Greenville’s Dawn Woodard adds golf national title to collection of championships

She’s won more tournaments than most, starting in junior golf, then in college and the amateur ranks. But some are more special — a national championship.

“Oh, absolutely, a dream come true,” Dawn Woodard, who lives in Greenville and plays at Thornblade Club, said in reflecting on her recent march to the U.S. Senior Women’s Amateur title in Hot Springs, Virginia.

Indeed, her first USGA championship merely represents the tip of the iceberg in chronicling her success on the golf course over the past 40-odd years. And maybe her victory should be no surprise; she’s on a current hot streak that defies reality.

In her second year in the senior ranks (age 50 and older for women), Woodard has won national tournaments in Wisconsin, Florida, North Carolina, and Virginia. She found time to add to her myriad of Women’s South Carolina Golf Association trophies by prevailing in the State Senior Women’s Amateur. The outlier: a fourth-place in the Florida Senior Women’s Open.

Woodard learned the game at old Pineland Country Club growing up in the tiny Marion County town of Nichols, South Carolina. Pro Steve Heher provided her first instruction.

“We would swim and play golf,” she said. “We could be at the club all day.”

She won in the junior ranks and won in college — two-time Southern Conference Champion and three-time All-Southern Conference at Furman — before competing at a high level in amateur events. She has been the Carolinas Golf Association’s women’s player of the year three times and earned multiple qualifying medals in U.S. Mid-Amateurs before winning the U.S. Senior Women’s Amateur in her 42nd USGA event.

At Hot Springs, she finished ninth after two stroke-play qualifying rounds, then zoomed through four rounds of match play without reaching the 18th hole.

Then, the both the semifinals and final, she did not lead until the end.

“It’s kind of crazy; I was tied or behind all through those matches,” Woodard said. “I won 16 and 18 to come from one down to win the semis, then I won 16 to tie and finally won on the second playoff hole in the final.

“It was a hard golf course. Really just knowing if I keep giving myself opportunities, I still had a chance. More than anything, I think it’s just never giving up on myself.”

The finalists must play eight rounds in six days, a schedule that includes 36 holes on consecutive days.

“It’s definitely a grind,” she said.

Woodard, who runs a consulting business in Greenville and works with golfers on the mental side of the game, received a nice surprise before the final. Husband Jason arrived to support her.

“I thought he was going to Chicago on business,” she said. “But he drove to Roanoke, spent the night and got here before we started.”

Woodard’s victory is the third USGA championship won by a South Carolina native in the past five years. Jensen Castle (West Columbia) won the 2021 U.S. Women’s Amateur and Todd White (Spartanburg) won the 2023 U.S. Senior Amateur.

Woodard did not rest on her accomplishes. On Tuesday, five days after winning the national tournament, she added the CGA’s Carolinas Senior Women’s Amateur to her title collection.

Chip shots. Columbia’s John O’Brien fired a final-round 65 to pull even, then won the CGA’s Carolinas Senior Amateur title on the fourth playoff hole in Fayetteville, North Carolina. He had four straight birdies on the front nine and added four more (with a bogey) on the back. ... Clemson’s women placed seventh in the Mason Rudolph Championship in Franklin, Tennessee. Freshman Sarah Uebelhart led the Tigers, finishing 19th individually. ... In the SCJGA’s Players Series at Darlington CC, Shepherd Jablon (Charleston) led the boys’ competition and Brooke Mehlhouse (Fort Mill) earned the girls’ title in a playoff.