The South Carolina Golf Association’s Junior Championship is the kind of tournament where drives find the center of the fairway, wedges spin back toward the hole, and putts seem to fall from everywhere.

South Carolina is full of junior golfers with the talent to be state champions.

Most of the top juniors in the state have shown flashes of brilliance over the past year, but after the first round of the Junior Championship, it’s the golfer who won the Beth Daniel Junior Azalea two weeks ago is on top of the leader board once again.

Sage Bradshaw holds a one-shot lead after the opening round at Forest Lake in Columbia.

The Class of 2026 junior from Beaufort started with a birdie, kept bogeys off his scorecard, and added a back-nine eagle and birdie to shoot his way to the top of the leaderboard, just ahead of Columbia’s Price Roof and Connor Wolfe.

Bradshaw won the Beth Daniel Junior Azalea by opening with a 9-under-par 62 and going on to claim the major junior title by eight shots—beating many of the same players he now leads once again.

Trailing close behind Roof and Wolfe are 2023 Jay Haas Award winner Bennett Scaletta and Dawson Szabo, who are tied for fourth. Future Colorado University golfer Casey Kosney from Dorman stands in sixth place.

Live scoring is available at:
https://scjga.bluegolf.com/bluegolf/scjga25/event/scjga2533/contest/1/leaderboard.htm