This Grand Strand high school athlete is signing with South Carolina this week
Smith Knaffle is ready to make her commitment to the University of South Carolina official so she’s taking advantage of the early signing period.
The Murrells Inlet native and resident will sign her national letter of intent to join the Gamecocks women’s golf team at 2:30 p.m. Friday in the St. James High auditorium.
She has invited family members, friends, teachers, neighbors and Gamecocks freshman Skylar Thompson, with whom she partnered in the 2018 U.S. Women’s Amateur Four-Ball Championship in California, to celebrate the signing.
“I’ve been waiting for it for about a year and a half now; and it has always been a lifelong goal of mine to play golf at South Carolina so I’m really excited to sign with the Gamecocks and I’m ready to get started in the fall of next year,” Knaffle said.
Knaffle verbally committed in July 2017.
Other schools that were pursuing her included Clemson, Coastal Carolina, Florida State, Furman and Virginia Tech.
But Knaffle has been a fan of the Gamecocks, and she and her family have attended every home football game this season. She has her official visit to the Columbia campus this weekend, which will include the football game against Chattanooga. She has had no qualms about her school choice.
“I was destined to go to South Carolina, and I’m excited to have the opportunity to play golf there,” Knaffle said. “There has never been a second thought about going anywhere else. Every time I go to a game, I know that’s where I’m supposed to be.”
Knaffle’s accomplishments include wins in the 2015 Tilghman Junior and South Carolina qualifier for the Big I National Junior Championship in both 2017 and ’18, and runner-up finishes in the 2017 Dustin Johnson World Junior Golf Championship at TPC Myrtle Beach and 2017 The Blade Junior.
She is also a two-time individual champion of the S.C. High School Class 4A state championship and six-time all-state selection, reached the round of 32 in both the U.S. Junior Girls and U.S. Women’s Amateur Four-Ball, and competed in two Junior PGA Championships.
Knaffle won’t be playing in much competitively for a while, as the winter is generally slow for junior and amateur events in the Carolinas; and she’s not entered in either the George Holliday Memorial Junior at Myrtle Beach National or Charles Tilghman CPGA Junior Championship at the Surf Golf and Beach Club over the next month.
Events early next year include the Dustin Johnson tournament and Sea Pines Junior Heritage in Hilton Head Island.
Otherwise she plans to focus on practicing and working out over the winter.
She intends to play in state and national women’s amateur events next summer to prepare for college golf, with the exception of qualifiers for the U.S. Junior Girls Championship and Girls Junior PGA Championship.
This past weekend she won all three of her matches in the North-South All-Star high school event, helping the South win for the first time.
“I’ve been working on stuff in my swing and getting ready for college golf,” Knaffle said. “Obviously the scores aren’t always what I’d like them to be but there’s a bigger goal in mind, so it’s ultimately just practice at this point.”
This story was originally published November 12, 2018 at 7:08 PM.