Summer is here and golf is hot.

Before jumping into local youth and amateur golf, a recap on pro golf.

The PGA tour’s only South Carolina stop took place last week at Harbor Town Golf Links at Sea Pines in Hilton Head. Webb Simpson blistered the famous coastal course with a total of 22-under par.

Dustin Johnson, former world number 1 who attended Dutch Fork High School, finished tied for 15th, 7 shots back. Wesley Bryan from Lexington finished at 4-under par in his 1st event back after 18 months on injured reserve.

What thrilled me the most about Wesley‘s return was his excitement.

“On Thursday, my heart rate tipped at close to 160 early in the round,” he said. “I had no idea it was going like that until I checked my whoop.”

My question to him took place on Sunday, after his final round with Bubba Watson. Wesley opted for a bus ride with Bubba over a chartered plane flight to Cromwell, Conn. for The Travelers this week.

Something very unusual took place at Harbour town Sunday and it was not on live TV. Bubba Watson and Wesley were paired together and were marked as a “PGA Tour Live” feature group.

Although players and caddies were not wearing production quality technology, the “shotgun microphones” were very good. What took place was what happens between people when they enjoy a game together. As we know, all people have their own unique outward expression.

Bubba and Wesley together were hilarious. I haven’t spoken with Bubba, his caddie Ted or Wesley’s caddie Willie, but will tell you some players are highly sensitive to the audio portion of the production.

I’m not sure where the future is with this idea. What I do know is there is at least 1 player on the PGA Tour (Wesley) who still thinks golf is a game, treats it that way and has fun.

Something else I hope for is the producers on network TV recognize what happened Sunday at 9 am was possibly just as interesting as what happened in the last 15 minutes of the event.

Webb Simpson made a putt on 17 then parred 18 to pull out of a log jam and win.

It was painfully obvious that fanless events are not nearly as exciting. I’ll tie in the lesson to which is possibly the most redundant written in this column. The faster you play, the better you play because when you react to the target and play without thinking, you access not only your trained skills, you tap into your natural gifts.

Bubba and Wesley played their final round walking in less than 3 hours.

Locally, Wade and Wyatt Harrell tied for 1st in The Club at Savannah Harbor Father’s Day Invitational with a 62. A.J. Weil had a Hole in 1 on #3 at Golden Hills during the Tri County Chapter’s second event.

Finley Hendricks won the girls 7-9 at Golden Hills and had her 2nd win in a row.

Emily Baker won the girls 13-18 while Mia Andrade earned her second victory in as many weeks in the girls 10-12. Thomas Lamar was medalist in the boys 13-14 while Howie Room was medalist from boys 10-12. Jack Brady was low scorer for the boys 15-18.

It’s easy to see complete results by visiting www.scjca.org to see Hootie summer series results.

Molly Hardwick of Lexington continues her fine play this summer by finishing 3rd in the WSCGA Junior Championship at Mount Vintage. Kennedy Gooding of Gilbert placed 9th.

The Lexington County Recreation and Aging Commision has a brand new Family Junior Golf program that is quite unique. Visit the website, see “athletics”, then find “family junior golf” for more information.