FORT MILL -- With a new look and a swing coach guiding him, Fort Mill's Scott Boston will be entering his senior season on the golf team with his future already set.
Boston has signed to play golf at USC Upstate next year and has dropped 35 pounds as part of his conditioning regimen, which includes running five miles a day. Boston, who hits 600 shots a day at practice, said he is ready for his senior year and starts his day off at the YMCA at 5 a.m., working out with friend and Fort Mill wrestler Mike Medema.
"He truly has helped me drop the weight," Boston said.
He talked with Charlotte and Winthrop about golf, but nothing ever came of it. He went to USC Upstate and realized that's where he wanted to be.
"I really liked the people," he said. "The coach seems like a really nice guy."
Boston has only been playing golf for the past five years, taking up the game when he was 13. Having lived on a golf course when he was younger, Boston never took to the game until after he moved to Fort Mill from Aiken.
About a year ago, Boston met Allen Avakian on the driving range at the Fort Mill Golf Course. Avakian, a golf instructor at Ratcliffe Golf Services in Charlotte, played a round with him and saw something he liked. Avakian soon became his swing coach.
"You want to see someone apply themselves," Avakian said. "In looking at him, I saw there was a lot of potential. Scott just needed some direction."
Boston has always taken his game seriously, but really concentrated on improving over the past year. He was unranked last year, but is now ranked 40th in the state by the Junior Golf Association.
"He has taken me to the next level," Boston said of Avakian.
Fort Mill golf coach Steve Gribble said he has been impressed with Boston, who has been on his team since he was a freshman. Boston failed to make the golf team as an eighth-grader, missing the cut by just one stroke. Gribble said he remembers a very determined Boston walking up to him after the results were posted.
"He told me, 'I will be on your team next year,'" Gribble said.
The determination has pushed Boston, the son of Brian and Jane Boston, to improve his game.
"He has got the will to win and to do well and excel," Gribble said.
Boston, who has a 3.5 grade-point average and plans to major in business and marketing, said he will work to try to make the PGA Tour after college.
"I have the next five years to work on it," he said. "We will see where it goes from there."
