Photo courtesy of Mike Gollobin
When summer ends and fall begins, you can be sure of two realities: hurricane season is on the way and so is the annual competition between Seabrook, Kiawah and Wild Dunes.
The Three Island Challenge is an annual golf competition pitting the three island clubs against each other in a round robin event. Each team is comprised of 18 players and three matches are scheduled – one at each location. Points are distributed playing a game called nines, and the winner is the club that tallies the most points after all three matches are completed. This year’s event started at Seabrook on Sept. 21.
And it’s fitting that Seabrook hosted the first round because they have owned this event for what seems like forever. Going back through the archives and from interviewing as many golfers who have played in this event as possible, it appears Seabrook has won 10 of the last 15 competitions, with Wild Dunes taking the other five. Wild Dunes had a nice run, winning three times in five years from 2013 to 2017, but it’s been all Seabrook since.
It appears that the competition goes back much further than 2007, possibly starting as early as 1996. Records for those competitions are elusive; many of those players have either moved on or passed away. However, one former president of the Wild Dunes Men’s Golf Association provided an intriguing story about a Three Island Challenge. The golfers were on the Links course at Wild Dunes when the United States was attacked on Sept. 11, 2001. And what would normally have been festive gathering for lunch turned into a somber, horrifying spectacle for all involved. Back in those days, each team had 24 players, so you can imagine 72 golfers coming in from a round to that scene. That had to be miserable drive home for the Seabrook and Kiawah participants.
The golfers who compete in the Challenge are all members of their respective Men’s Golf Associations, though the Kiawah organization is known as the Governor’s Club. The team roster can contain any number of members, but only 18 play on any given event date. Therefore, it’s up to the teams to determine who is going to show up and play at each event. Some of the clubs ask their members to qualify to make the team while others sometimes have to scramble just to get 18, especially at away competitions. Of course, Seabrook and Kiawah are right next to each other. It’s the trip to and from Isle of Palms and Wild Dunes that creates issues. Everybody who lives in the area knows what a headache that can be.
Since there are three clubs, each match is a threesome which is perfect for playing nines, a game where each hole has nine possible points. Matches are assigned based on like handicaps, so the best players will play against each other. All results are based on net scores. If all three net scores within a group tie, then each player receives three points. If one player wins a hole, another finishes second and the last player finishes third, the points are awarded at five-three-one. If two players tie and the third player loses the hole, the points are awarded as four-four-one. If one player wins the hole and the other two tie for second, it’s five-two-two.
The beauty of this game is that you can lose a hole, get your one point and then move on to the next hole. You are not out of the competition by any means. In stroke play, one really bad hole can kill your chances of bouncing back.
The winning team receives a crystal trophy, which is displayed for the year in its pro shop or maybe in the office of the head pro. Seabrook has had a stronghold on this prestigious honor for a long time, but both Wild Dunes and Kiawah were hoping to change that outcome this year.
To that end, the teams have agreed to incorporate a new handicapping method that uses the lowest handicap index of a golfer for the previous 12 months. This same system is employed in the Carolina Golf Association Senior Interclub tournament and seems to be a great way to limit sandbagging for members who might massage their handicap to get an advantage in this type of event. I’m not suggesting that’s the case here, but both Wild Dunes and Kiawah need something to change if they are ever going to get that crystal back to their clubs.
However, after our first match Sept. 21, it appeared that Seabrook is still the team to beat, winning round one impressively by a score of 1,024 to 982 for Kiawah and 870 for Wild Dunes. The rest of the schedule for the Three Island Challenge has the second match on the Links Course at Wild Dunes on Oct. 19 and the final match at Turtle Point on Kiawah on Nov. 8. That first match was played on the Seabrook Ocean Winds course, and it was plenty windy that day as the Wild Dunes team literally got blown away. They might require some divine intervention if they want to get back into this thing back at their place on Oct. 19.
A little more history on the event: Going back maybe 10 years, the head pros used to play in this event. They would play head-to-head-to-head, and that would be the first score of the group. I think that is a unique concept, and I wish they would consider bringing it back. Having the pros there would really up the ante for the competition and make it that much more desirable to win. Plus, I’m sure there would be some bragging rights to toss around.
After the golf wraps up, a real highlight of the event is for the golfers to get together and enjoy lunch. It’s a great way to meet golfers in the area, and it promotes camaraderie after the intense competition ends. I’ve been playing in this event since 2014, and I can tell you that even though the matches are competitive, almost all the of the golfers who play in this event are genuinely good guys. Usually, the host golfer in your threesome will help you with the course layout if you are new to that course, and everyone looks forward to getting together for lunch afterward. It’s a great event and we look forward to it every year.
Now if we could just figure out how to beat those Seabrook guys.
Mike Gollobin is the president of the Wild Dunes Men’s Golf Association.
