It’s high school state tournament season in girls high school golf and several of our local schools have had success.

Lexington High School won a 5th straight Class 5A Lower State Qualifier with golfers Molly Hardwick (1st), Karlee Vardas (tied 3rd) and Isabella Rawl (6th) placing in the top 10.

Gilbert won the Class 3A Lower State Qualifier as Kennedy Gooding top earned medalist honors and Alexis Hodge placed 3rd.

The 2 Lexington School District 1 schools’ successes came in just before deadline for this report. So be sure to tune in for details next week.

Steve Liebler of Irmo won the South Carolina Golf Association senior championship at the Carolina Country Club in Spartanburg. His score of 214 earned him a 1-shot victory over Rick Cloninger.

Leibler is the only person I know personally who qualified 4 consecutive years for the PGA Tour. His money position at season’s end each year was just outside the Top 125. This position was a “conditionally exempt” status.

He would’ve made several million dollars during this period had purses along with sponsorships been comparable to today.

Brad Krapfel, a graduate of Irmo High School, placed 14th and both individuals had a huge influence on me early in golf.

Krapfel had an amazing putting stroke that I tried to emulate and Liebler had an impeccable work ethic.

I had a chance to set the bench at the University of South Carolina while Liebler was an All-American there. The quality and focus during his practice was fantastic.

He covered the full scope of the game and his attention to detail was stunning.

Dick Krapfel, Brad‘s father, invited me to play golf at the Columbia Country Club frequently with Brad’s older brother Tim. Miss Krapfel would occasionally ride around and watch them break away and play golf with her friends.

The Krapfels play golf together and this made quite an impression. It was such a beautiful picture that I attempted to emulate this, too.

They made golf fun and they spent much time together. This was quite an appealing combination.

There is a program that is called the “Winter Tour” that was established in 1992 with the Lexington County Recreation & Aging Commission. The Irmo-Chapin Recreation Commission absorbed the program after a few years and now both major recreation programs, along with the Richland County Recreation Commissio will all hold registration for the 2021 season.

In fact, you can register now at each of the websites and the program gets started in December.

While this LRAC golf program is at capacity, RCRC has plenty of room available and paying by the class is an option for the next few weeks because of the small number of participants.

Visit Richland County Recreation website, http:// richlandcountyrecreation. com/fall-golf-programs-atlinrick-golf-course/ to review.

If interested in volunteering to be a Recreational Youth Golf coach in one of our local golf programs, call 803-603-1718.