By PATRICK JONES
Ted Kiegiel, head golf professional at Carolina Country Club (CCC) in Raleigh, could not foretell the exact future of the precocious 9-year-old boy hitting balls in front of his discerning eyes almost a decade ago. But he knew, beyond a doubt, that he was watching raw golfing talent that surpassed anything he had personally witnessed before.
Prior to coming to Raleigh, Kiegiel spent eight years as an assistant professional at Augusta National Golf Club, home to The Masters Tournament. He had already seen a parade of precocious wannabes with premature, and often misguided, dreams of golfing greatness. It is a tough lesson in the sports world that grand ambition without the requisite talent is a trodden path to the minors.
But then in the middle 1990s, Kiegiel spotted this fresh-faced kid, a new golf student named Webb Simpson, crisply striking balls off the ground like some sort of Tiger Woods Mini-Me – the suburbanite, country club version. Simpson, still shy of his 10th birthday, made an instant and lasting impression on Kiegiel during their initial student-instructor encounter at the private, in-town CCC course off Glenwood Road.
Astonished by what he saw, Kiegiel promptly sent a letter home to Simpson's mother and father. His note was a rousing one. Kiegiel informed Simpson's parents that, in his estimation, they had a child prodigy eating his Wheaties at their breakfast table every morning.
"As a competitive player and coach, I have seen and played with the best talent in the golf industry in a competitive arena," said Kiegiel. "I wrote his parents and told them that Webb was gifted in a lot of ways, and that he was, by far, the finest junior player that I had seen at that age. I told them that if he was willing to dedicate himself to the game, I knew that one day he was going to be very successful."
Nine years later, Kiegiel's predictions of achievement – certified by Simpson's virtuoso talents and Vijay Singh-like worth ethic – have come to fruition.
Simpson is now a boyishly handsome 6-foot-2, 185-pound golfing crackerjack who can easily bomb it past 300 yards, and with a soft touch to boot. In March he won the Azalea Invitational in Charleston, S.C., outplaying a field of the best amateur players in the country, regardless of age. Even the reigning U.S. Public Links champion, Brandt Snedeker, and the Mid-Amateur champion, Nathan Smith, could not keep up with Simpson's scorching 270 total that included rounds of 68-64-69-69.
These were grown men left in the wake by Simpson, who was still a high school whippersnapper at the time. Snedeker's pedigree, for instance, included the 2003 Southeastern Conference Player of the Year award while at Vanderbilt. After the Azalea, Snedeker went on to play in The Masters with guys named Phil and Tiger and Ernie.
Simpson, meanwhile, returned home to play nine-hole prep matches vs. the Green Hope High Falcons at Lochmere Golf Course.
It was almost anticlimactic in May when Simpson won North Carolina's 4-A individual medalist honors at Pinehurst. He also led Broughton High School to its sixth team championship in the past seven years. Simpson cherishes the accomplishment, particularly considering Broughton had faded to fourth in the team competition last year, and he had finished a close third, second and fifth in the medalist competition in three previous tries at the state's top high school honor.
"I wanted to win it the last two years but it didn't happen," said Simpson. "It is satisfying knowing that I won it in my last year. I was playing well coming into the tournament this time. My confidence level was up and I was a lot more at ease. I was just very glad that it finally happened.
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