Top SC senior player made golf’s rarest of shots during 2020 season

Eddie Hargett might have borrowed his golf philosophy from a television Western from yesteryear — Have Clubs, Will Travel.

Simply put: He plays a lot of competitive golf.

Hargett, 60, blends his sports passion with his work and competes at almost every opportunity. He’s won his share, plays with consistency to envy and in 2020 earned his second-straight South Carolina Golf Association Senior Player of the Year award.

What’s left to achieve?

Well, he checked another “first” of his career accomplishment in 2020: He made golf’s rarest of shots — his first double-eagle.

“No doubt, that’s the highlight of the year,” Hargett said in reviewing his season that included one tournament win, three second-place finishes and four thirds.

His double-eagle came in the Lathrop Cup, a team competition for seniors (age 55 and older), at the Links at Stoney Point in Greenwood, and he did not see the ball drop into the cup on the par-5 second hole.

“There’s water in front and the pin was on the front of the green,” Hargett said, who hit a 6-iron from 169 yards on his memorable shot. “The ball looked good, right on line, and I didn’t see a splash.”

But he got closer to the green and didn’t see his ball. Could the ball be over the putting surface or in a bunker?

“I thought, ‘Whoa. Wait a minute!’ ” he said. “I knew I didn’t have enough club to be over the green.”

Biff Lathrop, the SCGA’s executive director, drove up with Hargett’s ball in flight and remembered: “Two hops and into the hole. I’ve seen 12 holes-in-one in competition during my 20-plus years with the SCGA, and that’s the second double-eagle.”

Lathrop laughed at the memory and said: “Eddie had to wait for the other three guys to play to the green, and he didn’t know for sure. The waiting had to be tough.”

“Biff’s my lucky charm,” Hargett said.

Hargett got a late start in golf and worked hard to develop into an outstanding player. In winning the Senior Player of the Year award, the Blythewood resident who plays at Columbia Country Club again out-dueled Walter Todd (Laurens), who has won the top senior award three times.

Hargett prevailed by a fraction of a point in 2019 and expanded his margin last year. “But it was no less competitive,” he said.

The coronavirus pandemic upset the schedule for the top amateurs and wiped out most USGA championships. Hargett joined the chorus of competitors who praised the sanctioning organizations that adapted on the fly.

“We’d go to a tournament and wonder, ‘What’s new this week?’” he said. “Instead of getting scorecard and a greens sheet on the first tee, we got hand sanitizer and a face mask. The officials and players did a great job of adapting.”

The pandemic shut tournament golf from Mid-March until June. Recreational golf provided an outlet, but top players like Hargett longed for competition.

Once tournaments resumed, he played with remarkable consistency. Third in the State Senior Amateur, third in the Carolinas PGA Senior Open, second in the CGA Senior Four-Ball, third in the Sunnehanna Senior Amateur. On and on. Giving away from than 30 years to some players, he still netted a top 20 in the State Mid-Amateur.

Looking ahead, he’s like everyone and hopes normalcy returns in all aspects of live. But whatever, be sure he will be playing often — and almost playing certainly well.

Chip shots. Clemson’s Hall of Fame men’s golf coach Larry Penley announced Thursday that he will retire following the spring season, ending a distinguished 38-year career. In addition to being the longest tenured coach in any sport in Clemson history, Penley has guided the Tigers into the NCAA tournament in all 36 years the event has been held and Clemson has one national title among its 13 finishes in the top 10. ... AnnMarie McManus has joined the Women’s South Carolina Golf Association as tournament coordinator and assistant to the executive director. ... Former Clemson star Stephen Behr, now an Atlanta-based businessman, has been named the world’s top mid-amateur golfer by amateurgolf.com. The award, for golfers 25 and older, is based on points accumulate in tournaments.