Former golfer from UT Martin, Scott Carpenter (‘04), was a standout for the Skyhawks during his college days and has enjoyed even more success in his amateur career since graduation. He is playing the best golf of his career right now and recently took his game to the Tennessee State Amateur Championships at Ridgeway Country Club in Memphis. At the State Amateur, Carpenter competed against the best Tennessee has to offer for the state’s top amateur honor.
Carpenter wasn’t alone in his quest for the State Amateur title. Inside the ropes and on the bag as his caddie was his dad and former coach at UT Martin, Jerry Carpenter (‘66). As most any competitive golfer will tell you, the key to a successful tournament is having a caddie on the bag that knows your game, even better than you do at times. Luckily for Scott, Jerry and he had been on the course together ever since he picked up his first club in the fourth grade.
“I can remember back when Scott first picked up a cut-off 5-iron and started hacking around the course,” recalled Jerry. “He really had a natural swing even then and just took off from there.”
Scott grew up on the golf course with his dad around, and the two grew even closer through the two seasons Scott was able to play for his dad at UT Martin. With a closeness that extends past the typical father-son relationship and onto the golf course, the decision to have him on the bag in the biggest tournament of his amateur career so far was a no-brainer.
“He [Jerry] has wanted to do something like this for years now. Having him on the bag is comforting, because he does know my game so well. He also knows exactly what to say to me when I need to hear it. Through it all though, he’s still dad, and this is an experience that not every father and son have the opportunity to have together.”
Scott’s playing career isn’t the only occasion that he and Jerry have shared time on the golf course. After Scott’s graduation from college, he stayed connected with the Skyhawk golf program as a volunteer assistant coach, helping guide his former teammates side-by-side with his dad. Scott is now in his fourth year as a coach and routinely participates in practice sessions with the team, working with players on their game, and travels to a number of tournaments each year.
Scott’s natural golf swing had plenty of practice this summer, competing in a number of regional tournaments and enjoying quality finishes in each prior to the State Amateur. Those tournament performances were highlighted by a 27th place finish at the Irvin Cobb Pro-Am Championships in Paducah, Ky., in which Scott competed against both professional and amateur competitors. His quality performance at the Cobb Championships also included the second hole-in-one of his career and helped give him the confidence to make a run at qualifying for the State Amateur.
Scott also credits his previous experience gained as a player at UT Martin for his recent success. “We played a lot of large tournaments during my college career, and the State Am had a similar feel to those and the Ohio Valley Conference Championships.”
Jerry agreed that the experiences Scott had as a collegiate golfer at UT Martin improved his game. He also believes that while in college most golfers really learn how to practice and work on their games; but it is after college when it really clicks for them. He has seen it in a number of the players who have come through the Skyhawk program, Scott included.
In addition to tournament competition, Scott has also put in a lot of work on the practice range. He wasn’t the only one practicing, though. After Scott qualified, and Jerry knew he was going to be carrying a 40-plus pound golf bag for 2-3 miles each day, he knew he needed to be in shape for that. In preparation, he began training himself by walking in his neighborhood each night like always, only now with a golf bag on his back. After being stopped a few times in the beginning by curious neighbors making sure the coach hadn’t lost his way from the golf course, Jerry readied himself to carry the bag all five days of the tournament.
Prior to the tournament’s beginning, Scott and Jerry set two individual goals. Goal number one was making the cut, which required ranking among the top 60 golfers in the field after two rounds of competition. Scott and Jerry made the cut and were able to move on the next goal, which was to enjoy the final two rounds and for Scott to play the best he could. From then on, wherever the chips fell and Scott finished was just fine with the duo.
Scott finished the State Amateur at 19-over-par 303 and in 59th place. The final number on the scorecard wasn’t what will be the lasting memory of the State Am for Scott and Jerry, though. That memory will be the feeling when the two lined up that first tee shot on No. 1 and embarked together down a fairway they had both dreamed of walking down.
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