Jul. 22—The 49th edition of the Palmetto Amateur will serve as a homecoming of sorts this week, as Palmetto Golf Club will be welcoming back the field after the tournament was played at The Reserve Club last year.
Returning players will find Palmetto to be almost exactly the same as they remember it — there are some small changes here and there after the course underwent some renovations during a five-month stretch last year, but they’ll quickly find that it’s just as charmingly challenging as in years past.
“We’re thrilled to have it back here at Palmetto Golf Club,” said tournament co-chairman Brad Crain. “Last year we were at The Reserve Club since we were re-grassing the golf course here and doing a little bit of renovations. We’ve done it here so many years, and things just seem to fall in place and run so smoothly, and we’re thrilled about that.”
The 49th edition of the Palmetto Amateur is continuing the trend of a growing national and international flare in what started out nearly five decades ago as essentially a local championship.
There are players in the field from 16 different states, plus ones representing a variety of foreign countries — Hong Kong, Poland, Ukraine, Japan, Uzbekistan, Mexico, Bulgaria and the United Arab Emirates. Of course, there is still a healthy local contingent, and the players who call Palmetto home may have an advantage with the course playing a little more firm and fast than before last summer.
“We’ve got 81 players, kind of a similar mix to previous years. It’s mostly college players, probably 70 to 80% college players,” Crain said. “We have a few mid-ams. Sam Jackson from Lexington, who is a member here. He’s in the field. He was SCGA Player of the Year in the state for the last couple of years. Heck of a player. Excited to have him. Brian Quackenbush, who has played for the last few years. He’s back in the field again. Great mid-am player.”
Another of those mid-ams is Austin Langdale, the 2012 Southern Cross champion while playing for Pendleton High School and the 2014 Palmetto Intercollegiate champion as a Clemson Tiger. He’s getting back into the swing of amateur golf, and he’ll be doing it this week at a place he knows very well.
Others in the field who have won at Palmetto include 2022 Palmetto Am champ Brantley Baker, 2023 Southern Cross champion Mason Kucia and 2022 Southern Cross winner Rowan Sullivan.
The top-ranked player in the field is Masato Sumiuchi, representing Nihon University in Japan. He checks in at No. 58 in the World Amateur Golf Ranking as of July 22, and his resume is full of high finishes in Japan, China and Thailand.
“The one that we’re kind of most excited about is we have a kid from Japan … Masato Sumiuchi,” Crain said. “Last I checked, he was No. 50 in the world. He’s traveling here with his team of folks. We’re excited about that.”
The summer is a busy time for amateur golf tournaments, and there are several weeks on the calendar where players are forced to make a choice about which one they want to play. This week is no different, though Palmetto’s tournament committee does have an ace up its sleeve that not many others can match.
“I think for us it’s really the golf course,” Crain said. “That just kind of blows people away when they come here. I remember years ago we had Akshay Bhatia, who’s now on the PGA Tour, played in the tournament. He was here with his dad on the bag. After their first round, they came off 18 and I asked his dad how he enjoyed the golf course. He said, ‘This place is amazing.’ I think that’s the draw of the tournament, this golf course.”
