Preparations underway before the CJ CUP tees off Thursday

JASPER COUNTY, S.C. (WTOC) - The CJ CUP begins Thursday in Jasper County, S.C.

This is the first time this tournament’s been held in the WTOC viewing area, but Lowcountry residents and golf fans are obviously no stranger to PGA TOUR events. The tournament director for the RBC Heritage, that’s heading into its 55th year, said his team helped a bit with setup and connections.

The CJ CUP is the second PGA tournament event at Congaree in as many years and the folks with the RBC Heritage say it’s great for the area to have as much pro golf as possible

”There’s a lot more communities and golf courses in the world that would love to have it. We’ve had five in our backyard here recently. For us to show some support here the last couple years with Champ Management it was easy, it was no heavy lifting on our part but we have a lot of our volunteers out here,” said RBC Heritage Tournament Director Steve Wilmot.

Wilmot was in a great mood as he walked around Congaree, saying he feels like a kid on Christmas morning.

South Carolina Highway Patrol prepares for tournament traffic

The town of Ridgeland only has about 4,000 people living in it, but we know thousands more are expected over here the next few days as the CJ CUP gets underway.

South Carolina Highway Patrol said last year’s tournament allowed them to set a blueprint for this area, and now keeping the estimated 5,000 cars per day moving smoothly should be pretty simple.

”We’re going to use the same plan that we used last year, just beef up our personnel that are out here on the grounds and outside on the roadways. Today is kind of like a dry run per say, there’s a few people out here but it’s good for us to be able to see the course, see the traffic assignments and different things like that to just be prepared,” said LCpl Nick Pye, community relations officer troop 6 with the South Carolina Highway Patrol.

He says last year went smoothly so they expect the next few days to follow suit. If you’re coming out to the tournament or just driving through the area, you’ll see a heavier law enforcement presence on the roads and tons of cars parked nearby so Pye just asks that you drive with caution.

He says also keep in mind that this is a rural area, so it’ll be harder than normal to find gas stations or call ride shares thus making it that much more important to plan ahead if you are coming out to enjoy this beautiful course.