Myrtle Beach Golf Hall of Fame
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INDUCTEES

The induction ceremony of two more individuals who shaped the Myrtle Beach golf industry was held on June 21, 2011. They were recognized for their contributions to the Myrtle Beach golf industry and honored with a permanent monument located in the Pine Lakes Country Club Hall of Fame Garden.

Seated (L-R) Hall of Fame Inductees – Living legends
Cecil Brandon – 2009
Clay Brittain – 2009
Gary Schaal - 2010

Standing (L-R) Myrtle Beach Golf Hall Of Fame Board of Directors
Alan Jarvis – Carolinas Golf Course Superintendents Association of America
David Durant – Myrtle Beach Area Golf Course Owners Association
Bill Golden – Myrtle Beach Golf Holiday
Ron Schmid – Carolinas PGA
Bob Swezey – Burroughs & Chapin
David Downing – Golf Course Superintendents Association of America
AJ Gohil – Grand Strand Golf Directors Association
Tracy Conner – Grand Strand Tee Time Network


2011 HALLF OF FAME INDUCTEES

Charles W. Byers, Jr.
   “Grand Strand Growth Champion”

Charles “Charlie” W. Byers moved to North Myrtle Beach in 1947. A founding member of the Dunes Golf and Beach Club, he is widely recognized as the smiling golfer in the front center of the famous July 8, 1961 cover of the Saturday Evening Post. One of five men to open the first golf club in North Myrtle Beach, The Surf Golf and Beach Club, he served two terms as its first president. Charlie then opened two more golf courses, Seagull Golf Club in Pawleys Island and Quail Creek Golf Club in Conway. He opened these despite criticism that “no one would drive that far from Myrtle Beach to play golf.” Based on the success of these courses, he developed Burning Ridge Golf Club, Indian Wells Golf Club and Crown Park, increasing the depth of golf on the Grand Strand. Charlie believed that the Grand Strand golf industry should cooperate for the betterment of Myrtle Beach as a whole. He was an important influence on the foundation of Myrtle Beach Golf Holiday which has successfully promoted and branded Myrtle Beach worldwide, increasing local business opportunities, area-wide employment, and the number of visiting golfers. He was also a force behind the creation of the Golf Course Owners Association.


Paul Himmelsbach
   “Myrtle Beach’s Marketing Innovator”

Paul Himmelsbach moved from New York in 1977 to join the Grand Strand golf industry. He leveraged his relationships with national media to position Myrtle Beach among the world's premier golf vacation destinations. A founder of On The Green magazine and its sister publication, On The Beach, his publishing ventures have informed millions of visitors about Myrtle Beach and its world-class golf courses. As a partner in two advertising agencies providing golf marketing services, he spearheaded the creation of a marketing cooperative between On The Green and the number one golf magazine in America, Golf Digest, that showcased the quality and quantity of golf courses in Myrtle Beach and enhanced the area's brand. In 1984, he co-created the World Amateur Handicap. Competitors and golf vendors come to Myrtle Beach annually from every state and many foreign countries for a week of golf, generating millions of dollars for the economy and worldwide publicity for Myrtle Beach golf. A golf course developer, Paul partnered with others to create The Glens Golf Group, known for award-winning golf courses, including Heather Glen, Glen Dornoch and Shaftesbury Glen, that are are ranked among the Grand Strand's best.


2010 HALL OF FAME INDUCTEES

George W. “Buster” Bryan
   “Myrtle Beach Golf Package Innovator”

George W. “Buster” Bryan was one of the founding fathers of the golf package business. His leadership transformed Myrtle Beach from a sleepy beach town with a 3 month season into a year-round golf vacation destination. Bryan built the Caravelle Hotel in 1959 and soon realized that Myrtle Beach could expand its tourist season beyond summer by offering golf vacation packages. In the 1950s, he created Myrtle Beach’s first golf promotion group, “Golf-o-tel”, combining 8 courses and 8 hotels into a marketing cooperative. The group bought advertising that took Myrtle Beach’s package message far beyond the Carolinas. Bryan understood the power of positive publicity. He raised funds to host a gathering of influential golf writers and became a driving force behind the Golf Writers Championship. For 50 years, the gathering ensured that writers topped in Myrtle Beach on their annual trips to cover The Masters and recommended golf vacations here.


Gary L. Schaal
   “PGA of America – Spotlight on Myrtle Beach”

Gary L. Schaal, a golf industry leader for more than 30 years, began his career in 1973 as an assistant golf professional in Myrtle Beach. Within 2 years, he was a head professional. By the late 1980s, he was already co-owner of several local golf courses, past president of the Carolinas Section PGA, CPGA Horton Smith Trophy winner, CPGA Professional of the Year, and a member of the PGA TOUR’s Tournament Policy Board. From 199301994, Schaal was president of the PGA of America, the largest professional sports organization in the world with over 20,000 members. As president, he drew media attention to Myrtle Beach and the resulting publicity boosted the Grand Strand’s growing national and international reputation. In 2005, Schaal was named to the PGA Golf Professional Hall of Fame. He has also been designated a “living Legend” through the PGA of America’s “Legends of the PGA” Program.


2009 HALL OF FAME INDUCTEES

W. Cecil Brandon, Jr.
   “Mr. Golf of Myrtle Beach”

W. Cecil Brandon, Jr. has long been credited as the mastermind behind Myrtle Beach’s booming golf industry. Through his tireless marketing efforts, he brought worldwide recognition to the Myrtle Beach area, and to the state of South Carolina.

