State of SC’s golf challenge: Maintain the momentum

“The game of golf in South Carolina is in a great place,” Rob Reeves says, and the difficulty of securing a prime tee time on courses in the state provides the proof.

Maintaining that status, he said, is the next challenge.

Aficionados of the game gathered at Columbia Country Club recently on “South Carolina Golf Day” to celebrate the sport and they had plenty of reasons to cheer.

Moments to remember from 2023 ranged from Todd White’s amazing run of winning both the South Carolina Amateur and U.S. Senior Amateur, Sam Jackson’s study-in-consistency with a four-win season and, on the pro level, junior golf alumnus Lucas Glover’s two PGA Tour triumphs.

“But we cannot sit back and forget,” said Reeves, incoming president of the S.C. Golf Association. “We have challenges to continue to grow the game.”

Indeed, South Carolina joined golf almost everywhere in benefiting from the COVID pandemic that began in 2020. People searching for an outside activity discovered, or re-discovered, the game.

“Our membership grew from 58,000 pre-COVID to almost 70,000 today,” SCGA executive director Biff Lathrop said.

To keep the momentum, Reeves said, “We have to be bold. We have to be innovative. We need to look at every aspect of the game and think, ‘What can we do better?’ ”

One initiative will be the continued emphasis on junior golf, which Reeves called “the foundation of the future, and we have to pave the way.”

Happ Lathrop, who oversaw the SCGA for more than 40 years before his retirement, began to stress junior golf in the 1990s and the state program has been ranked the nation’s best by one national publication.

The latest edition to the junior program is the Congaree Match-Play, staged at Congaree GC in Ridgeland. That follows the Players Series, which provides opportunities for youngsters to advance into higher profile tournaments.

“We’ll have the Watson Cup (a team of South Carolina juniors facing a squad of juniors from Scotland) at Yeamans Hall (in Hanahan) this year, and that’s going to be another big one,” Reeves said.

In looking forward, Biff Lathrop notes that playing the South Carolina Amateur at the Country Club of Charleston “will be a big highlight for our highly skilled golfers. We’re playing the Amateur there for the first time in 25 years when Lucas (Glover) won.”

For the recreational players who make up the heart of the game, Lathrop points out how they will benefit from improvements that courses are making.

“Some facilities have already upgraded their greens or bunkers,” he said. “Columbia (Country Club) will redo bunkers. Florence plans to work on bunkers and cart paths. Some clubs are improving their irrigation systems.

“The increased play has increased income, and clubs are making improvements that had been delayed for financial reasons. They have the money and the time now, and the golfers are really benefiting.”

The increased demand for playing opportunities does create a problem for Lathrop and his staff. Club are reluctant to give up their course for a three- or four-day tournament and lose the revenue.

“But that’s a great problem to have,” he said.

The tournament season begins next week with the Tournament of Champions at the TPC at Myrtle Beach. After a break in February, competition comes fast and furious for highly skilled players, and the recreational golfers will keep tee sheets filled.

“The demand for golf is strong, and our focus is to keep the momentum going,” Lathrop said. “This is an exciting time for golf in our state.”

Chip shots. The South Carolina golf community lost a great friend and one of its stalwarts last week with the death of John Orr. A member of Florence Country Club’s high-powered junior program under Grant Bennett in the 1950s, he remained close to the game and especially focused on junior golf. He served on the South Carolina Junior Golf Association board for years and endowed the SCJGA’s Par Grant program, which provides assistance to junior golfers whose families cannot afford the costs of participating in the organization’s events. ... Riley Batson (Conway) won the girls’ title and Alex Franklin (Greer) led the boys’s division in the SCJGA’s Bobby D. Junior Classic at Crowfield GC in Goose Creek.