Golf trips to the Grand Strand follow a rhythm as reliable as the tides. Spring brings the buddy groups chasing perfect course conditions. Fall brings them back for one more round before winter. And summer — summer belongs to the families, the beach chairs, the boogie boards, and the ice cream runs on Main Street.

For twenty-eight years now, one event has folded those two vacations into a single week. Family Golf Week returns to the Grand Strand this Thursday through Saturday, July 16–18, 2026, spreading roughly 450 two-person teams — about 900 golfers, plus the small armies of spouses, siblings, and grandkids who travel with them — across nine courses from Myrtle Beach up into the North Carolina side of the Strand.

“As much as we know Myrtle Beach is all about golf, and all about families coming to the area to visit the beach, it’s like two different tourists,” tournament director Ryan Hart says. “This is like a combination of both. It’s getting the family to come while also using the game of golf to get them here.”

Walk any of the host courses this week and you’ll see what he means: a 76-year-old and his son reading the same putt from opposite sides, a father-daughter team high-fiving on a par save, three generations of one family trailing a single cart down the fairway. It’s a golf tournament, technically. It’s a family reunion, actually.

What Is Family Golf Week?

Family Golf Week is a three-day, 54-hole team tournament built around a simple idea that dates back to its founding: hold it in summer, when the kids are out of school, so the golf trip and the family vacation can be the same trip. Nearly three decades later, the formula still works — and it’s growing. The field has climbed from about 418 teams last year to approximately 450 this year, with players arriving from numerous states and from as far away as California and Canada.

Teams compete for both gross and net championships across 27 flights in multiple divisions, sorted by the age of the oldest team member — so a pair of 40-somethings isn’t grinding against a team with a college kid carrying the bag. Every division champion takes home a trophy and a Staff golf bag stitched with the words “national champions,” which tends to get displayed prominently in garages from New York to Wisconsin.

The event is operated by Mike Buccerone and Rob Mosser of East Coast Golf Management, and over the years its home base has rotated through some of the Strand’s biggest names — Wild Wing Plantation, Legends Golf Resort, Barefoot Resort — before this year’s move to a new headquarters worth talking about.

Two Tournaments, One Big Family Reunion

The National Father & Son Team Classic

The original. Held every year since 1998 — with the lone exception of 2020 — the Father & Son Classic pairs two male family members separated by at least a generation. What began as a way to get dads and school-age sons on vacation together has aged gracefully along with its field: today, many teams are a grandfather-aged player and his grown son, using the tournament as the fixed point on the calendar that pulls the whole family back to the beach.

“This event is just something they mark on their calendar and they’re not going to miss,” Hart says. “It’s pretty neat.”

The Family Division

What started more than a decade ago as the Parent-Child tournament has grown into the Family Division — the event’s answer to the fact that golf families come in every configuration. Teams here either include a female player or pair related members with no generational age gap: father-daughter, mother-son, brothers, cousins. Same courses, same flights, same trophies, same bragging rights at Thanksgiving.

A New Home Base: Sea Trail Golf Resort

The big news for 2026 is the move to Sea Trail Golf Resort in Sunset Beach, North Carolina — just over the state line at the quiet northern end of the Strand, about 20 minutes from North Myrtle Beach. Sea Trail has poured tens of millions of dollars into renovations and additions in recent years, with more on the way, and its renovated convention center gives Family Golf Week something it has never had: a proper indoor home for the week’s social side.

“Everything has always been at a golf course, outside, under a tent,” Hart says. “I just think the amenities and everything at Sea Trail are going to really be like an icing on the cake for this event. I think it’s going to be awesome moving it up there.”

For the traveling families, the location is a quiet bonus — Sunset Beach sits closer to the vacation heart of North Myrtle Beach than several of the event’s previous headquarters, which makes basing the family at the beach and commuting to the golf easier than ever.

