Waccamaw’s ‘Golden Boy’: A name to match his golf game

For the foreseeable future, folks are going to be talking about Patrick Golden’s performance in the state golf finals.

Waccamaw coach Chris Daily hopes those same people understand his top player wasn’t a one-tournament wonder.

“Anybody who says that doesn’t understand golf at all,” Daily said. “We’re talking about a kid who hasn’t finished outside of the top 10 in a tournament anywhere in the country in two years. … We’re talking about someone who hasn’t had a bad round in two years.”

Golden, the Toast of the Coast Boys Golfer of the Year, put up impressive numbers throughout his junior season for the Warriors and continued to make strides toward a possible career in the sport beyond high school.

He already has four NCAA Division-I offers heading into his senior year and will surely have more before he tees off another round for Waccamaw next spring. And while Golden’s junior year was special from start to finish, it is nearly impossible to ignore an ending for the ages.

During the Class AA state tournament at True Blue Golf Plantation, he shot a 67-64 to break the S.C. High School League (SCHSL) championship mark, regardless of classification, by five strokes.

His two-day total of 131 not only led Waccamaw to the state championship. It bested current PGA Tour member Bill Haas’ individual mark – set in 2000 and then tied in 2005 by North Myrtle Beach’s Trevor Muffley – without so much as a late-round scare.

“I just think it’s hard work paying off,” Golden said. “It was one of those weeks where I was winning. That was all I thought about two weeks prior. I knew Bill Haas’ record was eight-under. I knew True Blue enough to get the record.”

The effort has led to a seemingly non-stop few weeks of back-patting, and Golden even said he has been recognized and congratulated while doing something as simple as popping into a store.

Breaking the record at a nearby course helped. But in all honesty, it wasn’t the only highlight for what has been a standout career and season for Golden. The two-time Toast of the Coast Golfer of the Year is almost always in contention to win every tournament he plays and averaged under par on his 18-hole rounds throughout the season.

“It’s part of his progression. I think a lot of us saw this coming,” Daily said of the finals performance. “He’s gone from a kid who was a steady-Eddie to one who can go low. I wouldn’t be surprised if we saw more of these eruptions and those low numbers.

“He’s a top-10 machine. The next evolution for him is to win more.”

Golden did that in a big way in the state finals.

The recognition put his name in the record books, and in a way few outsiders could have imagined.

“Everything was going my way. I was making putts. I was playing the way I wanted to play. I’ll say it is pretty cool,” Golden said. “I think it’s cool that I get to put my name in front of [Haas’]. Hopefully it’s there for a long time. It definitely is the top of the list for my achievements right now. I hope that’s not the highest. Hopefully my career goes on and I top that.”

This story was originally published June 24, 2016 at 10:42 PM with the headline "Waccamaw’s ‘Golden Boy’: A name to match his golf game."