Golf Tales - Derek Hitchner

Meet two young and aspiring Minnesota golfers, Derek?Hitchner and Emma Carpenter, who are turning heads with their talent and?work?ethic.

Minnesota

In early November, as he was finishing a practice round at The Saticoy Club, approximately 35 miles northwest of the campus of Pepperdine University, Derek Hitchner’s phone flashed an unknown call from New Jersey.

On the other end was the USGA, informing Hitchner he’d been one of 16 players invited to the practice session in Jupiter, Fla., for the U.S. Walker Cup team.

“It’s such an honor to have the opportunity, and I’m very grateful to make it into that group,” Hitchner said. “It’s pretty surreal that I’ll be at least in consideration for that.”

“I knew with how the summer ended and where my [WAGR ranking] was, I was on the cusp of being invited.”

The invite is the result of a handful of strong finishes at some of the country’s premiere amateur events over the past two seasons.

Feeling the sting of being left off the postseason roster at the end of his junior season, Hitchner watched his teammates celebrate Pepperdine’s second national championship in school history.

“That was certainly motivating. I wanted to participate and feel like I could contribute to the win,” he said. “I didn’t feel like I was wronged in any way or that I didn’t deserve it. I was getting beat by a ton of really good players on a really deep and stacked team.”

“I realized that I had to work as hard as I could to get better, and at that point, I wasn’t good enough to be in that lineup. We had a tournament three weeks before the postseason started—I played well as an individual, finished fourth and it was effectively the end of my season.”

Hitchner quietly went to work and turned heads nationally when he claimed a top-20 finish at the Sunnehanna Amateur and followed it with a remarkable come-from-behind win at the Trans-Miss Amateur at Windsong Farm. 

He would end the 2021 summer season with a record-setting wire-to-wire win at the Minnesota Golf Association Amateur Championship at Rush Creek, a runner-up finish at the Minnesota State Open and his third appearance at the U.S. Amateur.

Claiming four top-10 finishes during his senior season at Pepperdine in 2022, Hitchner finished second on the team in scoring average and earned an All-American Honorable Mention nod from Golfweek.

He carried momentum into the summer of 2022 where he notched a sixth-place finish during stroke play at the Western Amateur in Illinois before falling during the quarterfinal round.

Just two weeks later, during his fourth appearance at the National Amateur in New Jersey, Hitchner qualified for match play for the first time, and pieced together three wins before falling to Georgia Southern University’s Ben Carr in the semifinals.  

“During stroke play I knew I was playing pretty well, but my focus was just getting into [match play],” he said. “It was such a grind. I had one of the tougher rounds of my life during the second round of stroke play. The course set up was so challenging and the conditions were so hard. It was such a mental battle."

“Once I got to match play, I felt like I was able to reset and everyone was starting from zero again. I’ve always been pretty comfortable in match play, but I was just super excited to cross that line.”

But it’s Hitchner’s relentless work ethic and tireless desire to improve that has set him apart from his peers both locally and on the national level—something his longtime swing coach and high school coach at The Blake School, Marshall Hoiness, noticed from an early age.

“There is absolutely no doubt that he works at his game as hard as anyone I’ve ever heard of,” Hoiness said. “Even Derek will tell you, he doesn’t deserve anything—that’s just the way he is. Unless he’s earned it, in his mind he doesn’t deserve it.”

Hitchner and Hoiness collected three straight Class AA team championships from 2015 to 2017, while Hitchner claimed the individual title during his sophomore season in 2016, setting a tournament record with his opening-round 65 on his way to an 11-stroke victory.

“I can honestly tell you that he is the most genuine and humble person I’ve ever met,” Hoiness said. “I try to use my social media accounts to brag for him because he will never do it himself.”

Hitchner’s invite to join the Walker Cup practice session in December comes at a precarious period for the 23-year-old Minneapolis native.

The PGA Tour University’s recent eligibility changes have allowed an even faster track to golf’s top tour, drawing the interest of Hitchner and the nation’s best collegiate players.

In mid-November, the PGA Tour announced the No. 1 player to finish in the PGA Tour University Velocity Global Rankings will earn full PGA Tour status following the conclusion of the NCAA postseason, while players who finish inside of  20th will earn at least conditional status through either the Korn Ferry, Canada or Latin America Tours, as well as exemptions into PGA Tour Qualifying School.

Despite his success against the best amateurs in the world over the past two seasons, Hitchner decided to return to Pepperdine for his fifth season of collegiate golf.

“It just felt a little premature for me to turn pro,” he said. “I didn’t play a ton the first couple of years of school and didn’t get some of the benefits of our schedule or the caliber of people we play against.”

Currently, Hitchner is 23rd in the PGA Tour University rankings, and beginning in January, he will enter the final eight tournaments of his collegiate career ranked No. 29 in the Golfstat individual rankings.

“It will really depend on how I play the last part of the season and where I stack up. It’s a good problem to have right now—either I’m going to start my professional journey, which I’m really excited about, or I may possibly be in the running for the Walker Cup, which is incredibly exciting.”

What golfer wouldn’t be thrilled to join the 2023 Walker Cup, scheduled for September 2-3 at St. Andrews’ Old Course in Scotland?