What will SC’s top golfers do for encore in 2022? Potential for more success is there

South Carolina golf sparkled at the highest level in 2021, and that leads to natural questions: What are you going to do for an encore? How can you match two national titles, two PGA Tour tournament wins and an LPGA tourney triumph?

Answers must wait, but the possibilities are intriguing.

Let’s look.

In USGA events, can Palmetto State golfers match Jensen Castle’s triumph in the 2021 U.S. Women’s Amateur title? Castle will defend, and the potential for success in other national tournaments offer some exciting possibilities.

Consider the U.S. Amateur Four ball and the state team of Charles Warren and Brent Delahoussaye commands attention. An All-American at Clemson, Warren won the NCAA title and made the PGA Tour before regaining his amateur status. He and Delahoussaye, who played at both USC and Clemson, qualified with a 61 at Florence Country Club.

A player who grew up around Florence CC, former Clemson star Stephen Behr will rank among the favorites in the U.S. Mid-Amateur. Behr, who now lives in Atlanta, is annually ranked among the best mid-amateur (25 and older) players in the world.

Among the older guys, Eddie Hargett keeps rolling along. He won the SCGA’s Senior Player of the Year for the fourth time in 2021 and reached the Round of 16 in the U.S. Senior Amateur. He has a game that does not age.

On the college front, the state of South Carolina features three players in the world amateur golf ranking’s top 25: Inman’s Trent Phillips, who plays at Georgia at No. 12; USC star Ryan Hall at 21; and Inman’s Jacob Bridgeman (Clemson) at 23. Hall is 11th, Phillips 12th and Bridgeman 14th in the PGA Tour U ranking of college seniors.

What’s in their futures? Phillips won the prestigious Sunnehanna Amateur last summer and Hall’s achievements include the individual title in the NCAA’s Albuquerque Regional. Can one of them follow Clemson’s Turk Pettit, now a professional, in winning the NCAA individual championship?

The spotlight among women amateurs will be on Castle, whose U.S. Amateur victory earned exemptions into multiple prestigious events, and USC freshman star Hannah Darling, a native of Scotland who is ranked No. 7 in the world amateur golf rankings.

Both Castle and Darling will compete in the Augusta National Women’s Amateur, which has quickly taken a place among the best tournaments for women amateurs. And Darling will be the ringleader for USC’s women’s team, which won two of its four fall tournaments and enters the spring season ranked No. 3 nationally.

Missing from the USC women’s team will be two-time All-American Pauline Roussin-Bouchard, who turned professional after her sophomore year. The Gamecocks’ loss will be the LPGA Tour’s gain; Roussin-Bouchard won one of the tour’s qualifying tournaments and finished second in the finals, making her a prime candidate for rookie of the year honors.

She will join veteran Austin Ernst, who recorded her third Tour win in 2021, to increase the state’s presence at the top of the women’s game. Lauren Stephenson continued her steady climb in 2021, ranking No. 53 for the season and now is No. 90 in the women’s pro rankings.

Dustin Johnson, Kevin Kisner and Lucas Glover, all alumni of South Carolina’s touted junior program, give the state a formidable trio on the PGA Tour. Both Kisner and Glover won PGA tournaments in 2021 and Johnson remains ranked among the world’s best players.

Kisner showed he is primed for 2022, opening the calendar year with a tie for eighth and a tie for third in two Hawaii events. Glover tied for 5th in the Sony. Maybe the guy who will have a breakout season is former USC All-American Matt NeSmith, yet another product of the state’s junior ranks.

All in all, the 2021 production at the highest level created some lofty targets to match. But the potential for even more success is there. The depth is amazing, and more likely than not, a player not mentioned here will burst into the spotlight.

Chip shots. Jeff Day (Blythewood) and Dan Sullivan (Columbia) joined forces to win the SCGA’s Forty-Plus Series event at Dataw Island Club. The champions posted a better-ball of 2-under-par 70, one shot better than Billy Hill (Walterboro) and Mike Cobb (Summerville). ... The Carolinas Golf Course Superintendents Association has awarded grants of $165,000 to researchers looking to solve issues affecting playing conditions across the region. Scientists at Clemson and North Carolina State will received the funds that the association raised in its Rounds 4 Research program. ... The SCGA’s major schedule begins Jan. 29-30 at the TPC Myrtle Beach in Murrells Inlet.

This story was originally published January 20, 2022 at 9:05 AM with the headline "What will SC’s top golfers do for encore in 2022? Potential for more success is there."