You suck at golf because you suck at practicing.

I’m Christopher Griffin, founder and owner of the Mashie Golf Institute here in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina; “the golf capital of the world”. But is it?

I think we can do a whole lot better.

As it stands, “Golftown USA” has arguably produced ONE single tour pro. There are high schools in Texas that have produced 10X that.

2024 was the first time that the PGA Tour deemed our town and 1 of our 80+ golf courses acceptable to host an event. That’s not great.

I grew up here, playing golf in the First Tee program and all over the grand strand with my father; a golf director for a hotel at the time. Then I didn’t touch a club for 15 years. I moved out west, started my adult life and career in San Francisco, and didn’t think about golf at all.

About a decade later, as the city began to completely collapse into its current apocalyptic condition, a visit back home to Myrtle Beach and a trip to the driving range got me hooked again instantly. Mostly I was shocked by how bad I now sucked but the two balls I hit well…that was enough. Sucking this bad though was unacceptable. I had to at LEAST get back to how I played as a junior.

I went back west, planned my exit home, got a set of clubs, and started hitting the range

I didn’t get any better…

After several months I decided the only way to get back in form was to go back home, get lessons, play tons of rounds, get fittings, hit the range 4 times a week, spend as much money and time as possible, and get to a single-digit handicap.

So I did exactly that. And it sorta worked!

After 18 months of grinding, buying course memberships, buying fittings, buying clubs, buying buckets and buckets of balls, buying 46 rounds, paying tournament entry fees and practice round fees, buying training aids, buying lessons, bags, shoes, and on and on and on. Cost me like $9,000. But I reached my goal. I dropped 15 strokes off of my handicap and was shooting in the mid 70’s regularly. It could have been so much easier though…

I realized that most of my range time was wasted due to these factors;

• Range balls here are terrible. They don’t fly or spin like the ones I play with. They’re cut, have no dimples, outer coating has turned to powder…it’s bad.

• The range is subject to weather. There were many weeks I didn’t get my 4 sessions in due to conditions and in the summer, many grips and hats I sweated through and ruined.

• The mats are old, cheap, and beat. If they have grass, it's either thick mud, all sand, or the morning flight has dug it up beyond use.

• There’s no data! Without a $5k to $20k launch monitor, I have no idea what’s going on with the ball, what my swing path was, or any other benchmarks we focus on in lessons.

• It’s so expensive! They want $17 to $19 for 70 “golf balls” and a beat-up hitting surface. At 4 sessions a week, that’s $272 a month to cluelessly swing my clubs.

• Unusable short game areas - Most putting greens at courses do not allow chipping and all short game areas at our 2 driving ranges are full of weeds and terrible putting surfaces. Useless for drills or replicating conditions/putts you see on the course.

So how much does it cost to practice and play like an amateur currently in Myrtle Beach?

Range sessions - $272/m

Rounds (2) - $120/m

Lessons (2) - $240/m

Balls/gloves/etc - $80/m

Total Monthly - $712

Total Annual - $8,544

Expenses not mentioned

$100 fitting, $380 driver, $90 grips, $1,200 Taylormade irons, $250 in Primetime and course memberships, $300 wedge set, $5,000 launch monitor, $50 GHIN, $100 shoes, $40 hats, apparel, and on and on.

That’s just too much money for so few meaningful resources.

The pros don’t practice like that though. High school and college golf programs don’t practice like that. They have indoor facilities where they control all variables and can be used 24/7. They have data and video for every swing paired with consistent coaching. They hit the same balls on the range that they use on the course. They do drills more than they hit balls. They spend a TON of time on short game. They grind fundamentals every single day. They don’t watch 8493 swing videos on YouTube and TikTok.

So why do we all expect professional results from amateur practice?

Why is there no facility in the Golf Capital of the World that provides us with 24/7 access to professional practice?

This is why I’ve started the Mashie Golf Institute here in Myrtle Beach. The Mashie IS that facility. Fully equipped with everything the pros use daily to get better, fast.

We’re going to change the way Myrtle Beach plays by changing the way Myrtle Beach practices.

The Mashie is not a bar and grill. It is not a substitute for the course. It is not a simulator studio.

The Mashie is a tour-level resource for the serious golfer, the competitor, the one looking to truly reach their potential in the game. The gamers that know if they just had everything they needed, they would put in the time and effort. The one’s sick of buying new clubs every year and never seeing their score change. The people that want to win on the weekends, without luck or buying mulligans. And especially the golfer with professional aspirations.

We want to unite our golf community and build it to be the highest-performing in the state. We want to showcase our hard work at tournaments all over the region every year. We want to shoot course records here locally. We want people to pull up to a tournament, see a Mashie shirt warming up on the range, and think “uh-oh…”. We want to see someone who signed up as a 19 HCP hoist a 1st Place trophy a year later. We want to see our juniors get golf scholarships. We want our seniors qualifying for Champions Tour events.

These are our benchmarks for success. These are our goals for our community. This is one step closer to truly being The Golf Capital of the World.

Sincerely,

The Mashie