How state of SC’s top senior golfer 4 years in a row approaches his game, outlook

On his way to earning the South Carolina Golf Association’s Senior Player of the Year award for the fourth straight year, Eddie Hargett played in the U.S. Senior Open and the British Senior Amateur, won four-ball titles with three different partners and lost in a playoff for the State Seniors championship.

Memories? Oh, yes. There’s teeing off in a driving rain in the Senior Open in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, and battling gale-force winds that eventually would suspend play in the British Senior Amateur at Royal Dornoch in Scotland. There’s the near ace in a playoff for a berth in the Senior Open and ... the list goes on.

But, Eddie, the most stressful shot of the year?

“That’s an easy one,” he said. “Teeing off in a husband-wife tournament. Now, that was pressure. And it was alternate shot.”

Hargett said wife Sarah “plays more golf than I do,” which means she plays a lot. If he’s not on the course or hitting balls on the range, he’s in the gym working on strength and conditioning. The Hargetts live in Blythewood.

Even the Christmas weekend weather forecast that called for wind chills worthy of Minnesota in the Palmetto State did not keep him from plotting a Monday tee time.

“High of 39,” he said and a laughed. “Yeah, we’re talking about playing.”

If he and his cronies at Columbia Country Club do indeed test the weather, they won’t receive the good fortune from yesteryear. “Probably 20 years ago, the pond on No. 12 was frozen and we could skip balls onto the green,” he said, laughing again.

But his achievements on the golf course are no laughing matter. He and Rick Cloninger, this year’s runner-up, are the only ones to win the SCGA’s top award for seniors for four straight years. Frank Ford III also has won four times, but not consecutively.

“Í didn’t win a state (individual) tournament, but the year obviously turned out pretty good,” Hargett said. “I hit more good shots than bad ones, and really golf is about managing the bad shots.

“I am competitor, and I don’t give up. Experience obviously is important, and I just love the game of golf.”

Hargett, 62, called himself a “late bloomer” at high-level amateur golf and said he’s a perfect example of golf “being a game for a lifetime.”

The beauty of the game “demands creativity,” he said. “Conditions change all the time, and that makes the golf unique. You can play the same course every day and you’re going to have to adapt and adjust.”

He can claim to have been concerned about that opening tee shot in the husband-wife tournament, but he relishes the challenging moments.

Case in point: In local qualifying for the Senior Open at River Landing in Wallace, North Carolina, he and Daniel Neveu tied for the final spot and faced a playoff. Neveu played first and hit his tee shot on the par-3 to about 15 feet right over the flag. Hargett left his to 2 feet from the pin.

“I knew I had to hit a good one,” he said, “and I did.”

He hit a lot of good ones over the year and dominated the points race in the Senior Player of the Year competition. Looking ahead, he would like to win an individual state championship and earn berths in national events — “tournaments at the next level,” he said.

But he takes nothing for granted. He continually works on his physical conditioning, but health is an unknown. He knows — he once underwent back surgery.

“Father Time is undefeated,” Hargett said, “but I’m going to keep trying to hit every shot as long as I can.”

So far, so good.

Chip shots. Andrew Gregory (Inman) and Madsion Messimer (Myrtle Beach) earned the 2022 South Carolina Junior Golf Association Player of the Year award. In capturing the boys’ award, Gregory won four SCJGA major tournaments. En route to winning the girls’ top prize, Messimer won the CGA Women’s Amateur and placed in the top 10 in 15 of her 18 tournaments. ... Registration continues for the WSCGA’s Winter Trip, set for Feb. 16-19, 2023 on the Robert Trent Jones Sr. Golf Trail in Alabama. The package includes three nights and two rounds of golf at the Grand National. Go online to www.wscga.org for details. ... In the Ford Picard Christmas Classic at the Wild Dunes’ Links Course on the Isle of Palms, Sam McMillan (Mt. Pleasant, boys’ 13-18), Robin Zetrouer (Bluffton, girls’ 13-18) and Pete Revis (Greenville, boys’ 12 and under) earned individual division titles. In the event’s adult/child competition, Ryan and Keith Marsden (Myrtle Beach) claimed the championship.