Walter Todd ’82 is still teeing them off after a long amateur career that earned him a spot in the S.C. Golf Association Hall of Fame.

Presbyterian College alumnus and former Blue Hose golfer Walter Todd ’82 was inducted this month into the South Carolina Golf Hall of Fame.

The Laurens native was enshrined in the hall at the S.C. Golf Association’s 20^th annual Golf Day on Jan. 13 in Columbia.

Walter Todd ’82

“I’d be less than forthright if I said it’s not one of the greatest honors of my life,” Todd said. “Golf has been a big part of my life – maybe more than it should have been – but it is something that has always been dear to me.”

Todd’s influence on the game at the state and local level is profound. During an amateur career that spans nearly four decades, he has claimed nine Musgrove Mill Club championships, seven SCGA Four-Ball titles, an SCGA Mid-Amateur championship in 2005, a Carolinas Golf Association Mid-Amateur title in 2007, three father-son titles with his sons and a 2019 Senior Azalea Championship. Three times in recent years, Todd has also been named Senior Player of the Year by the SCGA.

At the national and international levels, Todd claimed the 2017 Senior Jones Cup title in 2017 and competed in the U.S. Mid-Amateur, the British Senior Amateurs, and the U.S. Senior Amateurs, where he advanced to the quarterfinals in 2019.

Off the course, Todd served on the CGA board for 13 years, including a term as president in 2010-11. He and his family have been the title sponsor of the S.C. Junior Golf Association Thomas D. Todd All-Stars Championship since 2007 to honor their late father.

Todd began his collegiate career at Wofford College before transferring to PC to play for former golf and football head coach John Perry. But the origins of his love for the game began much earlier – as far back as he can remember, Todd said.

“I’ve played golf my whole life,” he said. “I remember being out at Lakeside Country Club in Laurens at age five or six hitting balls around.”

Most athletes today specialize in one sport, but Todd enjoyed playing a variety of sports all year round – football, basketball, and baseball – for Laurens District High School. But long after his careers in those sports ended, golf – and the love of it – remained.

“Maybe it was good for me to play other sports because I didn’t get burned out on golf,” Todd said. “It also helped me learn to be part of a team and allowed me to enjoy competition. I still love to compete. I still want to win as much today as I ever did.”

Competition in golf, though, is never only against other players, and Todd said he continues to battle against his fiercest adversary – his lowest score.

“No two days on the course are ever the same,” he said. “If you think something’s going to work for you or you think you’ve got it all figured it out, you really don’t. Things change every day and there are no guarantees. It’s like I told my sons when they started playing. The better you get, the lower your scores are going to be, but you’ll still have some bad days. They happen in golf where you have bad runs or spurts. But I still love playing even when I’m not playing well.

“I’ve said this for awhile – you don’t know how many good seasons you have left. I started playing senior golf at 55, which was a lot of fun playing against people I played junior golf with through the years. If you’re playing basketball or football, you’re generally not going to be able to play competitively into your 60s or 70s. But I’ve seen guys who were playing golf well into their 70s and 80s who just love the game and being outside and hitting the ball.”

Todd said competing with his sons in amateur events adds another layer of joy to the game, as is embracing the sport as metaphor.

“As in life, you just take it one shot at a time,” he said. “I know it’s a cliché, but you have to forget the bad shots. Everybody’s going to hit them, I don’t care if you’re Tiger Woods or Jack Nicklaus.”

For Hall of Famer Walter Todd, it is obvious he kept the bad shots to a minimum – with a lot of practice and a lot of support.

“I am very thankful for my wife, Lynne, and my family for their support throughout my career,” he said. “I’ve tried to keep my faith and my family as a top priority even while I spend a lot of time with the game. I could not have done it without their support.”