South Carolina has its next star in charismatic golfer Eila Galitsky
Finally, someone is honest. Someone has the courage to tell the truth, to give an unedited reason why, of all the colleges in the world, they chose to attend the University of South Carolina.
“I like our motto,” freshman golfer Eila Galitsky said with a laugh. “Go Cocks.”
OK, that’s not the entire reason that Galitsky — the 18th-ranked amateur in the world — chose USC, but hey, it didn’t hurt.
And Galitsky is comfortable enough to say so, the rare 18-year-old golfer who actually acts 18. Rarely serious. Unapologetically candid. And looking for a punchline.
“I think honesty is the best policy,” Galitsky said. “I know some people say I’m a little harsh, but I think I’m funny.”
Take, for example, the 12th hole Saturday at the Augusta National Women’s Amateur. Galitsky’s playing partner, Scarlett Schemmer, attacked the pin and somehow, some way, her ball missed short and didn’t plunge into Rae’s Creek. It was a minor miracle … and Schemmer’s face didn’t move.
A few seconds earlier, Galitsky sent a towering shot into Golden Bell. Has coach Kalen Anderson been working with her on a lower ball flight? Yes. Do Galitsky’s irons look majestic when she pounds them? Also yes.
But there is something about high shots into No. 12. The ball just floats and floats and the golfer has to pray the wind doesn’t act up. Mother Nature cooperated. Galitsky’s ball fell in the center of the green and the 18-year old looked at some spectators to her right, cocked her head, raised her eyebrows and let out an actual sigh of relief — her telling the gallery, boy, am I glad that worked out.
“I’ve never been dry on that shot,” she said after her round.
Sometimes the best golf comes from a player leaning into their nerves rather than fighting them.
Perhaps that explains how Galitsky shot 6-under Saturday — including a 5-under front nine — tying the ANWA course record to finish tied for fourth in her third Augusta National Women’s Amateur.
What’s harder to explain is something more innate — the fact that Galitsky just tore up perhaps the most famous course in the world, yet finished up saying she was hungry (It seems like she was talking about food) and disappointed.
“With how I was hitting the ball today, I’m going to be honest, I should have been way lower than 6-under,” she said. “I missed so many easy putts out there. I hit such great shots today. I don’t even know what to say. I think I was just so in the zone today.”
“That’s what separates her a little bit,” added South Carolina coach Kalen Anderson after the round. “If there’s someone who’s not afraid to make 18 birdies, it’s Eila.”
The transition to college
That’s what Anderson is learning about her freshman, just as her freshman is learning about South Carolina and the rigors of college golf. The transition hasn’t seemed to be too much of a concern after Galitsky won in her second collegiate start back in February.
But when she arrived on campus in January as an 18-year-old, she watched snow fall for the first time in her life. She’s also living alone for the first time, thousands of miles away from her family in Thailand and now in charge of her own schedule.
Galitsky became one of the world’s best young golfers in large part because of a diverse family — her father is Canadian, her mom is Thai and Galitsky is a dual citizen in Canada and Thailand — that exposed her to golf and pushed her to become great.
They were the ones scheduling training and thinking ahead to tournaments and booking flights and handling the logistics. Now, all of that responsibility — all of that independence — is on the 18-year-old.
“I hate to say it, but I love it. I love it so much,” Galitsky said. “I get to plan everything on my own schedule. I love my parents to death, but sometimes they are a lot. I think it’s been great getting to kind of find yourself, grow into an independent person.”
And doing that in college — especially in the SEC — comes with its own set of perks.
“You get to kind of grow up, in all honesty, on somebody else’s dime, ”Anderson said. “That’s really what it’s about here: You get a high-level program and some of the best competition in the country and some of the best golf courses. This is where you learn to do it.”
And that learning takes time. For instance, Galitsky still doesn’t need to advance to the level of purchasing her own airline tickets. And, heck, perhaps she never will — professionals have agents who handle those things.
But in school, Galitsky is learning that she has to plan her day past “wake and and go where my parents take me.”
When she got to USC, “I was never late to anything if I knew that thing was happening,” she said. “I just never know what’s going on. So if I know I have to be somewhere, I’ll be there on time. I just have to know first.”
Which leads us to what feels like a matter of when, not if: A professional career. Will she stay at South Carolina all four years or start thinking about a pro career in the next few years?
The answer, of course, is maybe. Who knows? That’s for future Eila to worry about.
“I just kind of like to go with the flow,” she said. “If I start playing well, who knows? I really don’t know. I’m just enjoying it now, and I think that’s all that matters.”
This story was originally published April 5, 2025 at 5:07 PM with the headline "South Carolina has its next star in charismatic golfer Eila Galitsky."
