Jack Parrott’s golf game beginning to blossom

Jack Parrott marched to the 17^th tee in a three-way deadlock of the lead in the 2014 South Carolina Junior Championship and made double-bogey.

Goodbye title hopes?

He moved to the par-5 18^th at Willow Creek Golf Club in Greer, chipped in for eagle to earn a spot in a playoff for the title and birdied the 18^th from a greenside bunker to earn the big prize.

“Pretty impressive comeback,” said Chris Miller, the managing director of the South Carolina Junior Golf Association.

A year later, last month at the Dunes Golf and Beach Club, Parrott’s quest to become the first player in a quarter-century to win the State Junior in consecutive years fell short by one shot with a bogey-bogey finish.

“He got in a bad spot off the tee on 18, laid up short of the water and tried to make a one-putt par,” Miller said. “He made the smart play that didn’t work out. But he didn’t pout. He talked about how proud he was with the way he played and said Christian (Salzer) just played one-shot better.

“His reaction was even more impressive than after his win the year before.”

“Smart,” “instinctive,” and “impressive” are words often used by professionals to describe the golf skills of Jack Parrott, a 16-year-old rising junior at Heathwood Hall who will be competing in the U.S. Junior Amateur this week at Colleton River Plantation in Bluffton.

“A lot of upside,” Fred Wadsworth, his instructor, said. “He is just beginning to blossom.”

That’s a far cry from his introduction to the game – strapped into a golf cart with his dad’s belt at Northwoods at age 9 months.

“Dad (Talley Parrott, an orthopaedic spine surgeon) would take my sisters (Lillian and Maddy) and me to the course,” Jack Parrott said. “The girls never took to golf, but I did.”

“Jack got hooked,” Talley Parrott said. “He played in his first tournament at 10 or 11. When he started, he would use driver off the front tee and I would hit a 5 iron.” He paused, laughed and added, “Now, it’s different” with Jack’s 270-280 yard drives off the back tees.

He picked golf over baseball for his sport of choice and hit the jackpot. He has fashioned a 10-under-par 62 in competition at Fort Jackson Golf Club, qualified for the prestigious Sage Valley Junior Invitational, placed second in an AGJA All-Star tourney in Pennsylvania, played in the Big I national tournament and now will step on the stage in the U.S. Junior Amateur.

“I coach at Hammond and first saw him from the opposite side (playing for Heathwood Hall) in the seventh grade, and I thought, ‘that’s a very gifted player,’” Wadsworth said. “His dad had performed my back surgery after I quit playing (on the PGA Tour), and I told him I would be happy to help Jack. What I do is more of pointing out a few things; Jack takes them and run with them. The thing is, he’s still growing physically and his game will develop (more) as he matures.”

Parrott took time off from golf during the winter after a back injury and started the year slowly. He “found” his game in the second round of the Jimmy Self Invitational in early June, placed second in the State Junior the next week and qualified for the U.S. Junior Amateur the next. Soon thereafter, he earned a berth in the State Amateur.

With only two spots available in the Junior Am in qualifying at Santee National, he shot a morning-round of 73 and “I knew I had to do better in the afternoon,” he said. “I thought I would need to be 7-under in the second round to have a chance.”

Parrott responded in the best way, making five birdies on the front nine en route to a 5-under 67, to advance with ease.

“I’m looking forward to the week,” he said. “This is, obviously, a big tournament, and I’ve always wanted to play one of the USGA setups. I know it’s going to be very competitive.”

After the Junior Amateur, there’s the State Amateur, the Georgia-South Carolina team matches, the Bobby Chapman Invitational (one of the top junior tournaments in the country) and school competition. He has committed to the University of South Carolina and will join the Gamecocks in the fall of 2017.

The Junior Amateur “will be good for Jack,” Wadsworth predicted. “He will get to see what the best look like, and I think he will do fine. When he plays well, he can play with anybody.”

This story was originally published July 18, 2015 at 10:47 PM with the headline "Jack Parrott’s golf game beginning to blossom."