2026 SANTEE “BIG Champion of the Year Brian Hart”

The 2026 BIG took it’s show on the road to a new venue this year, the Golf Resorts of Santee, South Carolina. All twenty participants of the 2025 Big were in attendance, a players roster that included Larry Alligood, DocPaul Belliveau, Bob Chance, Scott DePiazza, Fred Evans, Chris and brotha Paul Graham, William Hackett, Bates Harrison, Brian Hart, Kailash Khandke, Tony Locascio, Bobby Magee, Woodrow Matthews, Rick and son Ryan Marshall, CuzMike O’Meara (still no relation to Mark), Brian Shenk, and Darrell along with his other brother Anthony but you can call me Tony Vaughn. The 2026 gathering of the brotherhood was privileged to welcome in not just one, but TWO pink teddy fashion show wearing Newbies, the new and improved Ryan Baker (not to be confused with OG Ryan of the Marshall clan) along with a BIG First, the first 3rd generation player to make it into the brotherhood, the long and limber Clayton Shenk (son of esteemed member Brian Shenk and grandson of BIG charter member Tony Vaughn)! An honorary BIG salute was given to departed BIG members, Steveoh Cranford and Charlie “Shakey Earl” Griffin who were once again saluted in spirit and were the topic of much reminiscing throughout the weekend…sure miss those guys for sure!

On to the action! Day 1 kicked off with the annual Defending Champion Opening Tee Shot. 2025 BIG Stogey winner and Edisto legend William “the Mackerel” Hackett showed off his deadly championship winning accuracy by placing the honorary gold ball LONG and deep down the right center of the fairway (and on his first attempt to boot)! With that, the official event commenced under the forecasted wet and cloudy conditions! The well-maintained Santee Cooper Country Club was the opening venue, and the first 6 or 7 holes greeted the field with heavy on and off rain and challenging winds. Fortunately for all, both the rain and winds ceased and hour or so into the round and the forecasted all afternoon torrential rain front took a glorious detour. To the delight of the field, beautiful weather and playing conditions were on tap for (not only the remainder of Day 1 but) the rest of the weekend. At the end of the challenging first day, a blast from the past emerged on top, none other than 2009 BIG champ Tricky Ricky Marshall, who jumped out to the first-round lead with a masterful +3 score. Following closely on his heels was his former BnL partner 2010 BIG champ CuzMike O’Meara (no relation to Mark). It was noted that only a mere 6 of the 22 Day 1 competitors (a paltry 27%) exceeded their points quota.

Day 2 saw the BIG show move over to the pristine and fun Santee National Golf Club. First tee in the ground was at 7 AM. Needless to say, what the field lacked in energy was made up for in extra strong coffee, and the round got off without a hitch. First day leader Ricky M hit his third ceremonial first ball down the middle and day 2 was off and running. When the dust settled at the end of round two, Rick continued the stretch his lead as he posted an even more stellar round of +7 for a two day total of +10.

Round 3, also held at Santee National, kicked off at 8AM with gorgeous weather conditions. The feature group consisted of Rick, Chrissy, CuzMike and a newbie to the feature group pairing, none other than Bates “Creek” Harrison, oh he of Sky Valley fame! Respectable golf was played considering the pressure, but when the dust settled it would probably have not mattered how any of the feature group players scored, as up ahead in the penultimate group, 2016 BIG champion Brian “the Lion” Hart was having a career BIG round and concluded the last day charge with an astounding even par 72, 36 points and incredible +9 finish to atone for his last hole meltdown at the 2025 Sky Valley BIG. For those that may not recall, Brian hadn’t realized he was tied for the lead at SVCC, made a bold decision to go for the flag on the final hole, and tugged it into the drink to lose by a mere point. Congrats Brian for coming back like the little lion that you are, and closing the deal in 2026.

At the awards presentation, Brian and Doc Paul shared round of the day honors with their stellar +9 rounds, followed by stellar plus 5 performances by Scotty D and Florida’s finest, TonyLo. Doc was ineligible for BIG Stogey trophy consideration for DNF’ing on Day 1, but it was great to see him put together a solid final round and grab a piece of the daily cash pot.

Sir Robert Magee presented the “My game was as dead as this Prez” one-dollar bill prize and the “while you’re in there see if you can find my game” Toilet Bowl trophy to William Hackett for his stellar -16 point performance, continuing a trend that generally sees the prior year champ claiming the bronze altar. William edged out the field by a single negative point to claim the potty, ok maybe stretching it here, he ran away with the Toilet by a whopping -6 points. Commish Crissy then presented the first loser cash prize (2nd Place Overall) to TonyLo, who played some very solid golf the final 2 days. He was actually a part of a 3-way tie for second with the hard charging ScottyD and boring dink and dunk down the middle, Commish Crissy, but since he lived the furthest away we thought it right to award the tiebreaker to TLo! Congrats my friend, another solid close but no cigar BIG. Then it was time for 2025 champ William Hackett to present the BIG Stogey to a very excited and proud 2nd time winner Brian Hart, as he joined 4 others (TonyV, Larry, Chrissy, RyanM) two time Big champions. What a solid tournament and incredible third round that featured 5 birdies, congrats brother Brian! Nice bounce back erasing last year’s final hole nightmare that cost you the title at Sky Valley. Well done my brother!

The awards festivities concluded with 2025 Griffin Spirit of the Big recipient KK giving a riveting speech about how much the BIG meant to him and what a positive impact Charlie made on him when he first joined the BIG way back in 2013. Something about wonderful breakfasts Shakey whipped up for him without charging a single dime for the extra spit in the eggs. But anyway, back to the Griffin Spirit of the BIG award, long story short, KK noted a couple of BIGs that he really thought were most deserving and expressed his wish that he had two cups to award…but alas, our esteemed Food CzarKK shocked my dear brother Paul, with presentation of the Griffin Cup. First time I’ve seen my older brother completely speechless. But Paul, I say this from the heart, the BIGs have no idea how much you have done behind the scenes in helping me make BIG related decisions, printing BIG scoreboards, etc and the list goes on, it prides me to say you are certainly a most worthy winner of the coveted cup and I know our boi’ Charlie is proud of the choice as well! I think his words were, well it’s about damm time. Congrats Paul Graham, 2026 Griffin Cup recipient! And with that, the 2026 Trophy presentation concluded and the Pizza party began, leaving a devastated trail of empty extra large pizza boxes in it’s wake by night’s end…

The Sunday 3-man shamble was held at Lake Marion Golf Club with the surprising Team KK-BrianS-Crissy and Team RyanM-Bates-Hackett tying for the W. What was surprising was the performance of Team Ryan…you see, they ended up as a 2man team due to our dear brother William’s scary Addison’s attack the night before. By the time Ryan and Bates got William in decent enough shape to make the short drive home to Edisto the Shamble was on hole #7. Long story short, Ryan and Bates achieved their target score in 10 holes versus the 18 it took the rest of the teams. Well done boyz and even more importantly, we are all very thankful that William recovered from the attack. Ryan and company, you guys did a heck of job comforting and caring for our brother and we’re really glad it worked out ok.

With that, can’t wait to see what surprises next year’s BIG brings us as we all age a little more gracefully. Springdale awaits…cheers brothers!