The Chapin girls golf team has gotten close but has failed to break through and win the state championship. Coach Greg Hamm is looking to change that.

The Eagles have never won a girls' golf title but have finished runner-up in each of the past four seasons. The team enters 2025 with a lot of experience and expectations, hoping to make history and overcome the barrier that has been standing in its way. 

“ Golf is hard. It's as much mental as it is physical,” Hamm said. “We've had some bad breaks at bad times. Some of it is self-inflicted, some of it, put upon us by our competitors. But golf in and of itself, that's kind of how it works. It runs in streaks, it runs in cycles.”

The Eagles are looking to go on a streak this season and compete after losing the championship in a playoff to T.L. Hanna last season. 

Chapin returns three of the five athletes it sent to the final. Reagan Haggard, Kataleya Furie and Sadie Licata are back and off to a good start this season. 

The team is having to replace the production of two seniors from last season, including Lilly Reed Black, the first individual state champion in school history.

“ It's got to be a long-term play,” Hamm said. “In other words, it's not something that you just plug and play. It's got to be somebody that's been in the program, that understands how high school competitive golf actually works, and they've got to come in and kind of put their time in and take their lumps when they're not necessarily in that top five.”

Hamm said that Ansley Couch and Charlotte Miller have done a good job at stepping up to fill that void this season. 

The Eagles are off to a solid start this season with appearances at the Lady Bengal, the Blue Jacket Invitational and the Palmetto Preview. Chapin finished fourth, fifth and fifth. 

“I’m actually pleased with where we’re at,” Hamm said.  ”We've been [top-five] in all three events, even with the inexperience that we have. So I'm very happy with that.”

Chapin will take on the Lady Trojan, WSCGA High School Invitational and 19th Annual Smith Memorial before beginning postseason play. From there, the team will lock in and look to finally break through to the top. 

While success this year is a big motivating factor for the team, Hamm is making sure to look beyond this year and get the program in a position to contend every year.   

“We’ve had a very successful four or five-year run here at Chapin,” Hamm said. “We are looking to actually prolong that, and how we do that is by developing our younger kids that aren’t necessarily playing in the top five.  We try to keep everything very much competitive. From the JVs all the way up to varsity.”