‘She’s done everything’: Well-rounded Murrells Inlet youth golfer takes game to new level
Scuba diving, snow skiing, piano, violin, gymnastics, tumbling, jazz and tap dancing, and involvement in church groups.
They all have contributed to making Adrian Anderson of Murrells Inlet a well-rounded and accomplished 17-year-old.
And they all had their shot to unseat golf and academics as the top priorities in her life.
But while Anderson appreciates them all, the two constants since she was 4 have been school and golf.
“I think maybe I just got a little bored [with other things]. I know with the piano I took lessons for a few years but I got bored,” Anderson said. “Golf is what I’ve done steadily throughout the years, and I don’t get bored with that, so I feel that’s what I want to devote all of my energy to rather than having a bunch of little things on the side.”
Her unwavering commitment to golf and knowledge has been recognized and rewarded.
Anderson is on pace to be the St. James High class of 2022 valedictorian, and has been deemed the best girls junior golfer in the Carolinas.
She has been named the 2020 junior girls player of the year by both the Carolinas Golf Association and South Carolina Junior Golf Association.
“She’s the most unique student I’ve probably ever had,” said Chuck Wike, her golf instructor of 11 years. “She wants to play well, but it’s not No. 1 on her list, although she works extremely hard at it. Her No. 1 thing is definitely school. She wants to be a doctor.
“For such a young person to be able to maximize their schedule and their time so they can be that good at school and golf, that’s a pretty good deal right there. You don’t see it very often.”
Stellar results in 2020
Both the CGA and SCJGA have ranking systems to award their players of the year.
Both are based on points accumulated for finishes in tournaments across the Carolinas and nationwide, considering more than 200 events over 12 months.
Anderson was amazingly consistent in 2020. In 28 events she recorded 27 top-15 finishes, with two victories and 21 top-fives.
“She doesn’t make mistakes. She’s very methodical, and has an ability to control what’s going on,” Wike said. “She doesn’t get excited, she doesn’t get frustrated – if she does she doesn’t show it. If you go watch her play you don’t know whether she’s 3 under or 3 over. I think that’s one of the things that help her be so consistent.”
“I feel happiness inside for sure, I just don’t express it,” Anderson explained.
She climbed to the top of the rankings with victories at the Women’s SCGA Junior Girls State Championship and the Peggy Kirk Bell Girls Golf Tour National Invitational.
Her other top finishes included a tie for third in the 64th Carolinas Junior Girls Championship at the Country Club of Asheville, runner-up finish in the S.C. Girls Match Play Championship, and tie for second in the high school state Class 5A championship.
“This past year I was really consistent. Even on my days and tournaments that I wasn’t playing my best, I was still playing good enough to get top three, top five,” Anderson said. “One of the things I always kept in my head was no matter where you’re at and what you’re doing, just always keep trying. There’s always more holes to keep playing, there’s always more shots to be made, more putts to be made, and I think that mentality helped me.”
In the S.C. Heritage rankings, Anderson amassed more than 6,300 points in 2020, which was nearly 1,000 more than the runner-up, and had a scoring average of 73.31. In the CGA rankings, she tallied 5,678 points, which was more than 1,500 points ahead of the runner-up.
Anderson received her SCGA award from its namesake, World Golf Hall of Famer Beth Daniel of Charleston, through a virtual presentation on Jan. 9 while she was at the TPC Myrtle Beach.
“I believe this award is really proof that all the hard work I’ve put in over the past year has paid off,” she said.
Success a team effort
Anderson works with a team that has been assembled largely over the past year. In addition to Wike, she works on putting with Allen Terrell of the Dustin Johnson Golf School, trains with Tara Jacobs at American Fitness, and works with mental coach Matt Cuccaro of Sea Pines Resort in Hilton Head Island.
“I’m very proud of her and how she’s so committed and works really hard and loves the game.” said her mother Eileen Anderson. “She takes advantage of all resources we provide for her.”
Anderson has a good all-around game. She carries the ball up to 220 yards with her driver off the tee and has been working to generate more power and swing speed, which will be important at the collegiate level.
“My strength comes in my consistency and my accuracy,” Anderson said. “If I do have a mishit it’s not bad, it’s still playable.”
