MANHATTAN (KSNT) — For this rising star, the game on the green is about much more than just winning.
Last weekend, one Manhattan golfer competed at one of golf’s most iconic courses, Pebble Beach, and played three stellar rounds to win the Pure Insurance Championship Pro-Junior Boys’ title.
Charlie Haney is a 16-year-old golfer and junior at Manhattan High School, who has big dreams on the golf course. The game has been apart of his life since his childhood, when his dad worked at his home golf course, Colbert Hills Golf Course.
“It’s kind of how I grew up, in a way, just being out here at the golf course after school every day. I kind of just love the game since I started and just, always enjoyed playing,” Haney said. “I just remember when my dad worked up here, I would just grab his clubs and start putting on the putting green, or chipping with an 8-iron… just because I didn’t know any better back then.”
Haney’s talent on the green has shone through since he first picked up a club, with adults around him telling him he would go on to achieve big things.
“I remember people telling me when I was five, seven-years old, ‘Hey, you’re going to go to Pebble one day hopefully,’ and just to be able to win it, was kind of like a full circle moment for me and my dad so, it was really cool,” Haney told 27 Sports.
The high schooler came into the final day of the tournament in a tie for sixth place at nine under. He would jump up five spots to clinch the title after shooting 13 under in the final round to win the tournament by one stroke, at 22 under.
Despite what seemed like a large comeback, Haney was unphased.
“I would say there wasn’t necessarily nerves because I was four shots back at that time, and I mean four shots back in a four ball with a pro and junior, with both good golfers,” Haney added. “I knew if we could play our best that we could have a chance coming down the 15 or 18, and we just got off to an amazing start.”
He was paired with Rory Sabbatini at the tournament, a South African-Slovak pro golfer who had six PGA Tour wins between 2000 and 2011, including finishing runner up at the 2007 Masters. Haney says he learned a lot from Sabbatini and the other pros at last weekend’s tournament, striving to have a professional golf career like theirs.
Those aren’t the only golf greats Haney had the opportunity to learn from. Growing up in Manhattan, he had the opportunity to learn from a local legend—Jim Colbert.
“I was actually pretty close with Jim. I’d come up here a lot and be practicing and go get some water and he’d just be inside there watching TV, and we’d talk for like an hour and a half,” Haney said. “This past year and the year before that he really started to follow my golf, and I’d get a text from him like, ‘Good job this week.’ It was really cool to be getting ‘Good job’ texts from a PGA Tour legend.”
Haney is a fierce competitor, and has the accolades to show it, with seven individual titles at the high school ranks.
However, he also knows the importance of having fun while playing.
First Tee Manhattan, an organization that teaches kids the game of golf through life lessons, helps him keep that message at the forefront.
“The majority of our kids that join First Tee have never played before and this is kind of how they get started in the game, and you compare them with people like Charlie who have been playing their whole life, and they’re in the same group and they can both learn from each other,” Executive Director and Coach at First Tee Manhattan, Aaron Wall, told 27 Sports.
“I just love how they enjoy it so much, and that’s why it kind of puts it back into perspective for me to where, it is a competitive game but also, enjoy it while it lasts.”
Haney recently committed to play golf at Ole Miss, home to the reigning SEC Men’s Golf Champions. He also has three upcoming tournaments in ‘The Ping Invitational’ in mid-October, ‘The Greenwood Cup’ at the end of October and ‘The Elite Invitational’ in early November.
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