Strong field ready to compete at South Carolina Amateur in Columbia
The players in the 89th South Carolina Amateur that begins Thursday at Columbia Country Club face an exacting challenge to match the drama created in the same tournament on the same stage 52 years ago.
To emulate the excitement on display in 1968, the winner will need to make up seven strokes on the back nine in the final round, manufacture a birdie from the trees on the final hole and, get this, finish in the dark with cars pulled up to the 18th green with headlights on to allow the last groups to finish.
“I led for one hole, the last one, and I didn’t have time to choke,” Happ Lathrop, the champion, says now and laughs. “It’s fitting that my name is (etched) on the back of the trophy.”
Everyone in South Carolina golf knows Lathrop; he oversaw the South Carolina Golf Association for more than 40 years until his retirement and the organization enjoyed enormous growth under his leadership.
And before turning to administration, he could play the game. Then 18 and a rising sophomore at USC, he birdied four straight holes to start the 1968 Amateur’s back nine and added another at the last to outduel junior and college rival Joe Vignati.
“They say I peaked driving down Farrow Road” after the tournament, Lathrop says, laughing again.
One of the tournament’s strongest fields will be on hand to tackle the Columbia CC course. Coastal Carolina player Tyler Gray (Lugoff) will defend the championship he won a year ago at Thornblade Club in Greer.
“The course will be challenging,” said Biff Lathrop, Happ’s son who succeeded his dad at the SCGA helm. “They have some new tees to create extra length and different angles on a couple of holes. We hope the rain holds off so we can have the course and greens firm and fast.”
Gray, whose college season ended in March due to the coronavirus outbreak, has been honing his game at Camden CC. He will play in the South Carolina Open at the TPC at Myrtle Beach on Monday and Tuesday before the State Amateur begins Thursday.
“I’m excited,” Gray said. “Winning the tournament gives me the confidence I can win again. Having won is a positive, not pressure. If I’m in contention Sunday, I will be focusing on the opportunity and be thinking, ‘Why not again?’”
The list of challengers will include Jake Carter (Aiken), a recent Florida State graduate who has finished third the past two years. The strong mid-amateur contingent features 2019 state player of the year Jordan Sease (Lexington), Kyle Bearden (Barnwell), Brandon Truesdale (Rock Hill) and Robert Lutomski (Simpsonville).
“We’ve also got a bunch of young guys (juniors) who can really play,” Biff Lathrop said and noted the summer achievements of Daniel Brasington (Woodruff), Gene Zeigler (Florence) and William Jennings (Greenville).”
Don’t forget Todd White, the 53-year-old former Walker Cup player who won the State Amateur in 1990 and showed his game is still strong with a victory in the recent South Carolina Match-Play.
“A bunch of guys could win,” Biff Lathrop said. “We had more than 300 entries (for the field of 120), and the possibilities are exciting.”
Matching the drama of 52 years ago will be a bonus.
Chip shots. Five players with state connections — Jensen Castle (West Columbia/Kentucky), Anna Morgan (Spartanburg/Furman), Lois Kaye Go (USC), Pimnipa Panthong (USC) and Ivy Shepherd (Clemson) — will compete in the U.S. Women’s Amateur that begins Monday in Rockville, Maryland. Two other USC players, Pauline Roussin-Bouchard and Paula Kirner, declined invitations due to travel restrictions. ... Roussin-Bouchard, ranked No. 1 in the World Women’s Amateur Golf survey, finished second in the GTGA International in Berlin. ... Ana Pelaez prepared for her senior season at USC with a second-place finish in the Spanish Women’s Championship in Valencia, Spain. ... Shepherd, a rising junior at Clemson, reached the match-play semifinals in the Women’s North and South at Pinehurst, North Carolina. ... William Jennings (Greenville) edged Gene Zeigler (Florence) in a playoff for the CGA’s Carolinas Junior Boys’ title at Florence CC.