Laurel Golfer Sets Goal of One Day Playing for Pay

Jason Clatworthy's father, Sam, played college football as a linebacker at a school in Ohio and his younger brother Justin, who graduates on Wednesday from St. Vincent Pallotti High, also played that sport as a lineman for the Panthers. His mother, Sandy, is from Silver Spring and played sports in college at Villanova.

Jason Clatworthy, 19, however, has excelled in another sport, golf, in which the concept of team is much different than football. But it should be no suprise that Clatworthy, a Laurel resident, gravitated to golf. His family has lived in a house near the golf course at Patuxent Greens in Laurel since he was born.

A graduate of Pallotti, Clatworthy picked up a club for the first time when he was 3 or 4 and began playing competitive golf about eight years later. He also played baseball when he was younger but began to focus on golf once he entered Pallotti High.

He has spent hours on the course at Patuxent and has played at many of the clubs in suburban Maryland, but he has taken his game to other parts of the country as well.

Clatworthy just concluded his sophomore season on the team at Division I Charleston Southern in South Carolina.

"I would definitely like to see where golf can take me," Clatworthy told Patch on Monday, before heading home for his younger brother's graduation. "I have not been a fan of a desk job. I like being outside and playing golf. I just have plenty of golf left and time to work on my game. We will see where it takes me."

Mike Wilson, the Charleston Southern head coach, told Patch on Tuesday that Clatworthy is "probably the hardest-worker on the team, on the course. He has improved quite a lot since he got here. He definitely has a shot to play golf professionally if he improves every year like he has so far."

As a college freshman he got to play on the famed TPC Sawgrass course in Florida. This summer Clatworthy plans to play a lot of golf in Maryland, including the state amateur event next month in Montgomery County. He also plans to attend the U.S. Open at Congressional in Bethesda as a fan in June and may try and qualify for the Melwood Prince George's County Open to be held June 2-5 in College Park.

Clatworthy was part of a strong team at Pallotti that included Ryan Poole, who graduated last year from Coastal Carolina. After high school Clatworthy looked into programs at Johnson & Wales University in Florida, Towson and North Carolina Wesleyan before learning that Charleston Southern was seeking strong players.

Pat Poole, the Pallotti head coach, said Tuesday that his assistant coach, Chuck Turesko, has connections around the region and helped Clatworthy get in touch with the program at Charleston Southern. Turesko is also general manager of the the Laurel Golf Center, according to Poole.

This season Clatworthy appeared in nearly every match for Charleston Southern. "In the (Big South) conference we did not do so hot," Clatworthy said. "This year we were fifth but we had two guys make all-conference. One guy went to regionals."

At 5-foot-7, 167 pounds, Clatworthy played in 21 rounds as a freshman during the 2009-10 season and had a stroke average of 77.57. He shot a 69 in the second round of the Spring Hill Suites Invitational, his best round of the season. He was the second-best Charleston Southern golfer at the Davidson College Invitational when he tied for 32nd. Clatworthy tied for 38th in the Big South Championship.

At Pallotti he had a 35.5 nine-hole averaged and helped the Panthers go 65-2 during his four-year career. He was an all-MIAA performer under head coach Poole. He is on a partial golf scholarship in college and also has an academic scholarship as a kinesiology major. His brother, who also played golf at Pallotti, plans to play football at Widener University.