Myrtle Beach Classic: Valimaki fancied at 74/1

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Myrtle Beach Classic Tournament History

This is only the third edition of the Myrtle Beach Classic, and for the third year running it's being played alongside the PGA Tour's Signature Event - the Truist Championship - formerly known as the Wells Fargo Championship.

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Venue

The Dunes Golf and Beach Club, Myrtle Beach, South Carolina

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Course Details

Par 71, 7,347 yards
Stroke Average in 2025 - 70.27

Hugging Lake Singleton and dating back to 1948, the tree-lined Robert Trent Jones Sr designed Dunes Club appeared on the PGA Tour for the first time when it hosted the inaugural edition two years ago.

The Dunes had played host to numerous high-end golf tournaments prior to the inaugural edition of this event, including the Charles Schwab Cup Championship on the Champions Tour between 1994 and 1999 and the USGA Women's Open in 1962.

Nicknamed "Alligator Alley," the three-hole stretch of Holes 11, 12 and 13 is the course's most renowned stretch, although it really isn't a demanding run of holes.

As many as 16 of the 18 Bermuda greens are bunkered on the left and right and the other two are only bunkered front right.

On paper it looks like a tough test with only one par four under 400 yards but the inaugural winner, Chris Gotterup, who hacked up by six, managed to get it to 22-under-par and the three playoff protagonists 12 months ago reached -15.

For more on the course, this five-minute flyover from Play Golf Myrtle Beach, is an absolute must.

Although the original routing hasn't changed, the Dunes has undergone some extensive renovation work by Trent Jones' younger son, Rees Jones, over the last 20 years.

There was refinement of some green sites, addition of fairway bunkers, course lengthening, a new irrigation system, practice tee enhancement and conversion of the putting surfaces to Champion ultradwarf bermudagrass for better performance in warm weather.

Greens were also expanded to an average size of 6,000 square feet - large enough to provide room for the ball to roll out under today's greater putting speeds. "I tried to build it for today's play while preserving Dad's design character," said Rees.

Following extensive drainage work and due to the fact that the Dunes sits on a naturally sandy site, the course tends to play very firm.

With narrow fairways, measuring 20 to 25 yards across, a premium on driving accuracy was expected prior to the off years ago but the stats didn't really reflect that with the first three home ranking 60^th, 67^th and 14^th for Driving Accuracy.

And the playoff protagonists last year ranked 22^nd, 30^th and 53^rd for D.A.

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Weather Forecast

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TV Coverage

No coverage on Sky Sports Golf but the event is scheduled to be shown on the Golf Channel 

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First two winners with pre-event Betfair Exchange prices

2024 - Chris Gotterup -22 70.069/1
2025 - Ryan Fox -15 (playoff) 80.079/1

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First two results with stats

(Key: DD - Driving Distance; DA - Driving Accuracy; GIR - Greens in Regulation; SC - Scrambling; PA - Putting Average)

2024
Chris Gotterup -22 - DD: 47 DA: 60, GIR: 13, SC: 19, PA: 8
Alistair Docherty -16 -12 - DD: 4, DA: 67, GIR: 5, SC: 63, PA: 10
Mackenzie Hughes -15 - DD: 17, DA: 14, GIR: 15, SC: 4, PA: 34

2025
Ryan Fox -15 - DD: 31 DA: 30, GIR: 14, SC: 59, PA: 1
Harry Higgs -15 -12 - DD: 18, DA: 22, GIR: 4, SC: 56, PA: 7
Davis Thompson -16 - DD: 43, DA: 53, GIR: 42, SC: 11, PA: 3

(Key: SG-T - Strokes Gained: Off the Tee; SG-A - Strokes Gained: Approach; SG-ATG - Strokes Gained: Around the Tee; SG-T2G - Strokes Gained: Tee to Green; SG-P - Strokes Gained: Putting)

2024
Chris Gotterup -22 - SG-T: 44 SG-A: 4, SG-ATG: 6, SG-T2G: 2, SG-P: 3
Alistair Docherty -16 - SG-T: 4 SG-A: 41, SG-ATG: 56, SG-T2G: 31, SG-P: 2
Davis Thompson -16 - - SG-T: 9 SG-A: 6, SG-ATG: 17, SG-T2G: 1, SG-P: 41

2025
Ryan Fox -15 - SG-T: 4 SG-A: 17, SG-ATG: 26, SG-T2G: 3, SG-P: 24
Harry Higgs -15 - SG-T: 7 SG-A: 14, SG-ATG: 68, SG-T2G: 25, SG-P: 4
Mackenzie Hughes -15 - SG-T: 40 SG-A: 28, SG-ATG: 35, SG-T2G: 31, SG-P: 2 

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What will it take to win the Myrtle Beach Classic?

