Kiawah’s Island Golf Resort’s Annual Friendship Cup

2021 Dates Coming Soon!

That’s a wrap for our 14th year!
The Friendship Cup, a two-man tournament for amateur players, welcomed 88 teams in 2020, and was contested on the world famous Ocean Course, site of the 2012 and 2021 PGA Championship, and the Gary Player designed Cougar Point Golf Course. The Ocean Course is always included as the signature tournament course, and the 2nd tournament round rotates among the other four world-championship courses at Kiawah Island Golf Resort.

The field was split due to the number of teams, to create a better playing experience, so half played Cougar Point on Friday and the others played The Ocean Course. Shotgun start and team net best ball format. (See more about rules below.)

Thursday evening began with a private reception at The Sanctuary for the 15 past champions in attendance going back to the 2007 winners, with a special toast and photo on the grand staircase. All attendees then gathered in the Grand Oaks Ballroom for a culinary experience and welcome dinner honoring our past champions and the 2019 Friendship Cup Senior Champions in attendance, Royce Imhoff and Bob Carter, who received the coveted navy blazer.

After dinner, attendees enjoyed casino night in the hospitality suite and beverages from our generous sponsors – Breakthru Beverage and Pepsico – as well as a golf simulator. On Friday and Saturday evening, guests enjoyed a DJ, live music and games, including ping pong, foosball, darts, shuffleboard, and more in a private suite.

Friday evening is always a favorite, and attendees enjoyed a relaxing and very casual Lowcountry oyster roast and BBQ at Mingo Point, overlooking the Kiawah River. Axe throwing by Blade & Bull, bonfire, high-end bourbon tasting, cigar roller and live music by the Travis Allison Band created the perfect environment for meeting new friends and connecting with old ones.

After Saturday’s round, all teams celebrated together in the Grand Oaks Ballroom with dinner and the awards ceremony. Top ten Net teams chose from getaway trips and airline tickets. Prizes were also awarded to the top Gross Team, Gross Individual, Net Individual and top Senior Division net team (both team members 55 and up). 18 teams competed in the Senior Division in 2020. Teams and individuals may only win one title.

The after-round competitions and many more contests and prizes kept the weekend very exciting!
See the 2020 final results below.

The Friendship Cup is sponsored in part by:

For more information on the 2021 Friendship Cup, please email Tournament Director, Natalie Payne.

Tournament Special Notes:

Our goal has always been to create and provide the ultimate environment to enjoy time with good friends and make new ones. We also strive to provide numerous categories in which participants can win great prizes to encourage the competitive nature of the tournament. It’s most important that each and every participant has an equally fair chance to contend for the trophies and valuable vacation packages. In an effort to keep the competition at a high level of integrity, the following guidelines apply to the 2020 Friendship Cup.

Handicaps

Each player must have a valid, verifiable USGA handicap to participate in the net competition. The handicap used for the 2020 Friendship Cup will be based on the February 15th, 2020 revision. Any players without a verifiable USGA handicap on February 15th will play as scratch.

The committee reserves the right to adjust course handicaps prior to the start of the event and/or during the event. This adjustment may be based on past year’s Friendship Cup performance combined with handicap posting history and the USGA table of exceptional tournament score probability, as well as other factors. Any player with an adjusted handicap will be notified by the committee and has the right to appeal to the committee.

Scoring

Paper scorecards to record tournament scores will be the official score card. Each team will be responsible for keeping their fellow competitors’ scores and verifying accuracy. Each team will be requested to protect the field by ensuring that tournament rules are followed as noted on the official rules sheet to each course (i.e. no gimmies, playing the ball as it lies, etc.). A team or individual may only win one top prize (net or gross). As The Friendship Cup is awarded to the top net team, net will be awarded first in both cases of team and individual.

Pairings

Pairings will be made at the discretion of the tournament committee.

Team Names

We will continue with team names. The committee will not allow any team name that it deems to be offensive.

Dress Code

We encourage team uniforms as long as they conform to the resort’s standard requirements and remain tasteful. Denim of any kind, shorts more than 5″ above the knee, bathing suits and athletic style shorts, and shirts without sleeves and collars are considered unacceptable.

Past Friendship Cup Recaps