Coming of Age

Sawyer Edwards, 15, becomes the youngest player to win on the Calhoun County Golf Tour, only player under par in Oxford City Championship

By Al Muskewitz

OXFORD — Sawyer Edwards isn’t even old enough to drive by himself, but he sure knows how to drive it around the golf course.

The White Plains sophomore became the youngest player to win on the Calhoun County Golf Tour when he overcame a balky Sunday start to win the Oxford City Championship at Cider Ridge Golf Club.

Edwards shot a final-round 75 for a 36-hole total 141 that was three shots better than runner-up Ty Cole, 31 years his senior. Edwards turns 16 on May 10, the final day of the state high school championship he is expected to be a contender for. He’s 15 years, 356 days old.

“I didn’t even know that, to be honest with you; I had no clue,” he said. “I figured (Jacob) LeCroy won when he was 15 or 16. I didn’t know. I just need to keep working.”

The win represents a significant milestone in the player’s career. He’s already beaten all the kids in the county as the youngest medalist in this year’s Calhoun County High School Tournament and now he has beaten the best men.

“That is cool,” he said.

Edwards entered the day tied for the lead with Landon Straub after an impressive 6-under 66 on Saturday, but got off to a slow start. He three-putted each of his first two holes and bogeyed three of his first four.

After that, he stuck to a piece of advice he heard from a college coach a couple weeks ago — fat, fat, two; hit the fat part of the fairway, the fat part of the green and two-putt. He played the rest of the round in even par.

“I told myself I needed to get back to 1-over on the front nine,” Edwards said. “I birdied 5 and thought I could birdie 9 and I didn’t, so I just kept trying to keep going making a bunch of pars. I really thought a birdie would come, but it actually didn’t.”

The round turned for him on 9 when playing partners Straub and Jake Goggans had trouble off the tee and made 7s and steady Sawyer moved to the top of the leaderboard. The lead grew when Straub bogeyed 10 and 11 as well.

“I was hitting it good until 9 and then I kind of lost it for a second, made a few mistakes and never recovered,” Straub said. “And I couldn’t make a putt. I was hitting a bunch of putts that looked like they were going in, but none of them went in.”

Edwards kept his round going with what he called “probably the best shot I’ve hit in my life.” He guessed he was about 115 yards out on 13, down in the hollow where the cart path curls back to the 14 tee. He opened up a 50-degree wedge, hit it over the trees to the back of the green and spun it back to within eight feet of the cup.

He made par to maintain his lead and drove on to the rest of the round.

NOTES: It was a difficult scoring day. Nobody in the Championship A flight posted a better round Sunday than they had the day before and only four players in the top three flights did — Brad Moultrie, Dalton Chandler, Justin Graveman and Scott Martin. Only three players shot under par – Moultrie (70), Graveman (70) and Kenny Okins (69) … Moultrie made 16 birdies over the two days … This is the last Oxford City Championship on Cider Ridge’s bent grass greens. The course begins the process of installing TifEagle bermuda in 10 days … The next event on the CCGT schedule is RTJ Silver Lakes Championship May 14-15. Spots are still available. [*** read more]

Oxford City Championship