On Grand Strand Golf: Knaffle bolsters resume with CPGA Junior win

Life is coming at Smith Knaffle rather quickly these days.

On Tuesday, she hopes to acquire a beginner’s driver permit.

On Monday, she turned 15.

And on Sunday, the rising sophomore at St. James High bolstered her standing as one of the top junior golfers in the Carolinas, which is making her increasingly busy with college recruiting.

Knaffle shot a 3-under-par 69 to make up a four-stroke deficit entering the final round and win the girls overall division of the Carolinas Junior PGA Championship at the Hackler Course at Coastal Carolina.

She won by a stroke over Elle Johnson of Inman and Kathleen Sumner of Charleston, who finished first in the girls 16-18 age group.

Knaffle now has three significant junior wins in the past seven months. She won the Charles Tilghman Junior Championship at the Surf Golf and Beach Club in December, and backed it up in March with a six-stroke victory in the Myrtle Beach National Junior Shootout at Myrtle Beach National Golf Club.

Sunday’s win in a 30-girl field qualifies Knaffle for the PGA of America’s 41st Junior PGA Championship from Aug. 9-12 at Wannamoisett Country Club in Rumford, R.I. She is familiar with the national championship through friend Victoria Huskey, who has represented the CPGA in the tournament more than once.

“She told me how great it was, how well you’re treated, how much stuff you get and how well the tournament is run, so I’m really looking forward to it,” Knaffle said. Knaffle has played largely in junior tournaments in the Carolinas, so she’s looking forward to facing national competition. “Just to see how my game stacks up against some of the best girls in the world,” Knaffle said. “It will be interesting to see how things play out … and I’ll just gain some experience.”

Knaffle said she plans to step up in competition over the next year by playing in some American Junior Golf Association events, including one at Furman University in September, and continuing to play in qualifiers for national tournaments such as the U.S. Girls Junior and Junior PGA Championship while continuing to play in Carolinas tournaments.

“Those are always good to play with all my friends and stuff,” Knaffle said. “The competition level in the Carolinas stacks up well. … Living in the Carolinas we don’t have to travel far for a good field and a good tournament.”

She withdrew from the 50th Twin States Girls’ Championship in Blythewood this Tuesday and Wednesday to take a break before participating in the North & South Junior Championship in Pinehurst, N.C., from Sunday through Wednesday.

Her wins have garnered attention from colleges. She said she has already taken unofficial visits to Coastal Carolina, Virginia Tech and South Carolina, her mother’s alma mater, and has been in contact with other schools including Furman, Auburn and Kansas.

“I haven’t made a decision yet and I don’t plan to make any decisions until the end of my sophomore or beginning of my junior year,” said Knaffle, who said college coaches aren’t permitted by the NCAA to contact her directly until Sept. 1 of her junior year. “A lot of kids are committing so early, like the beginning of junior year, and coaches will put deadlines on when you can commit. They want to have their teams set and keep looking toward the future. If you wait too long to make a decision, most of the scholarships are already gone.”

She’ll likely be seen by coaches from several schools at the national PGA tournament.

Entering Sunday’s final round, the 5-foot-8 Knaffle was tied for eighth and four shots behind co-leaders Sumner and Rock Hill’s Jodee Tindal after shooting a 76 in Saturday’s first round.

“I wasn’t necessarily hitting the ball great,” Knaffle said. “It wasn’t that good, and I had four three-putts, which didn’t help out either. I knew I had to go pretty low Sunday.”

A key to her 69 was a change in her putting grip from conventional to left-hand low, a style she regularly used when she was 10 and 11. She worked on the putting stroke after the first round, prior to a surprise birthday party at a restaurant attended by about a dozen competitors.

“I won the Tilghman and Myrtle Beach Shootout with a conventional grip, so I figured that was working, but my putting hasn’t been working lately and the first round was the last straw,” said Knaffle, who counted 10 fewer putts in the second round.

Zack Gordon of Gaffney won the boys title Sunday by two strokes over Levi Moody of Greenville with two rounds of 68 for an 8-under 136 total.

Patrick Golden of Murrells Inlet finished seventh at 3-under 71-70–141, and Holden Grigg of Myrtle Beach tied for 15th overall at even-par 71-73–144 and tied Nicklaus Sutton of Matthews, N.C., for first place in the boys 13-15 division. Pawleys Island residents Jackson Cole and Trey Salley tied for 22nd and 28th, respectively, in the boys overall competition at 146 and 147.

Madison Elliott of Little River tied for sixth in the girls division at 7-over 151 and Hannah Fesperman of Georgetown finished 12th at 155.

Yamamoto comes close

Yoshio Yamamoto of Myrtle Beach reached a playoff this past weekend in a Swing Thought Tour Pro Series event, but lost to a birdie on the second playoff hole by Anthony Maccaglia of Tampa, Fla.

Yamamoto shot a 5-under 66 in the final round with birdies on holes 16 and 18 to make up five shots and also tie Adam Ball of Richmond, Va., at 14-under 270.

Yamamoto missed 15-foot birdie on the first playoff hole, then left another 15-footer for birdie a couple inches short on the second playoff hole before Maccaglia made a 12-footer for the win.

Maccaglia earned $16,500 for the win in the 72-player event, while Yamamoto and Ball earned $6,688 each. “It hurts but at the same time it’s good to make some money,” said Yamamoto, who made 21 birdies on the week. “One week you’ll make a putt to win a ton of money and another week you’ll miss one. They all even out in the end, I guess.”

