If ever a golfer was owed a break from the golf gods, Chase Cline belonged at the front of the line.

At the South Carolina Golf Association’s Junior championship it wasn’t if the golf gods were helping Cline as much as they just stayed out of the fray.

The future Western Carolina golfer shot a final round 1-under par 71 at the Woodcreek Club in Elgin to finish a shot in front of Anderson’s Bennett Scaletta and Columbia’s Coleman Ferguson.

“I hit it well pretty much the whole day,” said Cline. “I stayed patient and knew when to capitilize and that is what I did,” said the new South Carolina Junior champion.

The Chapin High School grad won enough to be ranked in the top-five of the Heritage Foundation Junior rankings this year, but it was a pair of second place finishes that could have made him wonder why the golf gods were mad at him.

At the Southern Cross it appeared Cline had the win in the prestigious tournament at the Palmetto Club until Will Ruth, from Dorman High School, eagled the last hole to win.

A few weeks later it was almost the same scenario.

Cline had the lead at the South Carolina High School League AAAAA championship, but Ruth made another eagle to tie for the lead and went on to win the individual title in a playoff with Cline,

Some golfers could let those kind of disappointments linger, but Cline stayed the course on the course.

“I knew I was close and I was going to win, I just needed to stay patient and they would drop eventually and they did,” he said.

At the junior championship Cline got off to a slow start, but got into the mix for the lead with a second round 3-under par 69. His two day total put him in the final pairing so he didn’t have to worry about someone behind him catching him.

Instead it was the golfers in front of him that presented the biggest challenge.

“I was three back after 11,” he said. “I almost chipped in for an eagle, but I made a couple of birdies and played my way in,” ‘added Cline.

Ferguson and Scaletta built a lead over Cline and the rest of the field and held it until each golfer bogeyed their final hole to open the door for Cline.

Cline finished at 1-under par for the day and 3-under par for the tournament and the win.

In addition to the state championship, Cline received the state’s invitation to play in the US Junior later this summer at Oakland Hills,

This was the first time South Carolina sent its state champion rather than the winner of an 18-hole qualifying round to the national championship,

“This is a much better way to send a player to the national championship than just one round,” said SCGA Hall of Fame member Charlie Rountree ,who has worked to make the change in the USGA qualifying process. “We got golfers who can play and winning a three round state championship as opposed to playing good for one day in a qualifier makes a big difference,” he said.

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With his tie for second place Hanna High School’s Scaletta is again in the running for the SC Junior Player of the Year. Going into the championship he was the top ranked junior in the state.

As a member of the Class of 2027 Scaletta will have a few more chances at the state junior title.

“This was a good tournament and I will be back next year. I don’t think much about what I’ve done in the past and I just take it one tournament at a time and see where I stand at the end of the year,” said the 2023 Jay Haas Junior Player of the Year Award winner

The top eight finishers qualified for the 49th annual Georgia-South Carolina Junior Team Matches.

This year’s Junior Champion, Cline, is unable to play in the Matches, due to a prior commitment.

The 2024 South Carolina team is comprised of Bennett Scaletta, Sage Bradshaw, Dylan Park, Teddy Dunn, Grant Paolucci, Owen Atkinson, Groves Williams, and Will Ruth. The matches will be played July 27-28 at The Preserve Course at Reynolds Lake Oconee in Greensboro, Georgia. 

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