CCU’s Hackler Championship attracts several of the nation’s top teams, individual golfers
The 2021 General Hackler Championship has a slightly larger field and some format changes due to the coronavirus pandemic, and it has its typically strong field that undoubtedly includes future PGA Tour members.
The tournament hosted by Coastal Carolina and held at The Dunes Golf and Beach Club from Sunday through Tuesday will feature 16 teams, including eight that are ranked in the top 60 in the country by GolfStat.
“These last three years we’ve been fortunate to have it as a top 20 event at the end of the year strength ranking, and I think we’re in that same position this year,” CCU coach Jim Garren said.
The past two Hackler champions are returning.
North Carolina returns to defend its 2020 title and is ranked eighth in the country by GolfStat with a win this season. North Florida, the 2019 Hackler champion, won a tournament in early February and is ranked 28th.
Liberty is ranked 18th and has a victory, N.C. State is ranked 32nd, Mississippi is 35th, Louisville is 47th, East Tennessee State is 52nd and Indiana is 57th.
Coastal is 94th and Central Florida, Kent State, Penn State, Virginia Tech, East Carolina, UNC Greensboro and Miami (Ohio) are also in the field.
“I can’t say we’ve got a top-five team, but I think you do have that potential with Louisville and North Carolina and Liberty, they certainly could be there at the end of the year,” Garren said.
Individually, the field will be highlighted by Louisville’s German-born Matthias Schmid, who played in last week’s Arnold Palmer Invitational at Bay Hill and is the two-time defending European Amateur champion.
“You’ll see another event with a lot of top-100 guys,” Garren said. “These guys at this level will be on [the PGA] Tour and winning soon.”
North Florida freshman Nick Gabrelcik, Liberty juniors Kieren Vincent and Alexandre, Ole Miss sophomore Jackson Suber, Indiana freshman Clay Merchent and UNC freshman Peter Fountain are ranked in the top 60 individually by GolfStat.
Coastal is led by graduate students Zack Taylor, the defending Hackler individual champion, and States Fort, who has a win this season and is CCU’s highest-ranked player by Golfstat at No. 96.
In recent years, the Hackler has included current PGA Tour members Sam Burns, Corey Connors and Will Zalatoris, as well as the last two U.S. Amateur champions, Andy Olgeltree and Tyler Strafaci.
The Hackler was the final college golf tournament played in the nation last season before the coronavirus shut down college athletics.
Changes to the tournament this year influenced by COVID include the elimination of both the pre-tournament college-am and a 36-hole opening day.
So there will be three 18-hole days, which gave Garren a chance to bump the tournament to 16 teams from a previous maximum of 15, and will give Dunes Club superintendent Steve Hamilton more flexibility with the course setup.
“The Dunes is in really good shape right now,” Garren said. “I’m excited about not having a 36-hole day because I think Steve can probably do some things a little more aggressively that we can’t do on a 36-hole day. You start putting some of these pins we’d like to use on a 36-hole day and we’d never finish before dark.
“. . . You have to be a good player to win on this golf course; you can’t fake it around The Dunes Club this time of year. The punishment for out of position approach shots is too severe.”
Spectators are welcomed for free.
Taylor set for pro career
Taylor is positioned to start his pro golf career following his final college golf season.
He earned full status for the first half of the 2021 Mackenzie Tour – PGA Tour Canada by finishing third at the second Mackenzie Tour Qualifying Tournament at Mission Inn Club and Resort last week.
The Mackenzie Tour is one of three international PGA Tour-sanctioned tours along with PGA Tour China and PGA Tour Latinoamérica. They are subsidiaries of the Korn Ferry Tour, which is the PGA Tour’s feeder circuit.
Finishing as the highest amateur in the qualifying event, Taylor carded rounds of 67, 73, 66 and 71 to place third overall with an 11-under 277. He made 20 birdies over the four rounds.
“I’m very satisfied and excited with the result,” Taylor told a member of CCU’s sports information staff. “Leading up to coming down here, I really wasn’t playing extremely well. I definitely had some doubts coming into it. But now seeing where I stand, I’m very excited, and it’s an opportunity I’m really looking forward to.”
Taylor, who is the reigning champion of the upcoming Hackler Championship, was a student in CCU’s PGA Golf Management program and was not a member of the golf team for his first three years in school. He joined the team for the 2018-19 season when coach Jim Garren gave him a tryout for an open spot on the team.
In 24 career tournaments he has eight top-10 and 15 top-20 finishes. Taylor will join several former Chants on pro tours. World No. 1 and reigning Masters champion Dustin Johnson is on the PGA Tour, Sebastian Soderberg is on the European Tour, and Tom Gillis is on the Champions Tour.
