Greenville's Faulkner runner-up in national final

With the driving and chipping behind him, Hugh Faulker was confident heading to the 18th green at Augusta National Golf Club Sunday morning.

“This one is mine,” he said to himself.

It almost was.

Faulkner, 8, of Greenville, won the putting portion of the Drive, Chip and Putt National Finals, but wound up in second place overall in the boys 7-9-year-old age division, capping a remarkable eight months that saw him advance from a field of tens of thousands of competitors to Sunday’s finale at the most hallowed golf course on American soil.

The 80 finalists – 10 in each of four boys and girls age groups – competed in three skills: driving, chipping and putting. The driving portion of the competition took place on the driving range at Augusta National, the chipping at the practice area, and the putting on the 18th green.

Faulkner, who clinched his berth in Sunday’s championship by winning the Mid-Atlantic Regional qualifier last October in Bethesda, Maryland, finished fourth in the driving competition with a best drive of 150.1 yards, placing fourth in his age group.

“He was very happy with his driving,” said Hugh’s mother, Nancy Faulkner. “Some of the longer players went out of bounds, so his two drives in-bounds with good distance got him off to a solid start.”

Faulker placed sixth in the chipping, with his two efforts an aggregate total of 23 feet, 7 inches from the cup, then turned his attention to his forte – putting.

Putting once each from 15 and 30 feet, Faulkner placed both within 3 feet of the hole – 2 feet, 9 inches and 2 feet, 5 inches, respectively, to win that portion of the completion.

He finished with 22 total points, just three behind champion Stephen Hernandez of Houston, Texas, who both the driving and chipping competitions.

“I was on the practice putting green with my dad right before we competed, and I looked over and (PGA Tour pro) Zach Johnson was right beside me working on short putts,” Hugh said. “It was so awesome! I was calm and confident after that.”

Saturday was rather special, too, for Faulkner, a third-grader at Greenville’s Sara Collins Elementary; he met singer-songwriter Justin Timberlake and mugged for photos with PGA Tour Justin Rose.

Sunday brought delivered even more fun, as the competitors met former Masters champions Nick Faldo, Adam Scott, Bubba Watson, Gary Player and Mark O’Meara.

And the drive wasn’t bad, either.

“Driving down Magnolia Lane at 7 this morning was the experience of a lifetime for all of us,” Nancy said.