2022 Palmetto High School Championship: Players to Watch
By Dylan Hoffman & Andrew MacIntyre
With the Dustin Johnson World Junior Golf Championship at TPC Myrtle Beach emerging as one of junior golf’s leading individual competitions, it has also become a seasonal precursor to an elite high school team competition that also calls the Grand Strand home. And as the Palmetto High School Golf Championship brings its own level of popularity and prestige, the 2022 edition of this event is also shaping up to be a hotly contested affair.
Contested for the seventh consecutive year at renowned Mike Strantz designs Caledonia Golf & Fish Club and True Blue Golf Club, the 2022 Palmetto takes place April 14-16 in a 54-hole, collegiate-style tournament that features 32 teams from the Carolinas, Georgia and numerous other states.
Past individual participants include the likes of PGA TOUR stars Rickie Fowler and Harris English, current University of Georgia standout Trent Phillips and Junior PGA Champion Jack Heath. Past team champions include host school Waccamaw High school alongside traditional powerhouse teams such as Edmond North (OK), Mater Dei (CA), Bishop Gorman (NV) and Bellarmine College Prep (CA).
If you’re heading out to Caledonia or True Blue this weekend to check out the action, here’s some information on some of the Palmetto’s top individual competitors:
William Jennings, Christ Church Episcopal School (Greenville, SC, 2024)
- Golfweek Junior Ranking: 13
- Junior Golf Scoreboard Ranking: 36
- Won the 2020 Carolinas Junior Boys’ Championship, and recorded top-10 finishes at the 2021 Beth Daniel Junior Azalea and the 2021 Jones Cup Junior Invitational
Jack Roberts, Frederica Academy (Saint Simons Island, GA, 2026)
- Golfweek Junior Ranking: 22
- Junior Golf Scoreboard Ranking: 34
- Won the 2021 Southern Junior Championship, finished runner-up at 2022 the Dustin Johnson World Junior and 3rd at the 2021 Bubba Conlee Tournament, and recorded top-10 finishes at the North and South Junior Amateur and the Jones Cup Junior Invitational in 2021
Jackson Byrd, Frederica Academy (Saint Simons Island, GA, 2026)
- Golfweek Junior Ranking: 30
- Junior Golf Scoreboard Ranking: 28
- Captured the 2021 Matthew NeSmith Junior Championship, and recorded top 4 finishes at the Beth Daniel Junior Azalea and the Jones Cup Junior Invitational in 2021
Kyle Haas, Forsyth Country Day School (Winston-Salem, NC, 2025)
- Son of Wake Forest University Head Golf coach Jerry Haas
- Golfweek Junior Ranking: 225
- Junior Golf Scoreboard Ranking: 339
- Runner-up finishes at the 11th Annual Wolfpack Junior Amateur at North Carolina State University and the Carolinas Junior Boys’ Championship in 2021, and finished 3rd in the 2021 NCISAA 3A State Championship
Will Hartman, Charlotte Catholic High School (Marvin, NC, 2025)
- Golfweek Junior Ranking: 87
- Junior Golf Scoreboard Ranking: 121
- Won the 2021 AJGA – HV3 Foundation Junior All-Star, and earned runner-up finishes at the 12th Annual RBC Tour Championship and the AJGA-Junior Classic presented by UHY in 2021
Jack Wieler, Marvin Ridge High School (Waxhaw, NC, 2023)
- Golfweek Junior Ranking: 128
- Junior Golf Scoreboard Ranking: 370
- Won the Donald Ross Junior, the UNC Tarheel State Junior Championship in 2021 and the Coastal Plains Junior in 2021, and recorded runner-up finishes at the ACC Junior Amateur and Bojangles Junior in 2021
