These are three golfers to watch in the PGA Tour’s first Myrtle Beach Classic

More than 130 golfers are participating in the inaugural Myrtle Beach Classic PGA Tour tournament at the Dunes Golf & Beach Club.

Thousands are attending the tournament, and while most of the best golfers in the world are participating in the Wells Fargo Championship happening at the same time, some notable players are participating. Some have a familiar track record to those following golf for years, while others are less known to the public.

Here are three golfers worth watching during the Myrtle Beach Classic:

Brandt Snedeker

Of the players in the field, Snedeker is probably the most well-known to fans of the PGA.

With nine career PGA Tour wins and more than $40 million in career earnings, Snedeker is best remembered for winning the 2012 FedEx Cup. Currently ranked 699th in the Official World Golf Ranking, Snedeker has participated in 12 events this year and made the cut in four of them.

Indeed, Snedeker was recently on the receiving end of a viral mishap by a golf fan. At the Zurich Classic in April 2024, Snedeker hit a driver that bounced nearby fans, and one of them grabbed the shot, thinking it was a souvenir.

The incident had a minimal impact on Snedeker’s par later on the hole, as the fan ultimately realized his mistake and dropped the ball, according to Golf.com. The second golfer to watch out for booked his ticket to the Myrtle Beach Classic in viral fashion, although it was for his play, not fan obstruction.

Matt Atkins

An alum of the University of South Carolina Aiken, Atkins won a spot to play in the Myrtle Beach Classic in a unique way.

Atkins, who finished tied for 29th in the 2024 PGA Korn Ferry Veritex Bank Championship in April 2024, won The Q at Myrtle Beach at TPC Myrtle Beach to earn his spot in the Myrtle Beach Classic. The Q was a tournament between golf social media influencers and professionals that received close to 900,000 views on YouTube. Atkins won after going into a playoff round with fellow competitor and PGA pro George Bryan IV.

Playing in PGA Tour tournaments is nothing new for Atkins, and neither is teeing off at the Dunes Club. He qualified for the 2011 Southern Amateur Championship after playing a round of golf there. Atkins still remembers the course’s notorious 13th hole, which caused problems due to its long distance and massive water hazard.

“It just felt like the more aggressive I tried to get off the tee, the more pointless it was for me because I was never going to get there anyway,” Atkins said. “It just felt like I was taking the long way around the hole the whole entire time.”

For Atkins, the Myrtle Beach Classic is also a return to where he first found his passion for the game. As a kid, Atkins said he first started playing golf with his dad while on vacation in Myrtle Beach. While a fun hobby at the time, the Grand Strand serves as the genesis point for his golf career.

“That’s what first sticks out to me when I think about playing golf and Myrtle Beach,” Atkins added. “(I) have a lot of memories playing with my dad.”

Indeed, a player Atkins knows well is the third golfer worth watching out for during the Myrtle Beach Classic.

George Bryan, IV

Despite finishing second in The Q, Bryan received a spot on the Myrtle Beach Classic roster during a video call from Tournament Director Darren Nelson. Bryan, who turned pro in 2010, is a Palmetto State native and attended the University of South Carolina.

Bryan played in one PGA Tour tournament before the Myrtle Beach Classic, the 2022-23 Butterfield Bermuda Championship, at the Port Royal Golf Course in Hilton Head, S.C. Bryan is also a popular YouTuber. He and his brother Wesley, a PGA Tour pro, operate the Bryan Bros Golf channel, which has 356,000 subscribers.

His entry is particularly sweet, considering his relationship with Atkins.

While Atkins emerged as the victor of The Q, he believed he missed some shots as the tournament continued, which might have cost him a chance at the Myrle Beach Classic. Needing an Eagle to stay alive, which he thought was unlikely, Atkins was content to lose to his friend George Bryan; however, an errant chip from Bryan got Atkins back into the event.

“I told my friend, ‘Hey, you know what, at least it was George’ because I honestly felt like it was over,” Atkins said. “It was really bittersweet.”

Indeed, Bryan’s entry into the tournament isn’t controversial, but the method used to include him has come under scrutiny from some PGA Tour golfers.

Bryan was added to the Myrtle Beach Classic via a sponsor exemption. While on-course performance dictates much of a tournament’s roster, a sponsor exemption grants a tournament a set amount of spots for players who weren’t initially qualified to participate.

PGA Tour golfer Dylan Wu, an expected participant in the Myrtle Beach Classic, criticized the sponsor exemption system in March 2024, although Wu did not refer to Bryan at the time.

“Sponsor exemptions going to the same players every elevated event doesn’t seem to follow the ‘play better’ saying. Seems like ‘be more famous’ or ‘know the right people,’” Wu wrote in an X, formerly known as Twitter, thread.