governor Jim Hodges, Michael Waltrip, John Daly, Sterling Sharpe and a whole mess of big-name participants already have committed to the field.

"The tournament being hosted at a golf mecca, like Myrtle Beach, is nothing but positive news for our charities," said Mark Bryan. "With the tremendous support we have already received from the Myrtle Beach community, we expect to raise considerably more money next year."

And with the band and MAM agreeing to a long-term deal with Myrtle Beach Golf Holiday, maybe the next year and the next year.

So adios, Karrie. Aloha means good-bye, Hale and Fuzzy. Who needs the LPGA, Champions Tour and Canadian Tour when you've got Hootie and the Blowfish?