For 15 years, one of the great father-son bonding experiences has been the Golf Dimensions National Father & Son Team Classic, a three-day family event that now is the largest golf event in the world pairing dads (and granddads) with their offspring or grandkids, or just younger friends.

The 16th annual tournament – featuring 24 flights and, a year ago, more than 900 participants from 46 states and seven foreign nations – returns to the Grand Strand July 18-20, with nine of the area’s top courses set for the onslaught.

While the cost isn’t cheap – $1,200 per team (discounted to $975 for teams returning from last year’s tournament) – the experience has been such over the years that there’s never a lack of repeat players. Part of that might be that the Father & Son is open to any combination of players who are at least a generation apart in age; they don’t even have to be related.

In addition to 54 holes of golf over three different courses, with competition in Texas Scramble, Better Ball and Captain’s Choice formats, all players receive a gift package that includes a $100 Golf Dimensions gift card, a pair of leather golf shoes and a golf glove. Other goodies include lunch at the course each day, closing day cookout and awards ceremony, headgear, golf balls, tournament player shirt and personalized bag tag.

Courses playing host to the event include Barefoot Resort’s Fazio Course, Wild Wing Plantation, Myrtle Beach National’s Kings North (designed by Arnold Palmer) and Long Bay. Amateurs play at 80 percent of USGA Handicap Index (pros play at scratch), and teams will be flighted based on total team handicap. A skills Challenge and Demo Alley also are included.

The action begins July 17 with registration and practice rounds. For more information, call (843) 497-2627 locally, (866) 497-2627 toll free. To register online, click here. To register by mail, click here to download an application form.

For years, an annual winter tradition at Hidden Valley Golf Club, east of Columbia off U.S. 321 near the town of Gaston, has been its Backwards Tournament (or sdrawkcaB tnemanruoT for you purists), in which participants play a Captain’s Choice event by playing the course green-to-tee, with variations.

In the spirit of the event, Hidden Valley will host its first-ever summer Backwards Tournament (this time, they’ve got the seasons backwards, too) on Saturday, June 8, beginning at 8 a.m.

For the uninitiated, the event begins with players teeing off from a temporary tee between the 18th fairway’s 150-yard marker and playing uphill to the 17th green, with the “hole” playing as a par-4. At the 17th “hole,” players tee off from the senior tees back to the 16th green (a par-3). And so on.

The rest of the course follows that pattern with the exception of No. 10, which is played through trees to the 18th green, and No. 1, which plays back to the club’s putting green and counts any of its cups as in play. Teams are four persons, with tees set up for men, women and seniors.

The end result is plenty of confusion and lots of hilarity. “Each player’s imagination and shot-making ability are challenged by having to play shots from the trees, through the trees, over the trees and everywhere in between,” said head professional Brad Frick.

Cost is $50 for non-club members, $45 for members, and includes lunch afterward. Entry deadline is June 5. For information or to register, call (803) 794-8087.

Golf in Myrtle Beach is plentiful and varied – and, occasionally, available for a low price. But the latter is rarely true when it comes to two of the Grand Strand’s most heralded courses, the Mike Strantz-designed Caledonia Golf & Fish Club and True Blue Plantation.

Unless, that is, it’s summer in South Carolina.

Starting June 3 and running through Sept. 4, Caledonia and True Blue – ranked No. 3 and No. 6, respectively, among GolfWeek magazine’s 2013 “Best Courses You Can Play” in South Carolina – are offering a three-round, two-night package that includes three rounds at the two courses and two nights’ stay at True Blue Resort. The cost: $299 – about what one normally would pay for the golf alone.

The special price is based on quadruple occupancy (four players) of a two-bedroom villa and includes cart, range balls, taxes and resort fees. Players get a round each at the two courses, then get to decide which better deserves a replay.

While both courses were designed by Strantz, the late Mount Pleasant-based architect, each is unique from its sister. Caledonia, Strantz’s first design, features beautiful wetlands and huge live oaks and is located on the site of a former rice plantation turned hunting club. True Blue – the tougher of the two according to most players – evokes the challenges of Pine Valley, the nation’s perennial No. 1-ranked private course, with challenging sand and water hazards.

Besides this year’s GolfWeek rankings, Caledonia has earned spots in Golf Digest’s “Top 25 Courses in South Carolina” and “America’s 100 Greatest Public Courses,” plus a “Top 100 You Can Play” rating by Golf Magazine. Golf For Women magazine places Caledonia in its “Top 100 Best Courses for Women.”

True Blue also ranks among Golf Digest’s “America’s Greatest 100 Public Golf Courses,” Golf Magazine’s “Top Ten Places To Play” and its “Top 25 Courses in the South.” Golfweek also once named it one of the “Top 100 Courses in America.”

If you’re unfazed by South Carolina summers, this is a perfect opportunity to test yourself on two of the state’s (and nation’s) finest layouts – at a discount. For more information on the package or on the courses, call (800) 483-6800 or go to www.fishclub.com.

The 14th annual Healthy Learners Champions for Children Golf Tournament is not until October – Oct. 16, to be precise – but it’s never too early to plan to, as the event’s motto says, “golf for good.”

Fort Jackson Golf Club will be the site of the event, which benefits the Healthy Learners Program, a ministry of the Sisters of Charity Health System. The four-person captain’s choice competition begins with a noon shotgun start, and all players will receive lunch, on-course snacks and beverages, plus a post-round reception and dinner.

The tournament, staged in memory of the late George Younginer, annually benefits some 1,700 children, provides 5,000 services and transports children more than 100,000 miles. Cost of the event is $1,500 per team, which includes each sponsoring company’s name and logo, signage, acknowledgement in tournament marketing, and a “thank you” message in an ad in The State newspaper.

For information or to register, go to www.healthylearners.com or call (803) 454-0350. Healthy Learners is located at 2749 Laurel St. in Columbia (29204).

Any golf fan who has followed Tiger Woods knows the old truism about golfers not being athletes is as outdated as persimmon drivers. Getting physically fit – besides, duh, being good for you – is one way to improve not only your life but your golf game.

But these days, there’s a double meaning to “get fit.” Using video cameras and launch monitors and plain old trained eyeballs, golf-equipment experts can make sure you’re using the correct clubs for you in terms of loft, lie, swing-weight and other factors. It’s also one of the easiest ways to get better (and without all that sweat at the gym).

Yet, Mike Stachura writes in the May issue of Golf Digest (on sale now), 70 percent of golfers have never been fitted. All those new, adjustable drivers are worthless if they are used by golfers who don’t take the time to get the right ones for them.

Improvement isn’t just for the pros, either. “The benefit for high-handicappers is more than for scratch players,” club fitter Mark Timms tells Stachura in the article. “I can probably drop a 20-handicapper five shots through the proper fitting.”

Why would you not get fitted, then? And in South Carolina – which claims four spots on Golf Digest’s “100 Best Club Fitters” list – it’s easy.

Here are the four top-ranked S.C. fitters (in no order):

Victory Custom Golf, 5421 Charlotte Highway, Clover; (803) 831-1156.

Lowcountry Custom Golf, Wando Crossing Shopping Center, 1485 Highway 17 North, Unit J, Mount Pleasant; (843) 492-7009/442-2160.

Martin’s PGA Tour Superstore, 1400 29th Avenue North, North Myrtle Beach; (843) 839-4653.

Steve Dresser Golf Academy, 80 Pinehurst Lane, Pawleys Island; (843) 650-2272.

As Stachura writes, why devote so much time and energy to the sport if you’re not going to maximize your abilities – and your fun?