Hudson Swafford acknowledged that he felt left out while other members of the University of Georgia golf family were winning on the PGA Tour. Swafford won his first title last week at the CareerBuilder Challenge in La Quinta, Calif., and joins former teammates Chris Kirk, Harris English, Brian Harman and Brendon Todd in the winner’s circle.
“I’m just happy to be in the club,” Swafford said. “If it doesn’t bother you that all your friends have won around you, then you probably need to look for another job. I played golf in college with all these guys, played junior and amateur golf. It’s just satisfying to be a part of it.”
Swafford gave credit to instructor Scott Hamilton, the PGA professional instructor at Cartersville Country Club, for helping him become more consistent. Swafford began working with Hamilton about two years ago.
Bowles receives GSGA's top award: Colin Bowles of Albany, who last summer became the second-youngest winner of the Georgia Amateur Championship, won the Georgia State Golf Association's Tommy Barnes Award, presented annually to the player of the year. Bowles was 16 when he won; Bobby Jones was 14 when he claimed the inaugural title in 1916.
Other player of the year awards, presented at the GSGA’s annual awards luncheon at the Cherokee Town Club, went to Chris Waters of Atlanta (men’s player of the year), Janet Mao of Johns Creek (women), Louise Yu of Duluth (girls), Doug Hanzel of Savannah (senior men), Laura Coble of Augusta (senior women). Ray Haas of Big Canoe received the Bill Todd Award for volunteerism.
David Burke of Canton was elected GSGA president and will serve a two-year term. Belinda Marsh of Johns Creek was chosen president-elect.
Kuchar, Castro named to PGA Tour PAC: Georgia Tech graduates Matt Kuchar and Roberto Castro have been named to the PGA Tour's 16-man Player Advisory Council, which consults and advises the policy board and commissioner Jay Monahan on a variety of issues. Kuchar, Castro and Johnson Wagner are running for PAC chairman in an election which ends Feb. 17. Acworth's Jason Bohn completed a three-year term on the policy board and this year will join Davis Love III, Charley Hoffman and Kevin Streelman as Player Directors.
Etc.: Riverdale's Mariah Stackhouse, who recently earned her LPGA tour card, joined volunteers at Thomasville Heights Elementary to freshen up the school's library. The Stanford graduate teamed with audit firm KPMG to donate 600 new books to the library through its Family for Literacy program. The firm also will distribute more than 1,300 new books to the school's students. … Bernhard Langer moved past Lee Trevino and into second place on the PGA Tour Champions' all-time win list with his victory at the rain-shortened Mitsubishi Electric Championship. The win came on his 33rd wedding anniversary.
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