From the CGA to the 124th U.S. Amateur Championship

Golf started as a way to spend time with his father and grandfather, but in just over a year, Garrett Risner will turn it into his career. 

Although Risner’s competitive golf aspirations started later than most when he decided to hang up his soccer cleats and basketball shoes, he fell in love with the grind of the game and actually enjoyed practicing. 

“I was not highly recruited out of high school,” Risner said. “I was a late bloomer.”

But Elon took a chance on Garrett Risner and he couldn’t be more grateful. 

“When we were doing our evaluations of Garrett, our biggest takeaway was he was mature beyond his years on how he planned for a golf tournament,” Elon’s head coach Don Hill said. “That’s not something that’s always common in the 15, 16, 17-year-old golfer — his emotional intelligence was off the charts, in my opinion.”

Now leading up to his final Elon season, Risner is currently crafting his game plan for the 124th U.S. Amateur Championship after earning exemption through his back-to-back Carolinas Amateur Championship title. 

“I don’t think it’s really going to set in until I’m there, if I’m being honest,” Risner said.

For the first time, the USGA now offers exemptions to winners of state championships in the U.S. Amateur as opposed to playing in traditional qualifiers, ensuring the best players from every state are included in the field. 

“We can identify the best players playing in state championships because they typically end up being 54 to 72 holes,” Tyler Riggin, a USGA Regional Affairs Director, said. “The best players tend to be the cream that rises as opposed to playing an 18 hole qualifier at the local level.”

Risner is a four-time CGA champion with his first victory back in 2020 at the Dogwood State Junior Boys’ Championship where he won by five shots. 

“That one was a long time coming,” Risner said. 

Since then, he’s won three more titles that have “helped open some doors over the past couple years.”

“[The CGA] is just so well run and they’re good tournaments that are just underrated and helps make me better,” Risner said. “I know pretty much everyone there, including the staff; when I go to them now it feels like home almost.”

Elon has also become home for Risner; the relationship he has with his teammates and coach won’t disappear once he graduates next spring. 

“I’m already talking with Don Hill about being kind of a second assistant when I’m a professional and still be able to help them out in any way,” Risner said. “They’re really the place that gave me a chance to make it…I can’t ever thank them enough for what they have done for me over there at Elon.”

Hill has witnessed Risner and the rest of the team form lifelong bonds that weren’t “created artificially.” He travels with his players to their tournaments to watch and devise game plans with them, but he said the players are the ones with ownership in the program; it’s not the other way around. 

“If I could bottle that, I’d bottle it and sell it,” Hill said. “Watching these guys go from 18 to 22 and grow as humans, it’s fun so I’m just happy to be there with them and pulling for them as hard as I can.”

The U.S. Amateur Championship has always been a milestone but it’s not the end goal. His coach calls it a “kickstart” to his eventual professional career, but even from a young age, Risner has envisioned this. 

“It would be cool to be a role model for kids and just to be a guy that everyone looks up to as a good guy on tour and spend time with kids,” Risner said. “I can see signing stuff after winning a tournament, like I see that stuff in the future and that’s what seems so awesome about being at that level.”

 

About the Carolinas Golf Association (CGA)

The CGA is a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit educational organization founded in 1909 to promote and protect the game of golf in the Carolinas by providing competitions, education, support, and benefits to golf clubs and golfers. The CGA is one of the largest golf associations in the country, with over 700 member clubs represented by over 200,000 individuals.

The CGA annually conducts 48 championships and five team match competitions for men, women, juniors, and seniors. It also runs over 150 One-Day (net and gross) events and qualifying for USGA national championships. The CGA serves golf in the Carolinas with numerous programs such as: the USGA Handicap System; tournament management software and support; course measuring and course/slope ratings; agronomy consultation; answers about the Rules of Golf, Rules of Amateur Status, and Handicapping; Carolinas Golf Magazine; Interclub series; Tarheel Youth Golf Association; Carolinas Golf Hall of Fame; expense assistance for USGA Junior and Girls' Junior qualifiers from the Carolinas; and the Carolinas Golf Foundation (CGF). The CGF has distributed over $3,000,000 since 1977 to benefit Carolinas' golf initiatives, including junior, women and adaptive programs.

For more information about the Carolinas Golf Association, follow @cgagolf1909 on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, and TikTok or visit our website www.carolinasgolf.org/

 

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