Welcome to the Two Down Press golf newsletter!

We’re back! Long one today as we catch up on the backlog of stories from what has been a busy October in Carolinas golf. While summer’s long days are behind us, golf season is still going strong with what has been a fantastic stretch of fall weather across the region.

Today, we’re following up on our newsletter piece from a few weeks ago on CGA qualifying scoring. We sat down for a Q&A with Chris Wolff, Senior Tournament Manager at the CGA, to get his inside perspective on trends in local amateur golf today - thanks to Chris for the time!

We also have a huge amount of tournament news from the last couple weeks, as clubs across the region have been priming their courses for the biggest events of the year. Plus, we’re running a giveaway to celebrate a big subscriber milestone! All that and more below, so let’s get in to it.

TWO DOWN PRESS Q&A

Chris Wolff on CGA Championship Scheduling, Qualifying, and Course Setup

Chris Wolff currently serves as Senior Tournament Manager & Volunteer Coordinator for the Carolinas Golf Association, where he oversees some of the CGA’s most critical tournament operations. A former Wall Street financial professional who pivoted to a career in golf, Wolff has been with the CGA since 2018 and has had a front-row seat to the evolving landscape of amateur golf in the region.

In follow up to our recent story about CGA qualifying, I spoke with Chris to learn more about how the CGA navigates championship scheduling in a post-COVID world, what's driving changes in qualifying scores, and how the association is navigating today’s shifting golf landscape. This conversation has been edited for brevity and readability.

2DP: You’ve been with the CGA since 2018. What trends in golf have you seen during your tenure and how have they impacted the CGA?

CW: COVID changed pretty much everything. Pre-COVID, it was easy to schedule tournaments, but immediately post-COVID, courses became more reluctant to hosting outside events. At the same time, we had more people playing - they had free time, they were working from home - so many people either started playing golf or came back to the game. That drove a lot of participation in our 1-day programs and championships.

We rely on courses to host our events, but in the last few years courses and clubs have seen play and membership demand skyrocket, and they don’t want to give up their course for a day. It’s been great for golf but has made a lot of what we do on the championships-side of things more difficult.

Recently though, we've started to see things plateau. The participation rate hasn't dropped off, but it's definitely not growing at the rate it was.

2DP: Scheduling seems to be a constant challenge. Walk me through what the process looks like for securing championship and qualifier host sites.

CW: There's no set timeline and it varies wildly by club. We have some sites set for 2026 and 2027, but I called a club this week and they're not ready to commit to anything in 2026. Some places are already booked for outside events through 2027!

Pre-COVID we had a rotation of Carolinas Amateur sites that hosted once every 10 years. That's fallen apart now because it's too hard for people to commit that far out. We’ve also heard that a lot of our traditional hosts are renovating in the near future. Clubs have money on hand from the recent influx of new members, and are ready to tackle maintenance, irrigation, and turfgrass projects that previously got pushed off.

We try to go back to clubs that like hosting us and where we’ve had successful events in the past, but we also want to balance that with changing the schedule up so players aren't seeing the exact same course every year. It's a fine line between finding places that work and going back to them versus finding new host sites.

2DP: We recently published an article on trends in CGA qualifying scoring. Seeing that, what is your hypothesis on why scores are declining? Is that something you’re tracking closely?

CW: We don't track qualifying scores year over year. It was pretty obvious this year that they were noticeably different for certain events, but in general I don't know how valuable that data would be to track.

I think we don't particularly care what the qualifying scores are as long as it's reflective of what the test was that day. The part that's really important to us is the experience. We used to struggle with pace of play - some people would say we still do, but I promise it used to be way worse. We'd run in the 5+ hour range because we were trying to make it difficult to show players what they’re going to get at the championship. A couple years ago, we realized that was making the qualifier day a poor experience for players, so we decided to cut back a little bit on the setup - make the course shorter and the hole locations easier to speed up pace of play. That obviously had an impact on scoring.

I don't think there's one thing that has changed scoring. It's a combination of setup and people getting better. I think a lot of people improved during the last few years with the advancements in data and technology - it used to just be TrackMan, but now there are all these cheaper ways to access that kind of data. That’s helped a lot of players improve, especially at the elite level.

2DP: How do you communicate course setup expectations to host clubs for championships and qualifiers?

CW: Our overall guidance is to set it up like you're hosting a Member-Member and show off the course. Golf courses are all different - we're going to too many different places to be able to say we need greens at 10 to 12 on the stimpmeter and we need rough of a certain height.

We do pick our tees. That's part of the scheduling process - making sure they have tees that will accommodate the specific event. We give them a rough yardage range and publish those ahead of time so that players know what to expect when they show up. We typically get more involved for championships, but for qualifiers we trust the clubs know what they're doing. We're not micromanaging it.

2DP: Another question I received in response to my article was around exemptions. Are more people exempt to CGA championships today compared to 5-10 years ago?

CW: We review the exemption categories every year. The biggest changes we've made in the last couple years actually lowered the number of total exemptions.

In the past, if you qualified for any USGA championship, you were exempt for any CGA event the following year, which was leading to a lot of exemptions. It's great qualifying for a USGA championship, but a lot of them are decided by a great 18-hole round. It's not necessarily indicative of being a top 40 player in the Carolinas over the course of a year.

We changed it so that, depending on which USGA championship you qualify for, it corresponds to a similar CGA championship. For example, if you get into the U.S. Mid-Am, you get an exemption into the Carolinas Mid-Am. If you make match play at a USGA event, your CGA exemption increases, but overall that change decreased the number of people who were exempt.

