Sunday, Oct. 05, 2008

Ex-USC golfer hopes for a big break

Former South Carolina women’s golfer Camila Mori will get her big break — literally — when she and boyfriend Hugo Leon begin competition in Golf Channel’s latest edition of its 10-season reality series.

Mori, who finished USC this spring, and Leon will team up for “Big Break X: Michigan,” which starts Tuesday at 10 p.m. The show pits eight male-female teams battling for cash, prizes and entry in a professional tour event.

Leon and Mori, both from Santiago, Chile, began playing golf at age 10. At 12, the pair joined the Chilean national junior team. Later, Mori was signed by USC while Leon attended Southwest Louisiana.

“We enjoy and are passionate about playing golf and being together,” Mori said. “We know each other so well that we don’t need to speak to know what the other is thinking.”

The Big Break male winner receives an exemption to the 2009 Children’s Miracle Network Classic at Walt Disney World Resort, while the female winner plays in the 2009 Bell Micro LPGA Classic in Mobile, Ala.

Mori is the latest golfer with South Carolina ties to compete in a Big Break series. Bishopville’s Tommy “Two Gloves” Gainey now plays on the PGA Tour. Others were ex-USC players Kristy McPherson (an LPGA Tour member) and Adrienne Gautreaux and Pageland resident Kristina Tucker.

Aces wild. As Golf Channel celebrates “Hole in One Month,” Columbia’s Jim Wrenn is off to a good start: two aces in less than three weeks.

Wrenn, 72, made his third career hole-in-one on Sept. 20 at Cobblestone Park’s 165-yard No. 8 hole (Garnet nine) using a 4-iron. On Wednesday, he used an 8-iron to hole out at the 140-yard fourth hole (also Garnet) for No. 4.

Wrenn said he has shot his age three times since July, topped by a 3-under-par 69 at Fort Jackson Golf Club.

Stanley rolling. Kyle Stanley, who led Clemson to seventh place in the Ping/Golfweek Preview in Toledo, Ohio, won honorable mention in the Southern Golf Association’s national amateur of the month for September. Stanley, a junior, won the SGA monthly award when he captured last spring’s Southern Amateur.

Bulldogs win. S.C. State’s men’s team, led by medalist Hector Arroyave, won the team title of the Black College Invitational at Atlanta’s Brown Mill Golf Course in Atlanta.

Arroyave, of Celaya, Mexico, shot a final-round 4-under-par 68 to finish at 7-under 137. Also finishing under par was S.C. State’s Robert Biggers, of Orlando, Fla., with a 2-under 142. The victory was the first for first-year coach Herman Belton, who also coaches the S.C. State women’s team.

Chip shots. The second Buoniconti Fund tournament is Friday at Patriots Point GC in Mount Pleasant. Cost is $200 per player, proceeds going to The Buoniconti Fund to Cure Paralysis. Packages for golf, Saturday’s tailgate party and a ticket to The Citadel-Elon football game are $250 per player. Call (305) 243-3863 or go to thebuonicontifund.com. ... Windermere Club will host the Midstate National Kidney Foundation Classic of S.C. on Oct. 20. First- and second-place captain’s choice teams go to the NKF National Finals at Pebble Beach in California, Jan. 15-19, 2009. Call (803) 488-2277. ... Lander’s men’s team finished fifth (of 14) in the State Farm Laker Intercollegiate at Morrow, Ga.