You probably didn’t know his name in March 2019 when he played in Savannah. Now, even casual golf fans know Scottie Scheffler.

The world’s top-ranked player and an eight-time winner on the PGA Tour, including the 2022 Masters Tournament, Scheffler was relatively unknown when he finished second to Dan McCarthy in 2019 at what is now called the Club Car Championship at The Landings Golf & Athletic Club.

Played on the Deer Creek Course since its debut in 2018, the Korn Ferry Tour event in Savannah has already hosted an impressive and lengthy list of future PGA Tour standouts. Fans here likely didn’t know it at the time, but they were witnessing the ascension of soon-to-be household names in the game of golf.

“It was probably last year for the first time — so before the 2023 event — that people really started to talk about our alumni,” tournament director Cheyenne Overby said this week. “It’s because it takes time. All of a sudden, Scottie was the Masters champion, (2018 Savannah winner) Sam Burns was everywhere. Sam went on a tear,” Overby said.

“They were on the Ryder Cup team. They were on the Presidents Cup team.”

Burns, the former LSU All-American, now is a five-time winner on the PGA Tour. Overby also mentioned three-time Tour winner Wyndham Clark, the 2023 U.S. Open champion, as well as six-time winner Max Homa and former University of Georgia golfer Sepp Straka, a two-time winner.

And the list goes on.

This week’s field of 156 players includes the Korn Ferry Tour’s top performers competing for a $1 million purse. All of them are hoping to follow any path to get to the PGA Tour.

“You start looking at the fields,” said Overby, who was part of the tournament organizational team in 2018 and its tournament director in the years since. “Holy smokes, there are a lot of major champions out there who are now making giant splashes. That is very cool for us to see.”

The Club Car Championship’s 2023 winner, England’s David Skinns had a big month of March on the PGA Tour with a tie for fourth at the Cognizant Classic in The Palm Beaches and a tie for seventh Sunday at the Texas Children’s Houston Open. He came close to joining Burns and Canada’s Adam Svensson (2021) as past Savannah winners to capture titles on the big tour.

As the list has grown, so too has the Club Car Championship, now in its seventh year. Tickets are more in demand than when the community was first learning about the new tournament, with Overby estimating about 23,000 people attended the 2023 event Thursday through Sunday during tournament rounds.

She explained that defining attendance is complicated by factors such as the tournament site is in a residential community, and people can walk directly from their homes onto the Deer Creek Course.

“We’re really transparent about that,” Overby said, noting that best practices are used for tracking general admission tickets as well as hospitality numbers.

“We look at the tournament itself and look around and come to a conservative estimate,” she continued. “We don’t know unique visitors, and that’s information we want to have. We have some demographics for the fans we have (ticket) scans for. Unfortunately, we don’t have a perfect process and we’re OK with that.”

Overby estimated the tournament in its first few years drew about 70 percent of its spectators from inside the gates at The Landings with 30 percent coming from elsewhere.

“I’d probably flip that now,” Overby said.

Savannah’s professional sports landscape has changed, too. The Savannah Bananas evolved from a collegiate summer league team to a year-round professional baseball organization on a national tour while keeping home base at Grayson Stadium.

The construction of Enmarket Arena ushered in the city’s minor league hockey franchise, the Savannah Ghost Pirates. The ECHL team, in fact, has partnered with the golf tournament in activities this week.

“We love the Ghost Pirates,” Overby said, adding that there’s room in this market for multiple pro sports entities. “I’d like to think we had something to do with some of that. The tournament’s been tremendously successful, and the community can see itself supporting professional events.”

There’s no resting on their laurels, as the tournament has over the years added to the amenities and resources for fans, sponsors, golfers, caddies, the 500-plus volunteers — the community that comes together for the week at The Landings Golf & Athletic Club.

The Club Car Championship at The Landings Golf & Athletic Club, Club Car, and the Korn Ferry Tour announced Thursday a four-year extension – beginning in 2026 with the ninth playing of the tournament – for Club Car to remain the title sponsor of the event through 2029.

Additionally, a four-year extension (beginning in 2026) was announced with The Landings Golf & Athletic Club to continue as the presenting sponsor. This means the Deer Creek Course will continue to host the annual Korn Ferry Tour event for the foreseeable future.

“The Club Car Championship at The Landings Golf & Athletic Club has solidified itself as a favorite stop each year for players, caddies, fans and staff,” said Korn Ferry Tour President Alex Baldwin. “We are grateful for the strong relationship we have with Club Car, as well as the incredible support and hospitality we receive from the local community at The Landings Golf & Athletic Club.”

“Everyone involved in hosting this event has displayed a commitment to maximizing charitable impact while offering a premier fan experience, and we are thrilled to extend these partnerships and continue to grow the Korn Ferry Tour in Savannah.”

Overby said the emphasis this year was not on making changes but on “improving the current experience.”

She noted the Fan Zone’s family-friendly offerings during the rounds as well as Military Appreciation Day on Saturday (April 6) and the Club Car Concert on the Range featuring Yacht Rock Revue at approximately 7 that night on the Deer Creek driving range.

The 2024 event is being televised on the Golf Channel for the first time.

“I think for us in Year 7, with Golf Channel being the big, new thing, we wanted to really improve on what currently exists for our partners and for our fans.”

This article appears in Connect Savannah I April 2024.