Although the fairways are described as fairly narrow, Driving Accuracy really wasn't an important stat at either of the first two renewals.

Greens In Regulation and Strokes Gained: Tee-to-Green have been fairly key metrics, but both putting well was the key to victory in both previous editions so a good week with the putter could decisive.

The inaugural winner, Chris Gotterup, ranked eighth for Putting Average and third for Strokes Gained: Putting and the leaderboard was dominated by players that ranked highly for those two metrics.

As many as seven of the top-ten in the PA rankings for the week finished inside the top 15 and eight of the top ten in the SG: Putting rankings finished inside the top 12.

Last year's winner, Ryan Fox, topped the P.A rankings and the two men beaten in extra time, Mackenzie Hughes and Harry Higgs, ranked third and seventh.

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Is There an angle in?

Trent Jones Sr is a famous course designer and he's been responsible for some magnificent courses that have staged huge events and major championships recently.

He worked extensively on A W Tillinghast's masterpiece, Baltusrol, as well as the Bert Way designed Firestone Country Club, and Donald Ross' South Course at Oakland Hills. And he's been the designer of the likes of Bellerive, Hazeltine, and Valderrama, but we only see two Trent Jones Sr courses regularly on the PGA Tour.

Spyglass Hill is played in rotation at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am and the Port Royal Golf Course in Bermuda hosts the Bermuda Championship.

Form at Bermuda came to the fore last year when the 2019 runner-up there, Harry Higgs, who had led by two with a round to go at Port Royal, went off at 200.0199/1 before getting beat in the playoff last year and there's an event on the Korn Ferry Tour that looks worth investigating, even though there's only been two editions played...

The 2024 winner, Gotterup, finished only 16^th in the inaugural edition of the Magnit Championship in 2023, staged at the Trent Jones designed Metedeconk National Golf Club in Jackson, New Jersey, but he'd sat second after round one and the man that finished tied second to him in this event two years ago, Alistair Docherty, finished tied for seventh.

Ryan McCormick, who finished tied fourth here in 2024, finished alongside Gotterup in 16^th at Metedeconk but he'd sat fourth after round one there and Mac Meissner, who finished tied for 13^th in this event two years ago, finished third in the Magnit.

The winner of the Magnit Championship in 2023, Chan Kim, only finished 40^th here in 2024 but he was inside the top-eight at halfway so that might be a decent angle in designer wise.

The Seaside Course at Sea Island in neighbouring Georgia and the Tom Fazio designed Congaree are two other tracks that have a very similar look and feel to The Dunes.

Hughes, who was matched at a low of 1.282/7 when he led by a stroke with just one hole to play last year, has won the RSM Classic.

He's finished second there twice and last year's RSM Classic winner, Sami Valimaki, finished seventh here a year ago so that's definitely a tournament to look at.

Congaree hosted the once only stage Palmetto Championship in 2021, won by last year's Corales Puntacana Championship winner, Garrick Higgo, and the final edition of the CJ Cup in 2022, won by Rory McIlroy and form there was evident two years ago.

Chesson Hadley, who led the Palmetto by four with 18 to play finished 10^th here and Erik Van Rooyen, who was tied for fourth here, finished 10^th in the Palmetto.

I'll also be having a little look at the Corales Puntacana, which may also correlate nicely.

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Winner's position and Betfair Exchange price before round four

2024 - Chris Gotterup - led by four 1.674/6
2025 - Ryan Fox - tied fourth, trailing by three 15.014/1

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In-Play Tactics

Concentrating on the leaders looks like the way to go here.

Although he trailed by three with 18 to play, last year's winner, Fox, was inside the top 10 and no more than three back all week and Gotterup was in front by halfway two years ago (tied seventh after round one).

Although I was only able to find data on three editions of the Charles Schab Championship (1996, '97, and '98), which was then known as the Senior Tour Championship, all three winners were up with the pace all week.

Hale Irwin sat second after rounds two and three, before winning by five, having led by two after round one, and the other two victors, Jay Sigel in 1996 and Gil Morgan in '97, were tied for the lead at halfway and three and two shots clear respectively after three rounds. Both won by two.

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Valimaki the sole selection

Although he missed the cut on his US Masters debut last month, the 27-year-old Finn, Sami Valimaki, has shown an upturn in form of late, finishing 14^th in the Texas Open and 55^th at the RBC Heritage, either side of his weekend off at Augusta.

He may have finished outside the top 50 at Harbour Town last time out but that was due to a poor final round once the chance of victory had gone. He'd been inside the top 20 with 18 holes to play and he looks fractionally big here at anything above his industry best of 50/151.00 on the High Street.

Valimaki was a very impressive winner of the aforementioned RSM Classic in November, and he finished seventh here 12 months ago, so we know that the venue suits him.

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