Drew Hackett wins 49th Annual Rice Planters Amateur

The threat of inclement weather couldn’t stop UNC-Wilmington’s Drew Hackett (Charlotte, N.C.) from holding off the rest of the field at the 49th annual Rice Planters Amateur Championship, held this week at Snee Farm Country Club in Mount Pleasant, S.C.

Hackett, who earned second-team All-CAA honors during his sophomore season, finished the 54-hole event with rounds of 71-67-66—204 (-12), three strokes clear of his UNCW teammate, Landson Robbins (Davidson, N.C.) and Furman Paladin Mac Scott (Mountain Brook, Ala.), who tied for second place at 9-under-par.

He joins past winners of the Rice Planters Amateur including Hal Sutton, Tom Lehman, Stewart Cink and Brooks Koepka.

Finishing the his first round with a 1-under 71, the Seahawk junior utilized a 5-under-par round of 67 during day two to vault from four strokes down at the start of the day to grab a share of the lead at 6-under-par entering the third round with Duke junior Quinn Riley (Raleigh, N.C.), the tournament’s leader following the first round.

In a final round that necessitated a double tee start due to the potential inclement weather, Hackett, Scott and Riley were all in the final group, and teed off on the first hole at 9:50am. It didn’t take long for Hackett to heat up, as he birdied the second and third holes, quickly gaining a one stroke lead over Riley. Hackett again birdied back-to-back holes on six and seven, on his way to a 4-under 32 on the front side.

Scott, who began the day one stroke behind the co-leaders at 5-under, and Riley faced five and four stroke deficits respectively with nine holes to play. While Riley played the inward nine holes in even par to finish tied for seventh at 6-under par, Scott birdied three off his first four holes on the back side to put the pressure on Hackett.

Congratulations to @UNCWAthletics Drew Hackett for his win at the 49th @riceplantersam tournament with a score of -12 @Live5News pic.twitter.com/9DFmE93Dfk

— Kevin Bilodeau (@KevinLive5) June 25, 2021

Hackett was able to hold off his competition with birdies on the par-5 13th and par-4 15th to seal the three-stroke victory. His final round scorecard featured six birdies and twelve pars – no blemishes to be found. Over the 54 holes, Hackett finished with 14 birdies, which were tied for second most in the field, and just two bogeys – the fewest in the 75-golfer field.

“All week I hit a lot of fairways,” Hackett told Golfweek/USA Today. “I was hitting the tee ball great and I’ll give a lot of credit to my driver. I was hitting it great, wasn’t really in trouble and that set me up to hit approach shots which definitely got better as the week went on. The week went on and today, I missed two greens. From tee to green, I couldn’t have played much better.”

Robbins, who put together rounds of 68-72-67, tied with Scott for second place.

The top five was rounded out by 2019 Rice Planters Champion, Mississippi State’s Austin Fulton (Villa Rica, Ga.), who carded a tournament low round of 65 (-7) during Friday’s third round, catapulting the senior into solo fourth place, and Northwestern’s Eric McIntosh (Edinburgh, Scotland) and Scott’s Furman teammate Jack Crosby (Memphis, Tenn.) who finished in a tie for fifth place with matching 209s (-7).