Blog

Warren, Tilghman Named to South Carolina Golf Hall of Fame      

Columbia, S.C. - NCAA champion Charles Warren and Golf Channel personality Kelly Tilghman have been chosen for induction into the South Carolina Golf Hall of Fame, president Frank Ford III announced August 1, 2018.

The honorees will become the shrine’s 69th and 70th members in ceremonies during the South Carolina Golf Association’s annual Golf Day in January.

Warren, the most decorated player in Clemson golf history, calls his selection “truly an honor” and caps a career that includes victories from junior competition to the professional game.

Tilghman, a pioneer among women in golf broadcasting, helped build the Golf Channel’s popularity in a 22-year career that included becoming the first full-time female play-by-play announcer for a PGA TOUR event. “I’m thrilled,” she said.

Warren, a Columbia native who lives in Greenville, calls winning the 1997 NCAA Championship the victory he cherishes most among the many titles he earned. Introduced to the game by his grandfather, he learned the fundamentals from Hall of Fame pro Grant Bennett and honed his on-course expertise from pro Joey Graham. He won the state high school championship at A.C. Flora, the acclaimed Southern Cross junior tournament, the Carolinas Amateur, the South Carolina Amateur and sparkled in college. In the pros, he won three Web.com tournaments and played eight years on the PGA TOUR. Warren is the first golfer, and ninth person overall, to be inducted into Clemson’s prestigious Ring of Honor.

In addition to winning the 1997 NCAAs, he finished second a year later and is the only Clemson player to win two individual Atlantic Coast Conference championships and a three-time All-American.

Since leaving professional golf, he has been instrumental in fund-raising efforts for the Clemson golf program, statewide junior golf and The First Tee Program. He serves on the board of the Upstate First Tee and had been a member of the Players’ Advisory Council for both the PGA and Web.com Tours.

Tilghman will become the third member of her family in the South Carolina Golf Hall of Fame. She will join grandfather Melvin Hemphill, a famed teaching professional, and great aunt Kathryn Hemphill, a top player in the 1930s and ’40s.

Tilghman grew up in North Myrtle Beach around the game of golf, working at her parents’ course, Gator Hole. She shaped her game at Gator Hole, the Surf Club and the Dunes Golf and Beach Club. She played basketball and golf in high school and earned a golf scholarship to Duke University. In college, she won the Lady Paladin Invitational at Furman. Then from 1992-1996, would move on to play professionally in Europe, Asia and Australia.

She joined the fledgling Golf Channel and worked for the network until resigning in March. Stepping on the scene quickly, she filled numerous on-air roles and in 2007 worked with Nick Faldo and Peter Oosterhuis, as the Golf Channel began televising PGA TOUR events. Tilghman has been involved with the First Tee of Horry County and Brunswick, N.C. as well as the Winnie Palmer Hospital for Women and Babies in Orlando, Fla.

The Hall of Fame induction ceremonies will be held January 12th at Columbia Country Club. A limited number of tickets will be available. For information, contact the South Carolina Golf Association at 803-732-9311 or /Blog/warren-tilghman-named-to-south-carolina-golf-hall-of-fame