Despite embarrassing intro, Robert Dargan maintains appreciation for SC Amateur

Robert Dargan’s love affair with the South Carolina Amateur Golf Championship began 40 years ago — with a rather rude jolt of reality.

Then 15, he qualified for the state’s top competition for amateurs through his finish in the State Juniors tourney and approached his first-round tee time in the Big Show with, shall we say, a rather casual attitude.

“I got to the (first) tee too late,” he remembered all these years later. “Happ Lathrop (longtime head of the S.C. Golf Association and the starter that day) said, ‘That’s two strokes, and you would have been disqualified if (a playing partner) had teed off.’

“That’s my introduction to the State Amateur; I made par (4) on the first hole on the Lakeside Course at Columbia Country Club, and I wrote down ‘6.’ ”

But that embarrassing beginning did not dull Dargan’s appreciation for the championship. He’s played in the event “probably 30 times,” posted a handful of top-10 finishes and, he said, “I came to understand that it’s the tournament the state’s top amateurs would most like to win.”

That — winning the State Amateur — is about the only hole in Dargan’s golf credentials. He won the state high school championship, the state juniors, two state mid-amateurs, too many left-handers’ titles to count, and a bunch of team competitions. He’s played in USGA championships and even took time out to test his game in the pros. Along the way, he coached A.C. Flora’s high-powered program for a decade.

The Columbia businessman will try again July 24-27 in the State Amateur at Carolina Country Club in Spartanburg — nine years after declaring “I’m done” at this level in the 2016 tourney at DeBordieu.

“The first time I couldn’t go for the par-5s in two shots,” Dargan, then 47, said.

But he heard the siren’s song and played at Florence the next year and then Dataw in 2018 ... and on and on to Charleston Country Club a year ago, and now he’s qualified for Carolina CC.

“The State Amateur really changed in 1997, the year Charles Warren won at Thornblade,” Dargan said. “The college kids started playing in the tournament and Lucas (Glover) won three straight, D.J. (Trahan) won a couple and then Bill Haas.”

Mid-Amateur Lee Palms broke the college players’ streak at Musgrove Mill in 2008 and Gregg Jones did the same at Florence in ’17. Todd White struck the ultimate blow for older players, winning at Musgrove Mill in 2023 — 33 years after his first State Amateur win and a few weeks before winning the U.S. Senior Amateur.

“Todd will say, ‘It’s all about the course’ for older players to have a chance, and it is,” Dargan said. “I’m on the back side of 55 (years old) and the kids bomb drives way past me off the tee. If I’m hitting 4-irons or hybrids into par-4s, and the young guys are hitting 8- and 9-irons, they have such a great advantage.”

He saw the growth in quality young players during his coaching days at Flora and understands the challenge he and the elder statesmen face. Yet, the group that includes Todd White, Rick Cloninger, Eddie Hargett and the Dargans (Robert and brother David) won’t concede without a battle.

Indeed, SCGA executive director Biff Lathrop expects White, now 57, to be the player most mentioned in the pre-tournament speculation. Even giving away distance to the younger players, he’s finished first and fifth the past two State Amateurs and will be playing on his home course this year.

Kyle Maloney, the SCGA’s senior director for rules and competition, said the Carolina CC course would play at 6,929 yards and the “nines” would be flipped, making the finish on the more challenging ninth hole.

“Officials always make the State Amateur a good test, and it should be,” Dargan said. “They’ll pinch the fairways in, grow the rough up, firm up the greens, just make a tough challenge. You better hit the fairways; you can make double (bogey) in a heartbeat. Lots of things, good and bad, can happen.”

Maybe there’s only one sure thing: Dargan won’t be late at the first tee.

New-look tournament coming up. Henry Augenstein and Patrick Stephenson head the field for the revamped Midlands Chevy Dealers Championship, set for July 19-20 at Spring Valley Country Club.

Changes include expanding eligibility to players throughout the Midlands and reducing the competition to 36 holes played over a weekend.

Augenstein won the 2024 championship at Fort Jackson Golf Club’s Old Hickory Course. Stephenson claimed the title in 2022 and 2023 at The Spur at Northwoods.

This story was originally published July 10, 2025 at 5:37 PM with the headline "Despite embarrassing intro, Robert Dargan maintains appreciation for SC Amateur."