Closing in on 65th birthday, SC’s Hargett keeps rolling with golf game at high level
If anyone is searching for a prime example of the “golf is a game for a lifetime” statement, Eddie Hargett is your guy.
If there’s a golf tournament scheduled, chances are his name is on the tee sheet.
Format? Doesn’t matter whether it’s individual or four-ball or the occasional team competition.
Sponsoring association? Makes no difference. Can be local, state, regional or national.
Age restrictions: Bring ’em all on. Any age, mid-amateur (25 and over) or senior (55 and over) works for him.
“I just love to play the game,” he said in reflecting on his golf tournament schedule. “Year to year, it’s mostly rinse and repeat.”
Hargett, a former Blythewood resident who moved to Callawassie Island near Bluffton more than a year ago, agrees that “Father Time is undefeated” in eroding all golfers’ skills, but he added: “I’m going to give him a battle. I’m competitive. That’s the way I’m wired.”
Not even multiple surgeries can dim his enthusiasm or dampen his thirst to succeed.
Only a few months short of his 65th birthday, he illustrated again recently that he’s far from finished. He teamed with Walter Todd, another stalwart pushing 65, to win the South Carolina Senior Four-Ball title at Florence Country Club.
The Hargett-Todd team matched the 15-under-par 127 totals posted by Stan Sill-Ronald Pruitt and Yancey Johnson-Duff Wagner, forcing a playoff that Hargett ended with a birdie putt on the third extra hole.
Maybe that should have been expected. Todd and Hargett joined forces to win the tournament for the fourth time.
“Walter says the best part of my game is choosing partners, and he might be right,” Hargett said. “I’ve won four-ball tournaments with nine different partners.”
For all his success — and that includes earning the South Carolina Golf Association’s senior player of the year award for four consecutive years — Hargett has never won an individual state title.
“I’m the first loser a lot,” he said and laughed, referring to multiple runner-up finishes in individual competition. “I’ve been second in the South Carolina Senior five times and second three times in the Carolinas Senior.”
Hargett also finished second to Todd in the State senior player of the year standings three times and second to Todd White the past two years.
In addition for the Four-Ball win, his 2025 season includes a tie for 14th among seniors in the Jones Cup and a missed cut in the Gasparilla, both with national-class fields. His state-wide schedule calls for the South Carolina Amateur, Mid-Amateur and Senior events. Despite giving up ages in those tournaments, he still finished tied for 51st, 10th and tied for fourth a year ago.
Hargett will probably take a shot at qualifying for the U.S. Senior Open and U.S. Senior Amateur, and he’ll be in the Carolinas Four-Ball with yet another partner, just-turned-55 Robert Dargan. And Super-Senior tournaments loom after his 65th birthday.
“I just want to be competitive at all levels; I just want to keep going,” said Hargett, who like “Ol’ Man River” of song just keeps rolling along.
Chip shots. South Carolina’s fourth-ranked women’s squad wrapped up their regular season by placing second in the Old Barnwell Derby Matchplay in Aiken. Both freshman Eila Galitsky and sophomore Maylis Lamoure went 3-0 in the match-play event with all eight teams nationally ranked. Before the Gamecocks play in the SEC Championship April 14-18, Galitsky and seniors Hannah Darling and Louise Rydqvist will compete in the Augusta National Women’s Amateur April 2-5. ... USC senior Nathan Franks put together two strong performances, finishing third in The Hayt in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida, then placing fourth in the Linger Longer Invitational in Greensboro, Georgia. In the team competition, the Gamecocks, ranked 17th nationally, finished sixth in The Hyat and fourth in the Linger Longer Invitational. .... The Country Club of Charleston will stage the 2028 U.S. Mid-Amateur (Sept. 23-28, 2028) with Yeamans Hall serving as stroke-play co-host. ... Clemson’s men won their first tournament of the season, capturing the rain-shortened Palmetto Cleveland Golf Intercollegiate at Aiken’s Palmetto GC. Lucas Augustsson took third to lead the Tigers, who had all five players place in the top 15. ... Senior Melena Barrientos fired a final-round 66 to win the Notre Dame Clover Cup individual title and lead Clemson to a second-place team finish in Litchfield Park, Arizona. ... Merritt Mathesius (Charleston) won the boys division and Reese Richardson (Aynor) led the girls in the SCJGA’s Caddie Classic at Carolina Springs GC in Fountain Inn. The wins earned Mathesius and Richardson spots in the 2025 Hootie & the Blowfish Monday after the Masters tournament in Myrtle Beach.
This story was originally published March 20, 2025 at 11:27 AM with the headline "Closing in on 65th birthday, SC’s Hargett keeps rolling with golf game at high level."