In 1967, Brandon helped found Myrtle Beach Golf Holiday, a nonprofit alliance of golf courses and accommodation properties, which transformed Myrtle Beach from a three-month-a-year family vacation site into a year-round golf destination. He worked closely with the PGA TOUR to build the Tournament Players Club of Myrtle Beach and helped bring the PGA Senior TOUR Championship to the Grand Strand for six consecutive years.

He was inducted into the Carolinas Golf Hall of Fame in 2002, and was honored with the 1996 Order of the Palmetto, the highest civilian honor awarded by the governor of South Carolina. Brandon’s legacy in Myrtle Beach continues with Brandon Advertising, which he founded in 1959.


Clay Brittain, Jr.
   “Myrtle Beach’s Tourism Advocate”

A 40-year veteran of the golf industry, Clay Brittain, Jr. played an instrumental role in uniting the golf and tourism industries in Myrtle Beach. Brittain was also an important partner in the birth of Myrtle Beach Golf Holiday, a marketing cooperative formed with the goal of promoting the Myrtle Beach area as the world’s premier golf destination, in 1967.

In 1971, Britain was one of the original partners in the Myrtle Beach National Company and developed it into one of the largest course and accommodation ownership groups in the Southeast.

Awarded the 2005 Ashby Ward Pioneer of the Year Award for the significant impact he made in the Myrtle Beach area, Brittain was largely responsible for establishing the PGA golf degree at Coastal Carolina University. He was later honored for his contributions to the community in 2001, when the Clay Brittain, Jr. Center for Resort Tourism at the university was named in his honor.

Carolyn Cassidy Cudone
   “Myrtle Beach’s Junior Golf Pioneer”

Carolyn Cassidy Cudone will always be remembered as the pioneer of the Myrtle Beach Junior Golf Association. Disenchanted by the lack of collegiate golfers representing the “Golf Capital of the World”, Cudone created the area’s original junior golf program in 1981 and was the driving force behind the program over the next 20 years. Thanks to her insight and hard work, more than 15 of her Grand Strand area junior golfers earned college golf scholarships.

One of the finest women golfers of her generation, Cudone captured 10 U.S. Women’s Senior Amateur Championships, including five consecutive wins from 1968 to 1972, the longest consecutive winning streak in any USGA Championship. In addition to capturing the South Carolina Women’s Amateur title a record seven times, Cudone was a member of two U.S. Curtis Cup Match teams (a team member in 1956 and the team captain in 1970). She was inducted into the South Carolina Golf Hall of Fame in 1979.

Jimmy D’Angelo
   “Myrtle Beach Golf Ambassador”

Jimmy D’Angelo’s most significant contribution to the Myrtle Beach golf industry was not limited to his play on the course, but also his marketing acumen in promoting Myrtle Beach golf and The Dunes Club.

D’Angelo served as the first golf professional at the esteemed Dunes Golf and Beach Club from its 1948 opening day until he retired in 1968. During his tenure at the Dunes Club, D’Angelo developed the Robert Trent Jones testimonial dinner for writers in Myrtle Beach in 1954 to attract writers to the emerging Myrtle Beach golf destination. The event evolved into the weeklong Golf Writers Association of America Championship – a media golf tournament that became a pre-Masters tradition and brought media attention to the area for more than 50 years. His relationship with the media culminated in the July 9, 1961 front cover of the Saturday Evening Post, which depicted guests in the Dunes Club locker room waiting out a thunderstorm.

General James (Jim) F. Hackler, Jr.
   “Myrtle Beach Golf Visionary”

While on a golf vacation, General James (Jim) Hackler, Jr. revolutionized the Myrtle Beach golf industry with the concept of combining tee times and accommodations to form the first golf package – an idea that would make Myrtle Beach synonymous with the ultimate golf destination.

He was instrumental in the 1972 opening of Bay Tree Golf Plantation, Myrtle Beach’s first three-course facility, and helped bring the 1977 LPGA Championship to Bay Tree, attracting national media attention to the Grand Strand area. Hackler was also active in the ownership and development of Heather Glen Golf Links, Robber’s Roost, Possum Trot and The Classic Group.

Hackler was a highly-decorated, two-star Major General in the United States Air Force, served as a fighter pilot in World War II and was a recipient of the Silver Star Medal and the Distinguished Flying Cross.

A devoted community and civic leader, Hackler was actively involved in numerous local organizations.


Robert White
   “Original Architect of Myrtle Beach’s First Golf Course”

One of the most renowned golf course architects of his time, Robert White was the original architect of Myrtle Beach’s first golf course, the Ocean Forest Country Club, that opened in that 1927, and is now known as Pine Lakes Country Club.

The first president of the United States Professional Golf Association of America from when it was founded in 1916 until 1920, White was hired to build the Ocean Forest Country Club in 1927 and combined his native Scottish golf influences with a unique twist of Southern hospitality. When it opened in 1927, Ocean Forest became a playground for the rich and famous, with professional golfers Sam Snead and Gene Sarazen, as well as the country’s most prominent families, the Rockefellers and Vanderbilts, as frequent guests.

White was a founding member of the American Society of Golf Course Architects in 1946.

After retiring, White was a Pine Lakes resident until his death.

PHOTO GALLERY: 2009 Ceremony

Click to Open Gallery