DEAD SOLID PERFECT: LR’s Carpenter steps into limelight

— Golf observers throughout the South got their first glimpse of Little Rock’s Alex Carpenter last week. It might not be long before the rest of the country takes notice.

Carpenter, who is from Little Rock’s Chenal Country Club and played at Arkansas Baptist, made a furious backnine charge Saturday to win the prestigious Southern Amateur at Shoal Creek Golf and Country Club in Birmingham, Ala.

He’s expected to defend his Maumelle Classic championship beginning Friday at Maumelle Country Club.

We’ve been able to see a lot of Carpenter in recent years.

He won the Arkansas State Golf Association’s overall high school championship as a senior at Arkansas Baptist before signing with NCAA Division II Abilene Christian, where he plays with his twin brother, Adam.

Last summer, he burst onto the state amateur scene with a victory in the Fourth of July Classic at War Memorial GolfCourse in Little Rock. He followed that a few weeks later with a victory at the Maumelle Classic.

He didn’t win the ASGA’s player of the year award because he didn’t have enough points in other events. That went to Cabot’s Nicklaus Benton.

But from July through the fall last year, no state amateur played better than Carpenter.

At Abilene Christian, he won the Phil Mickelson Award, which is presented to the most outstanding freshman in NCAA Division II men’s golf.

He advanced through local qualifying for this year’s U.S. Open. And he won one offour Southern Amateur qualifying spots at Pleasant Valley Country Club as the medalist at 4 under par. The other spots went to Little Rock’s Joe Doramus, North Little Rock’s Trey Schaap, Mountain Home’s Brad Simons and Chris Worrell of Enid, Okla.

Of the 168 players in the field, the Southern Golf Association, which runs the tournament, sent out biographies on more than 90. Carpenter wasn’t among them.

Carpenter got off to a good start with a 2-under 70 in the first round. He moved into contention with a 5-under 67 in the second round. But he only shot a 2-under 70 in the third round and appeared to have missed his opportunity.

That looked even more to be the case when he shot 1-under 35 on the front nine in the final round, finishing with a bogey.

But Carpenter saved his best for last.

He birdied Nos. 10, 11, 14 and 16 to tie for the lead.

Then he rolled in a 65-footeagle putt on the 17th to take a two-stroke lead.

His birdie putt on the 18th hole lipped out, but it didn’t matter. He finished with a one-stroke victory over Patrick Cantlay, who is headed to UCLA in a few weeks.

His total of 272 was one stroke better than what Lee Trevino shot at Shoal Creek to win the 1984 PGA Championship. Wayne Grady won the 1990 PGA Championship there with a 282.

Now Carpenter’s name will reside among a solid list of former winners that includes Justin Leonard, Mark Brooks, Bob Tway, Lanny Wadkins and Casey Wittenberg.

Others are about to get a better look at Carpenter. The Southern Amateur victory earns him a spot in the PGA Tour’s Arnold Palmer Invitational, which will be played in March in Orlando, Fla.

No matter how well he plays there, it seems to be only a matter of time before everyone else gets to know him.

Sports, Pages 23 on 07/22/2010

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