LUMBERTON — A pandemic didn’t stop the Kiwanis All-American Golf Tournament in 2020 — one of the few annual events anywhere without a disruption in its history that year.

A tropical storm won’t stop it either in 2024.

The 47th annual tournament is still on for Saturday and Sunday at Pinecrest Country Club, organizers told The Robesonian, after Tropical Storm Debby’s impact on the area this week.

“We reevaluated the weather (Friday) morning, the flooding in the community, and we just felt that the safety of the players and the club members, that we would be good to go on that end,” tournament chair Erika Nolley said. “That was the main factor of trying to determine (if we could play). We knew the course was good, we were just trying to play into the safety factor for the players and of course (Kiwanis) members getting there.”

The time and effort required to plan and organize the tournament were also taken into consideration, Nolley said.

Tournament proceeds help Kiwanis’ various local youth programs. Last year’s tournament raised about $60,000.

After many in the community sheltered in place at home through the worst of the storm conditions, the tournament will give players and Kiwanians alike a chance to get out and enjoy the weekend.

“Every year it’s a great community event; we always get so excited about it,” Nolley said. “It’s a lot of fun, it’s a lot of fellowship for Kiwanis members. One of the things we did discuss (Friday) morning was we are resilient, as a community and a Kiwanis group, and the money we raise is actually going to impact — when hurricanes come through, and the things children need, the money we raise can truly impact children who might be suffering from the storm this weekend.”

Pinecrest Country Club, the host throughout the tournament’s nearly half-century history, is in good shape after taking on several inches of rain Wednesday and Thursday from the storm.

“The golf course is in very good shape and it’s going to be a long, hard golf course,” Pinecrest head professional Dwight Gane said. “The good thing about all the rain we’ve had, really prior to the storm, is that our grass and turf are really good and strong and we can handle more water this time of year than we could if this were an earlier spring event.”

The rough is a little bit longer and lusher than usual, Gane said, though more so due to frequent rain in recent weeks than from Debby rainwater. As of Friday afternoon, there is standing water in many of the course’s bunkers and in the 18th fairway, but “very little” throughout the rest of the course.

“We were really kind of lucky because it stopped raining hard Wednesday night, and I don’t believe we got but about a half an inch (Thursday),” Gane said. “We missed rain (Thursday) night and (Friday) morning that was supposed to be here, so we’ve just been lucky. Hopefully we’ll continue to be because there’s still a chance of rain everyday.”

Landon Lowry and Ian Locklear won the tournament last year, and will partner again to try and successfully defend that title. But there are plenty of strong teams who could contend for the win. This includes previous winning combinations including Ryan Bass and Mike Chuchacz, Jeff Wishart and Mark Kinlaw, and John Haskins and Larry Cloninger, each in the field.

“There’s some really good teams in this tournament. … I look for (Lowry and Locklear) to be challenged by a lot of teams this year, there’s a lot of teams that are very good.”