Reed Lotter, a 16-year-old junior at Savannah Country Day, has been granted a sponsor’s exemption into the upcoming Club Car Championship at The Landings Club on March 25-28 at the Deer Creek Course. Formerly known as The Savannah Golf Championship, the tournament is part of the Korn Ferry Tour and has been played at Deer Creek each year.
In Savannah’s history, golf has long been a favorite of the city and its native sons. The best players from the Coastal Empire have gone on to Division I colleges and often find their way into professional golf.
Lotter is the latest in the city’s lineage of supremely talented golfers with a potential future at the professional level, and he will join 48-year-old journeyman pro from Savannah, Tim O’Neal, in representing his hometown in a tournament returning the fourth straight year.
For the professional golfers on the Korn Ferry Tour, the Club Car Championship is just another chance to points, rise higher in the money standings and inch closer to making it to the PGA Tour. For Lotter, it is a chance to represent Savannah and he’ll do so on a course he has dominated several times before.
Lotter carded the Deer Creek course record, a 9-under par 63, when he was just 14-years-old and he only missed qualifying for the tournament through a Monday qualifier in 2020 by one stroke. During last year’s Club Car Championship, Korn Ferry Tour pro Julián Etulain broke Lotter’s record by posting a second-round 62.
Lotter will be the first junior member of The Landings Club to compete in the club’s marquee event.
“I would say my game is really starting to trend (up) again,” Lotter said. “I'm really starting to strike it the way I want to. My short game is really good right now and overall, my game is looking good for the spring schedule.
“And that’s especially The Club Car Championship - that is the one I’m definitely looking forward to the most,” Lotter added.
He is currently ranked 33rd in Georgia among male players and ranked 77th in the American Junior Golf Association Rolex Rankings, but Lotter isn’t preparing for just this one event. He has a team of current and former professionals who regularly play with the 16-year-old and usually come away impressed.
Professional golfer Mark SIlvers, a 2005 graduate of Savannah Country Day and former University of South Carolina golfer who has qualified for the Savannah Golf Championship previously, walked nine holes with Lotter and the SCDS golf team at The Savannah Golf Club last week. Silvers said he believes Lotter has the tools and makeup to be as good as any of the golfers Savannah has produced.
“He seems to have a great understanding of the game, which is something that, you know, everyone takes time to learn,” Silvers said. “He hits different shots, he's disciplined, his course management looks great, and he really does seem to learn from the people around him.
“Kids can sometimes be stubborn, hard-headed, or scared to ask questions. He doesn't have any of that in him. None at all. It seems like he's got a great mind for golf. Just a very, very mature game for somebody at his age.”
Lotter has made himself into a 16-year-old with laser focus on one thing and one thing only: golf.
Lotter can’t imagine not being at the course or on the practice range working. He says it’s golf that entertains him and it’s golf that makes up his social life.
“I like golf because you never really get to the top, because once you get to the top, you fall to the bottom,” Lotter said. “I think that golf is just all about a process. Some days you are at the top of the world and, the next day, you feel like you got thrown off a cliff and you're starting all over again.
“That’s certainly why I like golf. Because I just have that competitive bug that drives me every day.”
So there aren’t many beach days or pool gatherings in the summer. And Lotter doesn’t really spend time on other hobbies or interests.
“I truly love the sport and I truly want to excel at it,” Lotter said. “You can't do everything. But, you know, I mean, it's a serious sport. So I have to put in the time and be serious with it.”
Lotter is being recruited by college golf powerhouses, but he has narrowed his list of potential schools down to the University of Georgia, Auburn University, the University of Mississippi, Georgia Southern University and Vanderbilt University.
For now, Lotter continues working seven days a week leading up to the Club Car Championship. He’ll have all eyes on him, including many of the professionals likely to be chasing up the leaderboard.
“I think it's just kind of like the sacrifice you make, so that you have gone at it 100-percent before you even begin a tournament, “I want to be ready when I step to the tee at (The Club Car Championship).”
Follow Travis Jaudon on Twitter @JaudonSports and contact him at travisLjaudon@gmail.com.
