STAFF REPORTS
FLORENCECS — When the Dr. Eddie Floyd Florence Tennis Center opens Monday to play in the McLeod for Health Florence Open, it will have the intimate, welcoming accents that only members of several of Florence’s garden clubs can provide.
“The Wildwood Garden Club has been involved once before and the place has never looked better,” said City of Florence tennis director Rob Hill.
That’s why, he said, the city contacted them to see if they would do it again.
They said yes and brought some friends to help them.
“We have partnered with the Four O’clock Garden Club to decorate the tennis center for the tournament,” said Dotti Matthews, president of the Wildwood Garden Club.
On Friday morning, members of the gardening club, armed with clippings from their garden, clippers to get more clippings from the garden center, ribbons, items to put greenery on, a supply of flowers and other greenery, of their creativity and a mission to go with everything crammed upstairs at the tennis center.
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By 10 a.m., wreaths had been hung, flowers had been arranged, bows and ribbons had been planned and implemented, and fall-themed arrangements had been placed where they brightened up the place. .
“We have these wonderful people who know what they’re doing with flowers,” Matthews said.
Matthews said the mission was one that clubs and their members could easily follow.
“Breast cancer is important to many of us and to many of our members,” Matthews said. “We have people who have survived or lost loved ones to cancer. It’s near and dear to us, so we like to come here and make it pretty for the tournament.
The McLeod for Health Florence Open, a women’s tournament on the USTA Pro Tour benefiting South Carolina’s Susan G. Komen, will be played at the Dr. Eddie Floyd Florence Tennis Center from October 10-16. With approximately 90 tournaments held nationwide each year, the USTA Professional Tour is the pathway to the US Open and tour-level competition for budding tennis players and a frequent battleground for established professionals. .
