Hilton Head Sports

Youth development organization rolls out new facility and introduces new executive director Brady Boyd.

Brady Boyd’s story may sound familiar to most of you.

An Ohio native, he fell in love with Hilton Head Island during a visit and decided he wanted to stay, spending his days golfing and enjoying the beautiful weather.

The Southeast Biking Symposium will bring some of the biggest names in cycling and urban planning to the island for a different kind of conference.

In recent years, small Hilton Head Island has seen its profile skyrocket as the Southeast’s new hot spot for the converging worlds of cycling and urban planning. Thanks to the efforts of the Town of Hilton Head and the Hilton Head Island Visitor and Conventions Bureau, not to mention immense public support from area businesses and community leaders, the island has been designated as the only Gold-Level Bike Friendly Community in the Southeast.

Oldfield Club has retained its designation as a Certified Audubon Cooperative Sanctuary through the Audubon Cooperative Sanctuary Program for Golf Courses, an Audubon International program. Golf course naturalist Jill Kombrink led the effort to maintain sanctuary status on the course. Oldfield Club was designated as a Certified Audubon Cooperative Sanctuary in 2004 and is one of 892 courses in the world to be designated as such.

Experience Green recently received a commendation from the Town of Hilton Head Island for its community leadership and recognition as the winner of the first International Sustainable Golf Destination of the Year Award for the Hilton Head Island area. Experience Green was founded in 2010 with a scope of service encompassing Hilton Head and greater Beaufort County.

Wexford head tennis professional Mike Pollard was recently named Professional Tennis Registry Member of the Year for South Carolina. This award is presented to a PTR member who has shown dedication and diligence in promoting and supporting tennis and PTR. Pollard coaches more than 25 adult USTA teams annually, as well as both men’s and women’s interclub teams. He also coaches multiple adult players who compete in both the singles and doubles Ultimate Tennis Leagues, as well as multiple Junior Tennis teams during the year.

Longtime Hilton Head Island football coach Ron Peduzzi was recently named head coach at Hilton Head Christian Academy. Peduzzi served as the Eagles’ defensive coordinator the past two seasons. Prior to that, he spent 11 seasons as the head coach at Hilton Head Preparatory School. His Prep teams won SCISA state titles in 2005 and 2007.

The PGA Tour recently announced that Hilton Head Heroes, a Hilton Head Island-based nonprofit beneficiary of the RBC Heritage Presented by Boeing, was a 2016 PGA Tour Charity of the Year finalist. The group was awarded a $5,000 grant from the PGA Tour.

"We are honored to have the PGA Tour recognize the impact we make to families who have children fighting life threatening illnesses,” said Lindy Russell, founder of Hilton Head Heroes. “This donation will allow us to treat more families to a vacation of a lifetime and give them a welcomed break from the realities of having a sick child.”

Berkeley Hall Club senior golf instructor Krista Dunton was recently named among GOLF Magazine’s biennial list of “Top 100 Teachers in America” for 2017-18. Since its inception in 1991, GOLF Magazine’s distinctive ranking has become the industry standard for teaching excellence. New members and the complete list will appear in the March print issue, and online at Golf.com. Dunton has appeared on the Top 100 Teachers in America list since 2011. 

Long Cove Club, in partnership with Darius Rucker and the University of South Carolina, is hosting the sixth annual Darius Rucker Intercollegiate Golf Tournament presented by The Kroger Co. and Reynolds Consumer Products. The tournament will be held March 3-5 at Long Cove Club’s nationally acclaimed golf course on Hilton Head Island. Top teams from around the country will travel to the island to compete for the title.