Memorial Day weekend is almost upon the Camellia City, which means Cambrian Ridge’s biggest tournament of the year is right around the corner.

The 17th annual Father-Son Championship golf tournament is set for Saturday and Sunday, with a double shotgun start on each day at 8 a.m. and 1:30 p.m.

Registration is already at max capacity, with 110 father-son duos set to attend from 15 different states, ranging from the neighboring states of Tennessee, Georgia, Florida and Mississippi all the way to California.

Cambrian Ridge sales and marketing director Danny Foster said that the tournament is drastically larger from its initial outing 17 years ago, in which only 13 teams signed up.

The tournament is scheduled for either six or seven flights, meaning the competition is as wide open for all competitors.

With prizes for four places in each flight—including a first-place $500 gift certificate in each flight—the father-son duos stand to walk away with a great deal of prize money.

The great prizes, as well as the father-son bond established over the weekend, keep teams coming back again and again.

“And what it does is gives a father and son some time to spend together,” Foster said.

“And we have it on Memorial Day weekend every year, so it gives them time off from work and time to travel back home on Monday because most people take off on Memorial Day. I’ve got them from age 10 all the way up to age 80 playing in this thing.”

Considering that the vast majority of the participating teams are from out of town, the City of Greenville stands to benefit from a slate of filled hotels.

“I bet all of the major hotels are just about full,” Foster said.

“They’ll come in on Friday and do a practice round, so most of them will spend Friday night and Saturday night. And some of them will stay Sunday night and get up and go Sunday morning, so that gives the hotels quite a bit of business.”

But Cambrian Ridge offers more than just a few holes of golf.  For just a weekend, it serves as a common meeting place for family members who might not see each other often.

“A lot of our fathers and sons don’t live in the same town,” Foster said.

“I’ve got some that live in Tennessee and some in Mobile, and they’ll meet here.  They don’t get together that often because when the children grow up, they move off and work and you don’t see them that often, so this just gives them another opportunity to be together.”