We also added a rankings component. In the past, too many exemptions were CGA event-centric and overly rewarding players who were just playing our events. Our new Executive Director, Andy Priest, is a believer in using the WAGR (World Amateur Golf Rankings), so we added that component. We set the bar high enough that it's for players who are really, really good and playing at a high level in outside events.

Honestly, the better the site, the more exempt players sign up. When we have championships with a low number of qualifying spots, it's typically from a higher percentage of exempt players deciding to play as opposed to an increase in the total number of exempt players.

2DP: Our data showed a record low number of qualifying spots for the 2022 Carolinas Am at Charlotte Country Club - sounds like an example of what you just described.

CW: Correct. We also have the USGA's AGA (Allied Golf Association) exemptions now, where they give out spots in USGA championships for winning CGA championships. We don't survey players to ask if they signed up because of the USGA exemption, but I think we've picked up a few people here and there who are using their exemption to try to qualify for USGA events. That's incrementally increasing the number of players in our field and decreasing qualifying spots available, but it’s a small number of people.

TOURNAMENTS

Fall Four-Ball Updates and Carolinas Invitational Preview

Fall is four-ball season in the Carolinas, with many courses hosting season-ending team events to capitalize on the best conditions of the year.

October began with the North Carolina Four-Ball at Forest Oaks Country Club, where teenagers Pennson Badgett and Aston Lee shot -25 over 3 rounds to edge out Joseph Cansler and Scott Newton. Rounding out the top 3 were pre-tournament favorites Zach Edmondson (North Carolina Mid-Am runner-up) and Jackson Spires (North Carolina Amateur champion), as well as the father/son duo of Mike and Preston Ordnung. View full scoring.

Also taking place the first weekend of October was the Mimosa Hills Four-Ball, an annual invitational event held at the Donald Ross gem in Morganton, NC. After racing out to a lead with a first round 61 (-10), the team of Joe Kastelic and Jay Andrews shot a Sunday 66 (-5) to secure the victory. Kastelic, who opened the tournament by shooting 29 (-7) on his own ball on the front, birdied the final hole to avoid any jeopardy and preserve a 2-shot margin over Gabe and Dan Sanders. View full scoring (GGID 25mh4ball).

In Winston-Salem, former U.S. Amateur runner-up Steve Scott and Martin Golobic came from behind to win the Purvis Ferree Cup at Old Town Club with a final round 65. “The Purv,” as it’s affectionately known, is a unique tournament open to players of all status - amateur or professional - where contestants seek to partner with the best player they can find for 2 rounds of best-ball and 1 round of alternate shot. In this year’s event, eventual winners Golobic and Scott, who are both affiliated with the Silver Club Golfing Society, were paired with PGA Tour player Nico Echavarria in round 1. View final leaderboard.

Next on the agenda is the Carolinas Invitational, which kicks off this weekend at Broomsedge Golf Club. The event features a stacked field of competitors from the Carolinas and beyond, as 44 teams are set to take on South Carolina’s newest course in what should be perfect fall conditions.

This is the first major tournament to be held at Broomsedge, which is also slated to host next spring’s Carolinas Mid-Amateur championship. The course, which can stretch to 7,500 yards, is more than capable of providing a stiff challenge, but it will be very interesting to see how scoring shakes out given the varied setup options and the field’s lack of familiarity with the layout.

No picks for this one as we can’t play favorites - too many subscribers in the field! Keep an eye on our social accounts for live scoring once it become available.

STORIES TO TRACK

Truist Championship Drops Hospitality Details, Plans for Sifford Statue: The Truist PR campaign ahead of Charlotte’s rebranded PGA Tour event appears to have started in earnest, with several news drops already as we begin the extended buildup to May’s tournament. The new sponsor intends to introduce some new hospitality offerings (borrowing some ideas from the recent PGA Championship), and also announced plans to add a Charlie Sifford statue to Midtown’s Trail of History. Curious to see what else the new headliner brings to the table for Quail Hollow - I have a feeling Wells Fargo is starting to feel some regret over letting its prized tournament slip away…

David Yowell Wins Club Championship at Carolina Golf Club: Yowell blitzed the field in what were tough conditions, as cool weather, wind, and fast greens conspired to drive scoring well over par. His final round 72 was the lowest of the tournament and stretched the final margin to 7 shots over runner-up C.J. Andriole.

• View full results (GGID CGC25CC)

Connor Doyal Cruises at South Carolina Mid-Am: Charleston’s Doyal shot 3 rounds of 70 or better around Rock Hill Country Club to finish at -8, 4 shots clear of Greenville’s Andy Mitchell and Rock Hill local Rhett Smith. The tricky and underrated RHCC layout, which features 9 holes originally designed by A.W. Tillinghast, proved to reward local knowledge, as 6 RHCC members finished in the top 25.

• View full results

HOUSEKEEPING

New Subscriber Giveaway

We’re closing in on a (small) newsletter subscriber milestone here at 2DP. To help celebrate, we’re holding a giveaway for new subscribers who sign up this week!

Anyone who subscribes by EOD Friday, 10/17 will be entered into a drawing to win a custom putter cover from our friends at Palmetto & Pine Golf and a copy of the new Carolinas Golf magazine from the CGA.

If you’re not already subscribed (send 2DP to a friend!), use the button below to sign up for free and have a chance to win.

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