Press Release
The 17th annual Hootie at Bulls Bay is set for March 27-29, with sponsor events and practice rounds scheduled for March 25-26. While all club facilities will be closed to other play during ‘Hootie' week, all rounds are open to spectators, free of charge.
North Carolina State will tee off in the 2022 Hootie golf tournament as the defending champion. But based on national rankings, it's unlikely the Wolfpack will be the favorite in the 54-hole event that will draw 16 teams from across the country.
Last year, N.C. State scored its second “double” at the Hootie, winning the team title by two shots over Missouri and grad student Benjamin Shipp scoring a five-shot individual victory with his 11-under 205. It marked the seventh time in Hootie history that one school claimed both the team and individual titles, including 2008, when the Wolfpack scored the first “double” in just the second year of the tournament.
Since its inception, the invitational college tournament that annually draws teams from throughout the NCAA has featured a concert for players, coaches, sponsors and select guests by its namesake band, the Grammy Award-winning Hootie and the Blowfish, as part of the run-up to the three-day, 54-hole event.
That is, until virus protocols put concerts and other such social and entertainment gatherings on hold. The virus forced complete cancellation of the tournament in 2020 and last year, the Hootie was played, but without galleries.
Now that COVID protocols are relaxing, events that draw audiences and spectators are getting back to normal. But for various reasons, the concert that has been a popular part of tournament week is being replaced with a rodeo.
That's right. A real, live rodeo … not the one-day, member-guest type of “rodeo” that's been a feature of the club's golf calendar for several years now. We're talking a real rodeo here, with cowboys and horses and bulls and, yes, spectators.
Among the schools competing in the 2022 16-school lineup will be Iowa State, Kent State, Limestone, Missouri, New Mexico, Wisconsin, and Palmetto State hosts College of Charleston, Furman, and South Carolina. Many are vying for the much-coveted signed guitar awarded the championship team. For more about the Hootie at Bulls Bay, including the complete week's schedule, go to https://thehootie.com/
