The Mount Airy graduate and Western Carolina golfer made a charge Saturday and Sunday, shooting a 71 and 69, respectively, at the par-72 Old Chatham Golf Course to finish tied for 16th. As a result of placing in the top 30, Wilson is exempt from qualifying for next year’s event.
“I thought I played really well,” Wilson said. “It’s a tough course, it was almost 7,300 yards long. They made it as difficult as they could the last two days and I felt I played my best the last two days.”
What made the tournament challenging, Wilson said, was the placement of flags, which were situated on bunkers and ridges.
“They really threw the bunker in play if you got greedy and went for flags,” Wilson said. “My strategy was to just make birdies and hit par.”
He did better than that, as he ended Sunday with the third-best score of the day.
The tournament ran from Thursday until yesterday, with a practice round Wednesday. The initial field was 142 golfers, a sum that was cut down to 65 for the final two days. Wilson’s scores dropped as the week went on, from 75 to 72 to 71 to 69.
“It was four rounds and that’s a lot of golf,” he said. “I was really excited I finished 1-under for the four rounds. That was big and it feels great to close with a great round.”
Wilson went against some of the top competition in collegiate golf. Duffers from North Carolina and North Carolina State were in the field. Wilson said playing at such a high level against good opposition is a boost.
“It just reinforces that I can compete on a weekly basis with those players,” he said. “It’s not about who you are and where you’re from — it’s about getting the ball in the hole.”
Up next for Wilson is the Carolinas Amateur in Charleston, S.C., an event he took second in last year.
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