Apparently winning the SCGA Amateur was just a warm up for Todd White,

Last January, the Spartanburg High School history teacher was inducted into the SCGA Hall of Fame.

The 55 year old Spartanburg resident then won the South Carolina Golf Association Amateur championship the first week in August at Musgrove Mill near Clinton.

While Hall of Fame honors usually are given at the end of a career, it seems being selected for the South Carolina Hall of Fame has allowed White to joke he had found the “Fountain of Middle Age,”. after winning the state Amateur,.

After the first two rounds at the Fazio designed Martis Camp Club in Truckee, Ca, White was the only golfer who finished the qualifying tournament at even par.

Coming off two bogeys on 12 and 13 in the second round, White regrouped sinking an 8 foot birdie and carded a two-putt birdie to get back to even and finished the qualifying at 144, even par.

“This is very nice,” said White, who has had success in USGA events before. “It’s very satisfying,” he said.

The Spartanburg High School golf coach has played in a large number of USGA tournaments including winning the first Four- Ball championship with partner Nathan Smith and as a mid-am helped the 2013 Walker Cup team to a win,

“It’s nice to have won the medal in the stroke play. But everyone knows, this is two tournaments in one. Everyone starts with a clean slate tomorrow,” he said.

White finished the stroke play portion of the championship with a three-shot advantage over Randy Haag from Truckee, CA .

Ironically, when White won the 2023 SCGA Amateur at Musgrove Mill, he thought the 6.904 yard track gave a self admitted average driver an opportunity to compete with the big hitters on a shorter course.

At the USGA Senior, White fashioned his even par medalist performance playing the longest course in USGA Amateur history at 7251 yards.

“I feel good. I’ve been playing well. The confidence is there. It’s just a matter of keeping everything in front of me and not getting too far ahead of myself, and playing golf the way that I have, really, for the last four weeks.” he said,

White, doesn’t expect his students to pay much attention to the success their teacher has on the golf course.

“Hopefully some of the golf team members will, and hopefully my administration will. It’s nice to go back in there and let them see that this didn’t happen by chance. Hard work pays off. That’s a lesson that extends from golf into the classroom,” he said.

White’s opponent in the first round of match play will be determined when ties are broken on the course early on Monday morning,

A future SCGA Hall of Fame inductee, Walter Todd from Laurens, missed the cut.

Scores from the USGA Senior Amateur https://championships.usga.org/ussenioramateur/2023/tee-times.html