SCGA Amateur Championship
Musgrove Mill Golf Club
Clinton, SC
August 7-10, 2008

Palms Comes From Behind to Take Title 

After weekend rounds of 67-69 for a final score of 283, Lee Palms is the 2008 South Carolina Golf Association Amateur Champion.

Palms, a member of Greenville Country Club, started the day two shots behind the third round leader Josh Gallman.  Knowing the challenge in front of him, the Greenville resident came out firing making birdies on the first two out of three holes.  Bogies on holes 4 & 7 were offset by another birdie on the par four 5^th hole to give the Greenville resident a front nine score of 35. 

The back nine was more of an adventure for the Insurance representative making bogey on the 10^th hole followed by birdies on 11, 13, 14 & 16.  Going into the 229 yard par three 17^th, Palms held a two shot lead over Will Oldham and Josh Gallman who were following in the last group.  After an up and down par three on 17 and an errant tee shot on 18, Palms lipped out a par put to make bogey and finish at five under par 283. 

Tied at second were Gaffney’s Josh Gallman and Spartanburg’s Will Oldham who both missed putt’s on 18 to force a playoff.

This is the second SCGA Major Championship Lee Palms has won at Musgrove Mill.  Palms also won the 2003 Mid Amateur with a three day score of 214. 

The 2008 SCGA Amateur Championship was played on the par 72 - 6,933 yard Arnold Palmer designed Musgrove Mill Golf Course in Clinton, SC. The event began with a field of 137 players and was cut to the low 70 and ties after the first two days of play. The Amateur Championship is one of 19 Major Championships run by the South Carolina Golf Association and is in its 77th year of existence.  The 2009 Amateur Championship will be conducted at Berkeley Hall Plantation in Bluffton, SC.