Last weekend I played in the Seafood Invitational golf tournament. For 42 years the tournament, started by Purcell Jones, has been held at Morehead City Country Club (MCCC) in Morehead City NC. As a junior golfer growing up at the club, I remember watching great NC amateurs like Bill Boles and Bob Cato and weekenders, like my father, stroll the fairways in pursuit of taking home a Core Sound Duck Decoy trophy. The hand-carved decoys are the traditional trophy for winners in each flight. Tradition, a fun and challenging course, and great seafood (not to mention the beautiful crystal coast) has made this a popular tournament for over 4 decades.
This was actually my first year playing in this tournament so I was excited to be able to tee it up at the course where I played my first tournament 22 years ago at the tender age of 8. On Friday, the official practice round also doubles as a skins game. With 130 players, skins were hard to come by, but I did manage to drain a 48′ putt for eagle on the 14th hole and picked one up. The highlight Friday was playing a practice round with a good friend Randy. He was the head pro at MCCC when I was in high school and college and was one of the best bosses I ever had.
MCCC’s director of golf and this year’s tournament host, Nick, held a seafood hors d’oeuvres social for the players and their significant others. This was a homecoming for me, as many of the folks there were members of the club and watched me grow up. One player, Corey, was one of the grommets that hung around at the club with us. He used to be the shrimp of our high school team, unable to hit it out of his shadow, but now at over 6’2″ he bombs it a mile. I was pleased to find out we would be playing together in the first round.
coming soon: Seafood Invitational at MCCC Part 2: Bogies, Birdies, & Ducks