Chesnee state golf champ Sydney Roberts' bond with her father helped lead her to Clemson

Sydney Roberts inherited her father's considerable golf talent, but she doesn't share his side of the contentious in-state rivalry when it comes to colleges.

Her dad, Kevin Roberts, is one of the most accomplished area golfers and a longtime South Carolina fan. Sydney Roberts is a Clemson signee and reigning Class AAA state champion and All-Upstate Girls Golfer of the Year.

"There's orange in the house now because she's already wearing Clemson stuff and is excited to go," Kevin Roberts said, laughing. "I've always told them we even throw away orange crayons in our house. I'm not wearing orange. I will wear purple, but it can't have the Tiger paw on it. I'm not to that point yet and hope I don't get to that point."

There was a point when dad was surprised his daughter, after participating in many sports, expressed a desire as a 10-year-old she'd like to give his passion a try and learn to play golf.

Sydney Roberts became interested after following her father during the Spartanburg County Men's Amateur Championships. He's tied for second all-time with three victories and has finished eighth or better in 12 of his last 13 starts.

"He got me into it and I just fell in love with it," she said. "It was unlike any other sport I'd ever tried."

She vividly remembers the first time she told her dad she wanted to start playing. They were having dinner at home with a friend who asked if she ever thought about learning to play golf.

"I said, 'yeah' and my dad just kind of looked at me funny," Sydney Roberts said. "I think at that point he didn't think I would take it seriously and didn't think I'd stick with it, but here we are. After that first summer, I knew it was my sport."

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Kevin Roberts had been contemplating shoulder surgery and went ahead with the procedure once his daughter announced she wanted to give golf a go. He figured he would spend his summer caddying for her on the weekends. He humorously recalled her first tournament during the Hootie & the Blowfish Junior Golf Series when he carried her bag on one shoulder with his other arm in a sling. She shot 64 over nine very short holes.

"I thought to myself maybe I should have rethought this," Kevin Roberts said. "But we had an awesome time and laughed a lot because she was so green."

A little over two months later, Sydney Roberts posted her lowest round with a 41.

"I was skeptical at first, but I remember the first time I knew she was going to be pretty good a month or so after she'd begun playing," Kevin Roberts said. "She was playing with little pink Callaway clubs and on the Cherokee National No. 12 tee box, which is a sharp dogleg left … she hit a really pretty draw right around the corner. I remember that shot to this day and recall how I thought she might be able to get this."

Sydney Roberts did sporadically utilize various instructors early on, but says her father "pretty much taught me most of the stuff. He doesn't really hit many range balls so he'd just have me go hit and watch. He basically fixes what I'm doing wrong."

Before long she was joining her dad's foursome for their weekly Saturday 'dog fight' competitions.

By the time Sydney Roberts advanced to become a very competitive teenager, the family began to travel to some of the more well-respected tournaments around the Carolinas.

"Me and my wife, Staci, didn't know at first just how devoted you had to be and how much traveling you had to do to get recognized," Kevin Roberts said. "We didn't quite know what we were getting into. Don't get me wrong, we loved it. It was like taking a beach trip for us or something like that, just spending all day at the golf course was like our own little vacation."

Sydney Roberts is ranked second by the SCGA and earlier this month finished third at the state amateur. One thing she hasn't done is beat dad, something he's not shy about reminding her.

"I'm working on that," Sydney Roberts said. "I didn't inherit the trash talking gene. I feel like all we talk about is golf. My sister talks junk to me all the time, too, so I get an earful."

This article originally appeared on Herald-Journal: Sydney Roberts led to Clemson University golf through bond with dad