Reality Series hits Grand Strand

MYRTLE BEACH, SC – Myrtle Beach Golf Holiday and The Golf Channel are bringing the ultimate Myrtle Beach golf experience to 110 million homes worldwide starting Tuesday, Feb. 5 with the debut of Road Trip: Myrtle Beach, the first reality show to be based in the state of South Carolina. Each original episode will air Tuesday night at 7:30 p.m. and will be rebroadcast during the week.

Filmed entirely along the Grand Strand, a 60-mile stretch of coastline along the Atlantic Ocean that extends from Southport, N.C. to Georgetown, S.C., the Myrtle Beach area is the first American golf destination to play host to a non-competitive reality program. Road Trip: Myrtle Beach will provide a backstage glimpse at why the Grand Strand area is known as the “Golf Capital of the World” with more “Top 100” golf courses than any other destination and three million rounds recorded on area golf courses each year.

The 12-episode series follows former PGA TOUR professional and current ESPN commentator Charlie Rymer, Hootie & the Blowfish band member Mark Bryan, musician Josh Kelley and Duramed Futures Tour player Perry Swenson as they enjoy an extended Myrtle Beach golf vacation. Each episode takes place at a different Grand Strand golf course and features light-hearted banter between cast members, course information and videos, game management tips and golf instruction by Rymer, the foursome’s activities after golf at area restaurants and night spots and live, original music, including the show’s theme song that was written and recorded by Bryan and Kelley. The show’s fifth recurring member, a 1962 red convertible Cadillac, is easily recognizable as it transports the foursome along the Grand Strand.

Rymer is an accomplished media professional and has accomplished the most as a professional golfer when compared to the group.

The South Carolina native has been a golf analyst with ESPN for more than 10 years now and also serves as National Spokesman for the Myrtle Beach Golf Holiday.

He is a partner in a full-service golf course design firm which has constructed, designed or renovated more than 20 golf courses in the United States with five more currentl in different stages of development.

Rymer joined the PGA TOUR in 1995 and competed in 73 events during his three years on Tour. His best professional finish came at the 1995 Shell Houston Open where he finished third, one stroke behind the late Payne Stewart and Scott Hoch.

Kelley is no slouch in terms of golf. He received a golf scholarship to play at the University of Mississippi in Oxford, Ms.

A native of Augusta, Ga., the singer-songwriter is known for his pop/blues rock sound and as of recent he has garnered a lot of attention for his marriage to Grey's Anatomy star Katherine Heigl.

Bryan is a founding member of the multi-platinum band Hootie & the Blowfish. The band has achieved great success over the past 10 years, earning two Grammy Awards, an MTV Music Award, Billboard Music Award and a People's Choice Award.

Swenson is one of the up-and-coming female golfers on the Duramed Futures Tour. The 24-year-old graduated from the University of Texas where she finished second at the 2004 and 2005 Big 12 Championship.
 
“Having Road Trip: Myrtle Beach filmed here in Myrtle Beach is a tremendous opportunity to showcase the area as the ideal golf destination,” said Bill Golden, vice president and director of marketing at Myrtle Beach Golf Holiday. “We want to continue to grow the Myrtle Beach golf market and to accomplish this goal, we must reach out to golfers around the world and show what a golf vacation is like here by presenting the destination through the eyes of an entertaining cast in a fun and insightful way. Road Trip: Myrtle Beach is the perfect vehicle to get Myrtle Beach in front of 92 percent of the world’s golfers and the chance to present the quality of the golf, accommodations, restaurants and after-golf entertainment along the Grand Strand.”

Golf Channel will broadcast the first four episodes of Road Trip: Myrtle Beach in the United States and more than 50 countries around the world this month with the remaining eight shows to be broadcast in fall of 2008.