Yamamoto has played in six Swing Thought events and has tied for 15th and second in his past two after doing little in his first four.

He has two weeks off before playing in a pair of Swing Thought events in Georgia and a Web.com Tour Monday qualifier in Knoxville, Tenn., in mid-August.

Yamamoto, a Mexico native and Myrtle Beach resident since 2009 who plays out of the Greg Norman Champions Golf Academy at Barefoot Resort, has status on PGA Tour LatinoAmerica after finishing 38th in his most recent event, and expects to be eligible for the entire second-half schedule. The first half of the PGA Tour LatinoAmerica schedule concluded on May 29 and the schedule is expected to resume in September, though it hasn’t been released.

He plans to play in at least the first two. “I’ll see where that puts me and see if I’m going to keep going to Latin America or come back and focus on the Swing Thought and maybe a little bit of the Mexican Tour just trying to get ready for [Web.com Tour] Q-School,” said Yamamoto, who has assistance from a financial backer. “Unless I make a big jump I’m not sure it’s the most efficient way to go about it.”

Best ball upcoming

The ninth annual Lowcountry Open two-player best ball tournament will be held Aug. 6-7 at Shaftesbury Glen Golf & Fish Club, which benefited from an improvement project over the winter that included drainage and bunker renovations and the addition of numerous fairway waste bunker areas.

A practice round is available on Aug. 5. Teams are flighted after the first round and 25 percent of the field will receive prizes. The entry fee of $150 per player includes a registration gift bag containing a shirt and hat, lunch on tournament days and range balls.

The course will be set up at approximately 6,500 yards and seniors ages 55 and older will play around 5,900 yards. Tournament director Al Hogan said the senior tee yardage has been adjusted based on comments from past participants.

The tournament grew to 130 players last year and Hogan said he’s capping it this year at 140. Players are already signed up from around South Carolina, North Carolina and Georgia.

“It keeps growing,” Hogan said. “We’ve got some pretty good players coming in and we’ve had some pretty good competition.”

The tournament is being played at Shaftesbury for the fourth consecutive year after being played at the Hackler Course at CCU from 2008-09 and the Founders Club at Pawleys Island from 2010-12. Interested players can contact the South Carolina Golf Center at 843-369-3112 or visit www.scgolfcenter.com.

The tournament will benefit programs of the S.C. Junior Golf Academy at Shaftesbury.

Online auction live

In conjunction with its Future Generations fundraising tournament on July 19 at Caledonia Golf & Fish Club, The First Tee of the Grand Strand has an inaugural month-long internet auction that has been live for the past week.

Bidding continues through 11 p.m. on July 18, and unsold items will be available for bidding at the nonprofit youth development organization’s tournament the following day.

The auction items include a Disney vacation package, resort stays, offshore fishing charters, golf, golf memberships, lessons, equipment, dining and signed memorabilia from athletes and actors.

The auction is available at http://bit.ly/28UFHCH.

The Future Generations tournament will again be hosted by Golf Channel personalities Kelly Tilghman of North Myrtle Beach and Charlie Rymer of Fort Mill and has a 1 p.m. shotgun start. Four-person teams consist of three sponsors and a junor First Tee member.

A minimum entry fee of $1,000 for a team sponsorship or $250 per person includes a logo golf shirt, hat, raffle, awards, skills contests, a box lunch, and awards party with cocktails and Sticky Fingers dinner.

Call 843-325-6787, email First Tee executive director Rich Abraham at rich@thefirstteethegrandstrand.org or visit the First Tee of the Grand Strand website to register or for more information.

This year’s tournament honoree is Happ Lathrop, 40-year executive director of the South Carolina Golf Association. Under Lathrop, the organization has awarded 106 scholarships for approximately $800,000, and in 2008 Golf Digest named the S.C. Junior Golf Association the No. 1 junior golf association in the U.S.

Clubs for troops

Golf equipment collected from a handful of courses on the north end of the Grand Strand is on its way to U.S. Army forces thanks to an initiative spearheaded by Meadowlands Golf Club pro shop manager Shawn Denney.

At the request of a serviceman affiliated with Farmstead Golf Links, dozens of clubs and hundreds of golf balls were collected from Brick Landing Plantation, Rivers Edge Golf Club, Eagle Nest Golf Club, The Pearl Golf Links, Crow Creek Golf Club, Meadowlands and Farmstead.

The clubs have been left behind by visiting golfers and have remained unclaimed for a few months. The lost clubs are often donated to organizations such as The First Tee. “When we got this request, we contacted the other courses in the East Coast Golf Management family, and their response was overwhelmingly generous,” said Farmstead and Meadowlands general manager Jason Monahan. “They all felt this is a very worthy effort. Our servicemen and women deserve our support and thanks.”

Meadowlands co-owner Teresa McLamb delivered the equipment to Fort Bragg (N.C.) last week.

Daniels, Long win title

Wachesaw Plantation members Mike Daniels and John Long of Murrells Inlet won the 40th annual South Carolina Senior Lefty-Righty Championship for the second consecutive year on Sunday at Lake Marion Golf Club in Santee with a 7-under 67-70–137 in a best ball format. Jon Evans of Hollywood and Rick Dressel of Goose Creek finished one shot back.

Robert Dargan and David Dargan of Columbia also won their second straight regular division title in the South Carolina Golf Association event, shooting a 61-63–124 to defeat runners-up Ron Clontz and Todd Hendley.

This story was originally published June 27, 2016 at 9:39 PM with the headline "On Grand Strand Golf: Knaffle bolsters resume with CPGA Junior win."