The Nine Courses of Family Golf Week 2026

The tournament rota reads like a tour of the northern Strand’s best golf, on both sides of the state line:

• Sea Trail Golf Resort — Byrd and Maples Courses (Sunset Beach, NC) — two of the new host resort’s three championship layouts.
• Barefoot Resort — Dye and Love Courses (North Myrtle Beach) — a former tournament headquarters itself, and home to two of the area’s marquee designs.
• Rivers Edge Golf Club (Shallotte, NC) — an Arnold Palmer design draped along the marshes of the Shallotte River.
• River Hills Golf & Country Club (Little River) — rolling, tree-lined golf just minutes from North Myrtle Beach.
• Myrtlewood Golf Club — Palmetto Course (Myrtle Beach) — a longtime favorite along the Intracoastal Waterway.
• Arcadian Shores Golf Club (Myrtle Beach) — a classic Rees Jones layout dotted with lakes and sandy waste areas.
• Shaftesbury Glen Golf & Fish Club (Conway) — wide fairways and slick greens in a peaceful riverside setting.

Most of these sit within a comfortable 10-to-30-minute drive of a North Myrtle Beach vacation rental — one more reason so many Family Golf Week regulars set up camp here, whether in the Cherry Grove Beach section near the state line or down through Crescent Beach and Windy Hill.

Beyond the Scorecard: A Full Week of Festivities

The golf may end each day around mid-afternoon, but Family Golf Week keeps going well past the last putt — and the schedule is built so the non-playing family members are part of it too.

• Wednesday — Registration Day: Food distributor Cheney Brothers fires up a smoker during registration, alongside a putting contest to shake off the travel legs.
• Thursday — Family Golf Night: The whole family is invited into Sea Trail’s indoor ballroom for golf simulators and a long drive contest, with food from Logan’s Roadhouse.
• Friday — Long Drive Night: A long drive competition plus a demonstration from the big hitters of Xtreme Long Drive on the simulators.
• Saturday — Awards Reception: Trophies, national-champion golf bags, and one more spread from Logan’s Roadhouse to close out the week.

“It’s more than just the two participants,” Hart says. “It’s the whole family that comes down and everybody kind of feels like they’re a part of it whether they’re playing or not.”

Father of the Year, Family of the Year, and a First-Ever Ambassador

Every year the tournament honors the people who embody what the week is about, and the 2026 class tells the story better than any brochure could.

Father of the Year is Bill Johnston of Pennsylvania, 76, who is playing with his son Doug. Bill competed in the very first edition of the event back in 1998 — alongside his own father. “It’s kind of cool how they’ve stayed a part of the event, and he now plays with his son, and at some point Doug will probably do the same thing,” Hart says. “Most sons learn the game from their father and it’s like a generational passing.”

Family of the Year goes to Jamie and Kasey Harter, a father-daughter duo from New York — a fitting nod to how the Family Division has widened the tournament’s circle.

And for the first time, the event is naming an Ambassador of the Year: Lynn Messer of Wisconsin, the inaugural recipient, who plays with his son John from North Carolina. Their team is the tournament in miniature — family separated by half a country, reunited on a Grand Strand fairway every July.

“You get to hear stories throughout the week,” Hart says. “There are just a ton of people that, when you get to that age and you live in different states, it’s hard to keep up with family — and a lot of these people use it as a way to get back together.”

Plan Your Own Family Golf Week

Here’s the not-so-secret truth: you don’t need a tournament entry to pull off this trip. The Family Golf Week formula — mornings on the course, afternoons on the sand, everybody back together for dinner — is available to any family, any summer week, anywhere along the Strand.

The logistics are easy. Fly into Myrtle Beach International from more than 50 nonstop cities (our golfer’s guide to MYR flights covers routes, golf bag rules, and rental cars), set up in a vacation rental in North Myrtle Beach, and build your own rota from the dozens of courses within a half-hour — including several on this year’s tournament list. The non-golfers get the beach, the pools, and the full menu of things to do in Myrtle Beach; everyone else gets a 7:40 tee time and no guilt about it. Check the area events calendar to layer in a festival or concert night.

And if watching this week’s teams gives you the itch, registration for next summer opens through the tournament’s official site — the 29th edition will be here sooner than you think.

Frequently Asked Questions

Bring the Whole Crew — We’ll Handle the Beach House

Whether you’re teeing it up in Family Golf Week or just borrowing its beautiful formula — golf in the morning, family on the beach all afternoon — the right home base makes the whole week work. Thomas Beach Vacations offers oceanfront home rentals with room for three generations under one roof, and oceanfront condos perfect for a father-son pair making their annual pilgrimage — all along Ocean Drive and the beaches of North Myrtle Beach, minutes from this year’s tournament courses. Browse availability at www.northmyrtlebeachvacations.com or call our local team at (866) 249-2100 — and start your own tradition worth marking on the calendar every July.