Out of the Rough: ONEflight Myrtle Beach Classic (2025)

With the Tour’s best taking to the Philadelphia Cricket Club for this week’s Truist Championship, the ‘golf capital of the world’ will host an alternate-field event this week.

For the second time, the PGA Tour will visit Myrtle Beach, with last year being the first.

If you’ve ever vacationed in Myrtle Beach, there’s a large chance yourself or someone coming with you packed their golf clubs in hopes of playing one of the hundreds of golf courses that litter the area.

The Dunes Golf & Beach Club will play host for this week’s ONEflight Myrtle Beach Classic for the second consecutive season.

The ONEflight Myrtle Beach Classic serves as the third-of-five alternate-field events on the PGA Tour schedule for this season.

Despite being an alternate-field event, the field is still filled with talent as the Truist Championship features just a 72-man field.

The Field

A slew of household names, savery veterans and up-and-coming stars of the PGA Tour will be in attendance this week.

The most notable name playing this week is arguably Tom Kim who was omitted from the Truist Championship field.

They’ll be joined by the likes of Nico Echavarria, Mackenzie Hughes, Rasmus Hojgaard, Jacob Bridgeman, Patrick Rodgers and Thriston Lawrence as golfers ranked within the top 75 of the Official World Golf Rankings (OWGR) teeing it up this week. 

Chris Gotterup comes in as the defending champion, dominating last year’s event to win over the likes of Davis Thompson and Alistair Docherty by six strokes.

Gotterup will be back this week to defend his title.

The Course

The Dunes Golf & Beach Club in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina plays host this week.

It plays as a par-71 at 7,347 yards and annually ranks highly in Golf World’s Top 100 Courses in the USA.

It is one of Robert Trent Jones Sr.’s earliest designs and was opened in 1948.

Although appearing on the PGA Tour for the first time a season ago, the course has hosted many high-end golf tournaments including the Charles Schwab Cup Championship on the Champions Tour between 1994 and 1999 and the USGA Women's Open in 1962.

The Dunes & Beach Club is best known for this three-hole stretch nicknamed “Alligator Alley” which includes holes 11, 12 and 13.

In that stretch of holes is the course’s most famous hole, the 590-yard par-five 13th named “Boomerang.” Just as the name suggests, the hole sweeps right around Dunes Lake.

The course underwent extensive renovations over the last 20 years spearheaded by Trent Jones’ youngest son, Rees Jones.

In those renovations there was refinement of some green sites, addition of fairway bunkers, course lengthening, a new irrigation system and practice tee enhancement.

The biggest change came as the greens were converted to Champion ultradrawf bermudagrass to better perform in warm weather.

The greens were also expanded to an average size of 6,000 square feet. 

Extensive drainage work was also performed and due to that, combined with the fact that the venue sits on a naturally sandy site, the course is expected to play very firm.

The fairways featured this week are also rather narrow, averaging 20-to-25 yards across and are heavily tree-lined.

The rough consists of a two-inch overseeded ryegrass that adds to the importance of finding the fairways.

Holding the greens firing out of the rough, along with the expected firm and fast conditions, will be extremely difficult.

As many as 16-of-the-18 greens are also bunkered on the left and the right. The other two holes are only bunkered on the front right.

The Weather

As of the time of writing this, there is a 35-percent chance of precipitation for Thursday and a 50-percent chance on Friday. From there, Saturday is calling for a ten-percent chance and Sunday just a five-percent chance. Winds will begin at nine miles-per-hour on Thursday before peaking at 13 miles-per-hour on Friday. Winds will return to nine miles-per-hour for Saturday before decreasing to six miles-per-hour on Sunday. Temperatures will be at the highest on Thursday at 74-degrees before dropping to 73-degrees on Friday and 71-degrees across both days on the weekend.

Key Stats

• Strokes Gained: Approach (SG: APP)

• Average Driving Distance

• Strokes Gained: Putting on Bermuda (SG: PUTT Bermuda)

• Greens in Regulation Percentage (GIR%)

• Scrambling

• Proximity to the Hole From 150-200 Yards

• Birdie or Better Percentage

• Par 4 Average Scoring

Betting Card

Kevin Yu (+4000)

It’s always a good week when my model spits out one of my favorites. Yu is currently eighth on Tour in GIR%, 12th in proximity to the hole from 150-200 yards, 18th in SG: APP, 38th in birdie or better percentage, 46th in average driving distance, 68th in par-four average scoring, 111th in SG: PUTT Bermuda and 148th in scrambling. Yu placed 29th last week at THE CJ CUP Byron Nelson. He had missed the cut at both the Zurich Classic of New Orleans and the Masters Tournament prior but before that placed 18th at the Texas Children’s Houston Open and 12th at the Valspar Championship. He also placed 45th at the Mexico Open at VidantaWorld, 17th at The Genesis Invitational and 16th at the WM Phoenix Open earlier this season.

Victor Perez (+5000)

Perez made the cut last week at THE CJ CUP Byron Nelson. Earlier this season he had a great run of form, placing 18th at the Texas Children’s Houston Open, 22nd at THE PLAYERS Championship and 18th at the Mexico Open at VidantaWorld in consecutive outings. He is currently 26th on Tour in GIR%, 41st in both SG: APP and par-four average scoring, 61st in scrambling, 62nd in SG: PUTT Bermuda, 76th in proximity to the hole from 150-200 yards and 103rd in birdie or better percentage. 

Matti Schmid (+6600)

Schmid is currently fourth on Tour in proximity to the hole from 150-200 yards, 16th in average driving distance, 39th in GIR%, 48th in birdie or better percentage, 63rd in SG: APP, 80th in SG: PUTT Bermuda, 144th in par-four average scoring and 168th in scrambling. Schmid has been very hit-or-miss this season. He missed the cut last week at THE CJ CUP Byron Nelson but prior to that placed ninth at the Corales Puntacana Championship. He also placed 28th at the Valspar Championship, sixth at the Puerto Rico Open, 18th at the Cognizant Classic and 25th at the Farmers Insurance Open. He also has missed eight total cuts this season. 

Niklas Norgaard (+6600)

Norgaard is currently second on Tour in average driving distance, tenth in birdie or better percentage, 22nd in GIR%, 102nd in SG: PUTT Bermuda, 107th in SG: APP, 131st in par-four average scoring, 168th in proximity to the hole from 150-200 yards and 180th in scrambling. He comes into this week making the cut a week ago, placing 33rd at THE CJ CUP Byron Nelson. Earlier this season he placed 34th at the Puerto Rico Open, 25th at the Cognizant Classic and 34th at the Mexico Open at VidantaWorld.