How this year’s SC Amateur champ turned his golf game around
Tyler Gray compiled an award-filled high school career, and his junior golf achievements included a tie for second in the SCGA Junior Championship and shares of sixth in both the Carolinas Juniors and the Sea Pines Junior Heritage.
Nevertheless, the thought that he would win the 2019 South Carolina Amateur seemed as remote as Tibet this time a year ago.
“I was really in a bad place mentally,” he said in reflecting on his golf game in the summer of 2018. “I couldn’t break 80 then.”
Yet, there he was last Sunday at the Thornblade Club in Greer, hoisting the South Carolina Golf Association’s most cherished trophy — the one symbolic of the State Amateur champion.
A rising sophomore at Coastal Carolina from Elgin, Gray never flinched in joining some of the state’s most familiar names in golf to win the championship. He forged four rounds in the 60s and finished at 16-under-par 268 — four shots clear of his closest challenger.
“Winning this tournament is really special to me,” Gray said. “The difference in how I was playing a year ago and how I’m playing now is amazing. I had good course management, and I made every putt I should have made. This gives me a lot of confidence going forward.”
He gives his college coach, Jim Garren, credit for the difference.
“He took me under his wing and worked really hard with me,” Gray said. “I didn’t play much in tournaments my freshman year, but (Garren) kept working with me and believing in me, and my game began to improve.”
Positive results began this summer. He tied for 15th in the Magnolia Amateur, advanced to the Round of 16 in the S.C. Match-Play Championship, lost in a playoff for a berth in the Palmetto Amateur and led the State Amateur qualifier at Lake Marion.
The winner of the 88th State Amateur got his start in golf at age 8 “fooling around with my dad” on the course. He began taking lessons from Camden CC pro Matt McCarley, still his swing instructor, and, he said, “I was pretty good for my age.”
As he grew physically, his game suffered, but “by the time I was 15, I was working harder and getting better each year,” he said.
Gray earned all-star honors at Thomas Sumter Academy and showed promise in 2016 and 2017 with strong finishes in junior competition. But his game went south before his determination and Garren’s perseverance put him back on track.
He led the State Amateur after the second and third rounds and owned a one-stroke advantage going into the final nine holes. He responded in the best possible way with three birdies.
“I didn’t know the scores for sure, but I knew someone would make a run,” he said. “I just kept playing my game.”
“His game” included birdies from 10- to 12-feet on Nos. 12 and 13 and he took command with another birdie on 15.
“I didn’t make a lot of long putts, but I made the ones I should make,” he said.
Looking into the future, “Pro golf has always been a dream,” Gray said, “but right now I want to concentrate on college golf and see where that takes me. If I believe my game is good enough when the time comes, I will give (pro golf) a try.”
Whatever his tomorrows hold, he will always have memories of the 2019 State Amateur to cherish, memories made more special by realizing the rewards of working hard and never giving up.
Chip shots. PGA professional Mike Lawrence (Anderson) and career amateur Kermit King (Bluffton) will be inducted into the South Carolina Golf Hall of Fame in January ceremonies at Columbia CC. ... Daniel Day (Clemson), Ryan Reynolds (Camden) and Chris Locker (Chapin) earned spots in the 2019 U.S. Mid-Amateur in qualifying at Camden CC. ... Zachary Reuland (Rock Hill) won the boys’ title and Katherine Schuster (Kill Devil Hills, N.C.) took the girls’ crown in the Beth Daniel Junior Azalea at the CC of Charleston. ... Emma Charles (Hartsville) and Victoria Hall (Moore) joined forces to win the CGA’s Carolinas Women’s Four-Ball title in Spartanburg.