ROEBUCK — Andrew Gregory has had a wild few weeks on the golf course.
In May, he was a senior at Boiling Springs competing in the Class AAAAA SCHSL state championship tournament for the defending two-time champion Bulldogs.
Now Gregory, who started playing golf at the age of three, is a high school graduate and ready to move to Lynchburg, Virginia, for his freshman season at Liberty.
It only got better on Thursday and Friday, when he was paired with professionals Kris Ventura and Nelson Ledesma for two rounds of the BMW Charity Pro-Am. Gregory made sure not to let the nerves get to him so he could enjoy the experience at the Thornblade Club and Carolina Country Club.
“It’s been a lot of fun. I haven’t really been that nervous, I’ve done a good job of not putting a lot of pressure on myself, but just watching these guys, man it’s crazy how good all of them are, ” Gregory said after shooting a 7-under-par 136 for 36 holes.
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The 2022 Jay Haas Player of the Year winner — which is the South Carolina Junior Golf Association’s award for the top male player — knew the Korn Ferry Tour event was a great opportunity to learn as much as he could from the pros in the field.
“The experience has been awesome, it’s mostly just me bugging these guys and asking them a ton of questions,” Gregory said. “I’ve been mainly asking them about their preparation, things like ‘What do y’all do to get ready?’ … I was asking Kris about his short game and how he’s gotten so good at it. He was just like ‘practice, practice, practice.’ And I was like ‘OK, I’ll try!’ They’ve all been really nice to me.”
Ventura, a former Oklahoma State player, is the 683rd ranked player in the Official World Golf Ranking and has been playing on the PGA and Korn Ferry tours since 2018 — earning over $1.4 million in prize money, finishing in the top 10 twice on the PGA , winning twice on the Korn Ferry, and playing in over 100 events in total.
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Gregory didn’t just want to ask questions, he wanted to gauge his abilities against a pro like Ventura.
“I’d say I can hit the ball with them pretty well,” Gregory said. “But it’s their short game that’s insane. No matter where their drives land, it’s pretty much an automatic par for them. Their putting is amazing too. Inside of 15 feet, it’s most likely hitting the hole or going in.”
Despite knowing he is still growing as a golfer, Gregory wasn’t going to let the opportunity of competing against the pros pass him by.
“I’ve really enjoyed competing against these guys. I even tried to talk a little bit of smack to them, but I couldn’t do much because they’d just give it right back to me,” Gregory said.
This article originally appeared on Herald-Journal: Boiling Springs graduate Andrew Gregory plays two rounds with golf pros