USC golfer Zach Adams earns ‘sweetest win’ with second State Amateur title

Zach Adams placed himself in select company by winning the South Carolina Amateur Golf Championship for the second time, but he will always treasure one more than the other.

“This one’s sweeter,” Adams, a Charlestonian who is a rising junior on the University of South Carolina golf team, said after his wire-to-wire triumph last weekend at the Country Club of Charleston. “This (course) is home. This is where I learned the game. This is the one I wanted to win.”

If there was pressure on striving to win the state’s top golf event for amateurs on his home course, Adams did not show it. He set the tone with back-to-back 7-under-par 64s and finished at 16-under 268.

He began the final round with a two-shot edge over defending champion Todd White, who is also the U.S. Senior Amateur champion. Jed Dirksen (Greenville), Matthew Doyle (Summerville/Elon) and state junior champion Chase Cline (Chapin) lurked three strokes off the pace.

“I knew what it would take to win,” Adams said, employing a catch-me-if-you-can philosophy. “I just wanted to play steady golf, and I didn’t make a bogey until the 17th hole.”

By then, thanks to four birdies, he had smooth sailing and finished two shots clear of Doyle and four ahead of Dirksen.

Adams earned his first State Amateur title in 2022 at the Dunes Club in Myrtle Beach prior to his freshman year at USC. Then, he had qualified for the U.S. Amateur. Now, he earned a newly created exemption into the U.S. Amateur that goes to the South Carolina champion.

“The exemption might have been a little extra motivation, but more than anything, I really wanted to win on my home course,” he said. “I just played steady golf. I drove it well, and you have to be in the fairway to score well on this course.

“I have been playing well this summer and finally got some putts to drop. Playing on a familiar course obviously makes a difference; you know what to do.”

He had a top-10 in the Rice Planters Amateur, an 11th in the Carolinas Amateur and 21st in the Palmetto Amateur prior to the State Amateur.

Adams played in every tournament for the Gamecocks last season, averaging 72.9 strokes for 32 rounds and posted a pair of top-10 finishes.

“I was disappointed with my season; I felt like I played better than I scored,” he said in looking back. Plotting the future, he goes into the U.S. Amateur and the college season with the confidence gained with his State Amateur performance.

He will be playing for a new coach, Rob Bradley, who replaced Bill McDonald in June.

“I played a round with him a couple of weeks ago,” Adams said. “He’s a really positive guy, and he can really play. I’m excited to play for him.”

For the moment, though, he’s savoring his second State Amateur title, his sweetest victory yet.

STATE AMATEUR NOTES

▪ Matthew Doyle, a rising senior at Elon from Summerville, added to his sparkling summer with his second-place finish in the State Amateur. He placed second in the South Carolina Open and third in the Palmetto Amateur.

▪ Defending champion Todd White (Spartanburg) slipped to fifth with a final-round 72. He joins Adams in the South Carolina contingent in the U.S. Amateur and will defend his U.S. Senior Amateur title later this summer.

▪ White posted the tournament’s low individual round, an 8-under 63, in the second round.

▪ Sam Jackson (West Columbia) and Rowan Sullivan (Charleston) zoomed up the leaderboard with flying finishes. Jackson, the state’s two-time player of the, year, used a final 66 to jump to fourth place, and Sullivan, who plays at Vanderbilt, posted a 64 to vault into a tie for sixth with Chase Cline.

▪ Adams joins 13 others who have won at least two State Amateurs. Current PGA Tour pro Carson Young (2013, 16) is the most recent.

▪ Frank Ford Sr. won the State Amateur a record seven times. David DuPre and Billy Womack won four each, and Lucas Glover and Harold Hall won three apiece.

The 2025 State Amateur will be played July 24-27 at the Woodcreek Club in Elgin.