Meet Indian Land High’s first state champion golfer since 2008. He’s in 8th grade
Walk the halls of Indian Land High School in northern Lancaster County, and you won’t be able to find its newest champion.
And that’s because, well, he’s not old enough to be there yet.
Mason Kucia, who’s in the eighth grade and attends Indian Land Middle School, won the 4A boys’ golf individual state championship last week. He’s the first golfer from an ILHS team to win an individual state title since 2008, per South Carolina High School League records — and he’s the only one to do so at all since Indian Land has grown and seen its SCHSL classification jump from 1A to 4A.
“There were kids around me who were going to South Carolina, Clemson, Coastal Carolina (next year),” Kucia told The Herald when asked to describe what it was like going against the championship’s older competition.
He added: “And then I ended up winning, and they were just like, ‘This could really be life-changing for you.’ And that really made me feel good to know that there are guys around me looking out for me.”
Kucia doesn’t necessarily strike you as an eighth-grader: At 6-foot-1, his head pokes above the sea of his classmates in the middle school hallway. He stomps around in a size 13 shoe. He waxes poetic about Tiger Woods, whose success and stardom peaked over a decade ago.
He also says things that make him seem wise beyond his years — particularly about his favorite pastime. When recounting the story of how he first got into golf, he said he “was about 9 or 10 years old when I learned this is what I wanted to do. I told myself, ‘You’re going to be struggling at times. And you’re going to be thriving at times. But you just gotta keep going, keep trying.’ And that just helped me.”
Yes, a 14-year-old recalled saying that to himself when he was 9 or 10.
He said this, too, of watching his favorite golfer bounce back from the lows of his career: “I think that helped me even more,” he said. “About a year ago, I was struggling really bad. That’s when I first started growing. I just lost my feel for the game … I was 5-foot-6. Now I’m, what, almost 6-foot-1? I had to get a new set of clubs over the winter because they were either too small or just not working for me.
“I wouldn’t say I struggled that much. But when I’m struggling, I just know that (Tiger) brought his game back.”
So Kucia knew he could, too.
Kucia’s path to a state championship
Kucia grew up in Cleveland and moved to South Carolina when he was in the second grade. Neither his mother, Jacki, nor his father, Ben, played golf. But that didn’t hinder his budding passion: Kucia was enamored with watching golf on TV before he could talk, and he had his own clubs before the fifth grade, he said.
The summer before seventh grade is when he truly committed himself to golf and saw himself playing the sport in college, he said. That year, he began hitting at Carolina Lakes Golf Club in Indian Land every day after school. (He’d also occasionally play at Lancaster Golf Club with other, older, talented high school golfers who made a name at this year’s state championships, like Trey Crenshaw, who’s committed to Coastal Carolina; Mason Tucker, who’s committed to USC; and others.)
And as an eighth-grader, of course, he made history.
Kucia qualified for the state championships as an individual this year. On the first day of the tournament, he shot a 72 — good enough for third place and only a few strokes behind the leader going into the second and final day.
The next round, last Tuesday, Kucia had no idea of his prospects of winning it all, he said. No live scoreboards kept him up to date.
His assistant principal and co-athletic director, Darryall White, admitted he probably had a better idea of Kucia’s position than Kucia did.
“His mom and I were communicating,” White said with a laugh. “So I’m texting all his teachers, all the admins, all the counselors. In real time, we knew exactly what was going on.”
Kucia ended up shooting a 69. Then — after 30-45 minutes of stressing in the clubhouse with his parents and ILHS coach, Rocky White, waiting for the leader to submit his score — it was revealed: Kucia was a state champion.
“When he finally came in and wrote his score, it was just relieving,” Kucia said. “It didn’t even kick in right then. Just laying in bed that night, though, I was like, ‘Dang, I’m the state champion.’”
Kucia isn’t done
The next day at school — that Wednesday — was “pretty cool,” the understated eighth-grader said with a big smile. Indian Land Middle’s principal, Chris Thorpe, invited Kucia into his office to congratulate him. Kucia’s achievement was blasted over the announcements. He even received an ovation in his first class of the day.
A few days later, Phil Mickelson, a 50-year-old contemporary of Kucia’s idol Tiger Woods, won the PGA Championship in Charleston. Headlines raved about Mickelson’s historic win. One even said that Lefty illustrated that “age is just a number.”
And that’s true.
Kucia had proven that, too.
This story was originally published May 27, 2021 at 7:00 AM.
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