Gallman Takes Second Straight 2nd-Place Finish At S.C. Amateur
8/9/2009 12:00:00 AM | Men's Golf
Aug. 9, 2009
Bluffton, S.C. - USC Upstate golfer and Gaffney, S.C., native Josh Gallman entered the final round of the 2009 South Carolina Amateur Championship four strokes back of the lead. After working himself into a tie for the lead after the fifth hole, he watched as Mark Anderson made a back-nine charge to claim the tournament by six strokes with a 16-under-par total.
Gallman was one of two Spartans to claim Top 10 finishes in the tournament played at Berkeley Hall Plantation. Michael Lawrence, a fellow senior at Upstate, finished the day with a 1-under 71 and a 72-hole 4-under-par total to finish ninth. After opening with a 74 Thursday, Lawrence closed with rounds of 69, 70 and 71 to claim the Top 10 finish. He finished ahead of Luke Hopkins, a senior at Clemson and the 2007 S.C. Amateur Champion, and Tripp McAllister, a junior at Coastal Carolina and the 2008 Big South Conference Player and Freshman of the Year. Lawrence was the only Upstate golfer to claim an individual championship last season, winning the Holiday Inn Express/CFSC Classic hosted by Stetson in DeLand, Fla., to close out the fall season. He has two individual college championships in his career.
Gallman, who owns Upstate's career records with four individual tournament wins, 13 Top 5 finishes, 24 Top 10 finishes, a 73.1 stroke average and an .854 head-to-head tournament winning percentage, started quickly and put pressure on Anderson, a two-time All-American at South Carolina who completed his eligibility in 2009. Gallman recorded back-to-back birdies on the fourth and fifth holes. Combined with Anderson's bogeys on both holes, Gallman found himself in a tie for the tournament championship and back into the lead for the first time since holding the lead after completion of play Thursday.
However, Gallman made bogey on the sixth hole, while Anderson birdied the hole to take a two-shot lead. Both Gallman and Anderson made bogey on the 12th, but Anderson closed the door with birdies at 13, 14 and 17 to win the tournament championship by six strokes over Gallman and Liebler. Gallman had a birdie putt on the 18th for sole possession of second but narrowly missed the 14-foot effort to remain in a tie with Lielbler, who is a 10-time winner of Columbia's Fairway Outreach Championship . It marked the second-straight second-place finish for Gallman in the S.C. Amateur. He finished second by one stroke to Lee Palms in last year's championship.
Anderson finished the day with a 2-under 70 to post a 272 total. Gallman carded 72 Sunday and fell into a tie for second with Liebler at 10-under, 278. Liebler shot 70 Sunday to vault into a second-place finish. Austin Cody, a two-time junior All-American who will begin play at Duke this fall, finished second at 8-under for the tournament.
In addition to Gallman and Lawrence, three other former or future Spartans finished play in the S.C. Amateur Sunday. Brian Horton, a Boiling Springs High School product who will join the Spartans this fall after transferring from Gardner-Webb, finished the tournament in 50th-place with a 300 total while recovering from having tonsil surgery recently. Baxter Culler finished in a tie for 51st at 301. Culler was the Spartans' first and only All-America selection and was the medalist at the 2007 Peach Belt Conference Championships. McKenzie Oref, who will begin Upstate in the fall as a freshman, finished tied for 64th at 304.
The South Carolina Amateur Championship effectively ends the summer of amateur golf for Upstate's golfers. Gallman closed out the summer with strong efforts in several tournaments. He claimed the individual championship at the Palmetto Amateur, finished second in the Carolinas Four Ball (teamed with Culler) and the Carolinas Amateur Championship, and finished tied for 23rd at the prestigious Southern Amateur Championship.