Former CCU golfer Andrew Dorn has full status on the Mackenzie Tour. He played in all 12 events on the Mackenzie Tour in 2019 and nine tournaments in 2018. This year, he plans to play in some Korn Ferry Monday qualifiers until the Mackenzie Tour starts in the summer.
Abelar, CCU women set records
Aside from not winning, the Coastal Carolina women’s golf team had one of its best weeks in program history.
Freshman Nicole Abelar set multiple program records at the River Landing Classic in Wallace, N.C., helping the Chants set new program marks as well.
CCU shot the program’s lowest 18-hole round at 276 in Tuesday’s final round at River Landing Club, breaking the previous record of 280 set at the Palmetto Intercollegiate in 2019. The 12-under score is also an 18-hole program record against par.
The Chants’ three-day total of 11-under 853 set a new low score in a 54-hole tournament, surpassing the previous mark of 855 set in 2018 at the Charleston Invitational.
Tuesday’s 276 was the low score of the final round and moved CCU from fifth to second, four shots behind winner East Carolina.
Playing in just her fourth collegiate event, Abelar set a program record with an 11-under 205 that included a school-record 7-under 65 in the opening round. She closed with a 67 to finish second by two strokes, and her second-round 73 was shot over two days because the round was suspended. Abelar tallied 16 birdies and five bogeys in the event.
Her 65 ties a record set by Malene Kroboll Hansen, who shot a 65 in the second round of the 3M Lady Jaguar Intercollegiate in 2015, but that round came on a par-71 course, so Abelar’s 7-under sets a new program mark. She shot a 5-under 31 on her first nine with four consecutive birdies and finished the round with eight birdies and one bogey despite playing in cold temperatures following a one-hour frost delay.
Prior to entering Coastal, Abelar finished third at the International Junior Golf Academy World Stars of Junior Golf in 2016, and was a two-time winner in 2018-19 of the Canlubang Amateur Open in the Philippines.
“Nicole’s ability to come over to the states from the Philippines and settle in with the team so quickly has made the transition so easy for her. She has really assimilated quickly and it shows,” CCU coach Katie Quinney told CCU’s sports information staff.
Other players that are part of CCU’s records set Tuesday are Sophia Carlsen (finished 11th, 69 in the final round, 1-under 215 total), Caitlin Evans-Brand (16th, 70-218), Tiffany Arafi (21st, 70-219) and Frantiska Lunackova (29th, 72-220).
The CCU women travel to the Valspar Invitational in Augusta, Ga., on Saturday and Sunday.
Ernst takes another title
Former CCU men’s golfer Drew Ernst helped his younger sister earn her third LPGA Tour victory on Sunday.
Seneca native Austin Ernst recorded a wire-to-wire five-stroke victory in the Drive On Championship at Golden Ocala in Ocala, Florida, with a closing 2-under 70 and 15-under 273 total.
Ernst was tied for the lead with fellow former NCAA champion Jennifer Kupcho after each of the first two rounds and took a one-stroke lead into the final round.
The 29-year-old birdied holes 4 through 7 to get to 17 under and open up a big lead, but dropped back with bogeys on Nos. 12 and 13.
“Walked to 14 and Drew just told me, ‘Hey, you’re playing great. Just keep doing what you want to do and let’s just make a few birdies coming in,’ ” Ernst said in a post-tournament press conference. “Didn’t make any birdies, but played well coming in, and that made it easy.”
Ernst played at Louisiana State University, where she won three tournaments in two years, including the 2011 individual NCAA championship as a freshman, and led LSU to consecutive third-place national finishes.
With Clemson beginning official women’s golf competition in the fall of 2013, and her father/coach working at nearby Cross Creek Plantation, Ernst wanted to transfer to Clemson following her sophomore season in 2012.
But LSU did not release Ernst from her scholarship so she opted to turn pro, though she graduated in 2014 with a degree in Business Management.
Her other LPGA Tour victories are the 2014 Cambia Portland Classic and 2020 Walmart NW Arkansas Championship. She earned $225,000 for Sunday’s win to surpass $4 million in career earnings.
Drew, the 2010 South Carolina Amateur champion, graduated from CCU in 2011 and played about a year on mini-tours before becoming his sister’s full-time caddie midway through her rookie year on tour in 2013.
He told The Sun News a few years ago that he believes Austin could be the No. 1 player in the world. She is up to No. 14 after the win.
This story was originally published March 11, 2021 at 11:40 AM.
