No knocks on azalea blossoms and green jackets, but there’s more than one Masters tournament in the South. Every fall since 1997, the nation’s top putters have descended on North Myrtle Beach for the ProMiniGolf Master’s (October 8–12). Action centers on the Hawaiian Rumble course, eighteen holes that lead players through tropical foliage centered around a towering faux volcano that growls and shoots out flames every twenty minutes. The Rumble’s owner, Bob Detwiler, a former tennis coach at Myrtle Beach High School, serves as president of the U.S. ProMiniGolf Association, which sponsors the tournament. He’s particularly proud of hole sixteen, an unforgiving layout that often punishes players by sending missed putts rolling right back to the tee. Indeed, the event is hardly a walk in the park. Reigning champion Gary Hester of Calabash, North Carolina, has been competing since he was a teenager. He says each tournament requires hours of practice time on the greens: “They play different in the morning and afternoon. Some carpets play faster when they’re dry. It’s professional, and we do take it very seriously.” Detwiler, who expects a record of more than eighty players to vie for $25,000 in prize money in this year’s Master’s, says professional miniature golf is just taking off. “You take the NFL or MLB—they’ve been doing it over a hundred years. Give us some time and we’ll be just as big.”
Southern Agenda
Putting for Glory
