The Myrtle Beach World Amateur Handicap Championship, the World Am, is on the Grand Strand again this week. The 2026 tournament runs Monday, August 31 through Friday, September 4, with roughly 3,000 golfers playing 72 holes of net stroke play across more than 50 area courses before the flight winners meet on Friday to decide a World Champion.
If you have never been here during World Am week, it is worth understanding what it does to the town. Every dinner reservation moves, the driving ranges fill at dawn, and the Myrtle Beach Convention Center turns into what the organisers have called the World's Largest 19th Hole for four straight nights. What follows is the schedule and the course list as the tournament published them.
The 2026 schedule
Tournament week starts two days before anyone tees off.
- Saturday, August 29. Check in at the Myrtle Beach PGA TOUR Superstore, 1400 29th Avenue North, across from Broadway at the Beach, 9 a.m. to 7 p.m.
- Sunday, August 30. Check in continues, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., followed by the World Am Welcome Party from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m.
- Monday, August 31 to Thursday, September 3. Rounds one through four, a different course each day. Tee times start daily between 7:30 a.m. and 9:30 a.m.
- Friday, September 4. The Flight Winners Playoff, with tee times from 7:30 a.m. to 9:30 a.m. Every flight winner and anyone tied for a flight advances, along with the top five in the pairs competition.
Two courses run an 8:30 a.m. shotgun start rather than sequential tee times for every tournament round, because of how they are laid out: Wild Wing and Myrtlewood Palmetto. The Grande Dunes Resort Course is listed as the championship host for Friday's final round.
The dates before the tournament matter as much as the ones during it. Eligible scores had to be posted to a WHS or GHIN handicap by August 9, handicap verification forms went out on August 10 and were due back on August 13, and players were told which four courses they had drawn on or around August 24.
The host courses
The World Am is played across more than 50 courses from Sunset Beach in North Carolina down to Pawleys Island. These are the host courses the tournament published for 2026.
- Aberdeen Golf Club
- Arcadian Shores Golf Club
- Arrowhead Country Club
- Barefoot Resort, Dye Club
- Barefoot Resort, Fazio
- Barefoot Resort, Love
- Barefoot Resort, Norman
- Blackmoor Golf Club
- Brunswick Plantation Resort and Golf
- Burning Ridge Golf Club
- Caledonia Golf & Fish Club
- Colonial Charters
- Crown Park Golf Club
- Diamondback Golf Course
- Founders Club
- Glen Dornoch
- Grande Dunes Resort Course, championship host
- Hackler Course
- Heritage Club
- International Club
- Legends Golf Club, Heathland
- Legends Golf Club, Parkland
- Leopard's Chase Golf Club
- Lion's Paw Golf Links
- Litchfield Country Club
- Lockwood Folly Country Club
- Long Bay Golf Club
- Meadowlands Golf Club
- Myrtle Beach National, King's North
- Myrtle Beach National, South Creek
- Myrtle Beach National, West Course
- Myrtlewood Palmetto Golf Course
- Myrtlewood Pinehills Golf Course
- Oyster Bay
- Panther's Run Golf Links
- Pawleys Plantation
- Pine Lakes Country Club
- Prestwick Country Club
- River Club
- River Hills Golf & Country Club
- Rivers Edge Golf Club
- Sandpiper Bay Golf & Country Club
- Sea Trail, Byrd
- Sea Trail, Jones
- Shaftesbury Glen Golf & Fish Club
- The Links at Brick Landing
- The Pearl
- Tidewater Golf Club
- TPC of Myrtle Beach
- Tradition Golf Club
- True Blue Golf Club
- Wachesaw East Golf Club
- Wedgefield Country Club
- Willbrook Plantation Golf Club
- World Tour Golf Links
Players do not choose their four courses. The draw assigns them, which is a large part of why the event works as a championship: nobody gets to stack their week with the courses that suit their eye. It also means a first timer can find themselves at Caledonia, Tidewater or TPC of Myrtle Beach on a Tuesday morning in a field of 3,000.
How the field is flighted
The World Am is a net event, and the flighting is the reason a 30 handicap and a scratch player can both turn up with a real chance. There are 12 divisions, split first by gender, then by age, then by handicap index. Your division is set by your age on the first day of the tournament.
- Net, men. Men 49 and under, Senior Men 50 to 59, Mid Senior Men 60 to 69, Super Senior Men 70 to 79, Seasoned Seniors 80 and over.
- Net, women. Women 59 and under, Senior Women 60 and over.
- Gross. Gross all ages, Senior Gross 50 and over, Mid Senior Gross 60 and over, Women's Gross all ages.
- Just for Fun. No handicaps and no scores, for players who want the week without the scorecard pressure.
Inside each division, players are placed in flights of similar handicaps, typically 30 to 55 players per flight, and the handicap range within a flight can be less than a single point. The maximum index allowed is 36.4 for men and 40.4 for women; anything higher is reduced to the limit. Every division winner earns a place in Friday's championship round and a free entry to defend the following year.
The World's Largest 19th Hole
From 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. on each of the four tournament nights, the Myrtle Beach Convention Center hosts what is effectively a 3,000 person golf party, included with entry for every player and a guest. More than 10 food stations serve dishes from area restaurants, the bars are open across the whole floor for all three hours on all four nights, and the ballroom runs live music, with karaoke night returning on the Wednesday.
Photos: David Williams, Myrtle Beach World Amateur
There is also a small golf expo with more than 25 exhibitors, plus a 60 foot putt challenge, an indoor par 3 challenge, simulators, Golden Tee machines, cornhole and pool tables. Past years have brought guests including David Feherty, John Daly and Annika Sorenstam.
What players win
Entry covers 72 holes with range balls, the Friday championship playoff if you qualify, nightly 19th Hole access for a player and a guest, and a gift bag on arrival that the tournament values at close to $300. The top five in every flight take a trophy and a gift card, which works out at nearly 300 winners, and there are daily contests for low net, long drive, closest to the pin and closest to the line. More than $25,000 in random drawing prizes goes out across the week.
Playing these courses without a tournament badge
The honest reason most golfers read a World Am course list is to work out which of them they want to play themselves. Almost every course on it is available to visiting groups the rest of the year, and the first week of September is one of the better times to be here: the summer heat has eased, the conditioning has been sharpened for the tournament, and rates have not yet climbed to their October peak.
If your group wants a week built around the same courses, we put the tee times and the lodging into a single golf package at one price and lay the days out around what is actually available. Tell us how many players, roughly when you want to come and which end of the Strand you would rather stay on. Build your golf package, or call us on (800) 394-3764.
Schedule, course list and division details in this article are as published by the Myrtle Beach World Amateur Handicap Championship at myrtlebeachworldamateur.com. Confirm anything time critical against the official site. The 19th Hole photographs were taken by David Williams for the tournament.