Anderson believes her biggest gains this year have been in her head.
“I think getting someone to talk to and work on that with has really helped this year,” she said. “I would just start doubting myself and then I’d start thinking about what could go wrong and looking at everything. Basically anything that could go wrong I would think about it, and it would happen. We’ve been working on focusing on each shot, and just to swing through and not try to guide it, just let it go.”
Wike, who is based at the International Club of Myrtle Beach, said he has seen Anderson once a week since she was about 6, and often twice a week when she’s preparing for a tournament. Her dedication to golf has even increased over the past 18 months.
“When she started going up the rankings I think that kind of fueled the fire a little bit,” Wike said.
Anderson practices every day for at least a couple hours unless there is heavy rain or dangerous weather. Despite the time commitment, she is not consumed by the game.
“I come out and practice every day for at least a few hours, but I like to balance it with school and friends and my social life because I don’t want to just be 100 percent golf all the time, but obviously it’s a large part of my life,” she said.
She realized how much she enjoyed the game in December when she had surgery to remove a cyst from her arm, couldn’t play for a few weeks and missed a couple tournaments.
“That’s when I felt I missed it the most because I knew my friends were able to play in these tournaments and I wasn’t able to, and that made me realize how much I loved golf,” Anderson said. “I wasn’t able to play and I was like, ‘Wow, I don’t know what I’d do without golf. My life would be pretty boring.’ It’s just a part of my life and will always be.”
Music, gymnastics, skiing and golf
Golf has always been present for Anderson, but it has had a lot of competition.
As a smaller child Anderson took gymnastics and tumbling classes, as well as jazz and tap dancing.
She has been a certified scuba diver since she was 11, and prior to the calamity of 2020 she would annually dive with her family near the Caribbean Netherlands island of Bonaire off the coast of Venezuela.
She has been on the youth council of the Belin Memorial United Methodist Church since middle school, which led to her learning to snow ski through youth group trips.
She participated in her school orchestra as a violinist from sixth grade through ninth grade.
“She’s done everything,” Eileen Anderson said, “but she always had a club in her hand.”
Anderson’s father, David Anderson, is a neuroradiologist with Georgetown Radiology, which is affiliated with Tidelands Health, and her mother has a degree and had a career in occupational therapy before raising her two daughters.
Anderson’s sister, Ashley, is seven years older and played golf as a child, which is how she got involved in the sport. They took lessons from Wike together and both played on the U.S. Kids Golf Tour in the area. Anderson has also played in the SCJGA’s Hootie & the Blowfish Junior Golf Series, claiming age group titles in the series’ Tommy Cuthbert All Star tournament at Seabrook Island.
She has been on the St. James girls golf team since seventh grade – winning team state championships her first two seasons – has been a junior member at the TPC Myrtle Beach for several years and recently became a member with her family at Wachesaw Plantation Club.
Her upcoming schedule includes the Sea Pines Junior Heritage from Feb. 6-7 in Hilton Head Island, and Dustin Johnson World Junior Championship from March 5-7 at the TPC, in which she was second after the opening round last year.
What awaits in college?
Anderson has not committed to a college. The NCAA has forbidden coaches and recruits from visiting each other until at least April 15 because of the coronavirus, so she has had to call, text, email and FaceTime coaches.
“A lot of the coaches aren’t making any offers right now because they want to wait until the ban is possibly lifted,” Anderson said.
She wants to remain around the Carolinas and has a few favorites including Coastal Carolina, East Carolina and Georgia Southern, with the storied Furman program led by coach Jeff Hull at the top. She plans to have a pre-med major such as biology or health sciences.
“I think it would be such a great opportunity and such a cool thing to be able to play at Furman University,” she said. “They have a really great past record and I know the coach there. We’ve been talking and he seems like a great person and everyone I’ve talked to has said he’s such a great coach and I won’t regret it if I go there.”
Her career aspirations are in medicine, though she’ll see how her game progresses at the next level. “When I go to college I’ll just see where it takes me,” she said.
Wike will be keeping up. “It’s one of those things you sit back when it’s over and go, ‘Wow, what a blessing that was to be able to watch this kid,’ ” he said.
This story was originally published January 22, 2021 at 3:56 PM.
