Passion, grit, and resilience – the pillars that form a silhouette of Carter Loflin. The young player, who has garnered attention for being a U.S. Amateur semifinalist at Merion Golf Club this year, is an admired member of Berkeley Hills Country Club. Join us for an interesting dive as the club takes you inside Loflin’s life, how his journey began, the trials he faced, the accolades he earned, and what he’s most enthused about in his upcoming years as a young golf talent.
Carter’s run to Merion’s final four capped a summer that also included a runner-up finish at the Georgia State Amateur and a 10-shot, wire-to-wire win at the Dogwood Invitational, a tournament whose past champions include Dustin Johnson, Justin Thomas, and Brooks Koepka. But ask Loflin where that game was built, and the answer isn’t a tour stop. It’s Berkeley Hills.
Carter Loflin captured the 2026 Dogwood Invitational Championship - one of amateur golf’s premier titles
The Gift That Keeps On Giving
Loflin’s connection to the club goes back nearly his entire life. His mother gifted his father the membership almost 20 years ago – “the gift that keeps on giving,” as Stephen Loflin still calls it, and Carter’s first memories at Berkeley Hills date to age five. Living near the 17th hole, his afternoons had a rhythm: school let out, and he walked straight to the course.
“Berkeley has always been a major part of my life since I was little,” Loflin said. “My entire day was centered around golf. It has always been a place that my parents and I knew was safe. There were always older people around me that helped me mature.”
Stephen Loflin putting with his son Carter - the start of a nearly 20-year family connection at Berkeley Hills
A Course Built to Challenge
Ask Loflin what Berkeley Hills gave his game specifically, and he doesn’t hesitate: variety and discomfort, in the best sense.
“The course makes you use every club in your bag, and you get to experience every type of shot,” he said. “The course makes you uncomfortable and pushes you outside of your comfort zone. Berkeley has good greens, putting on good greens my whole life helped my game.”
His favorite stretch is holes 2 through 7 – “the trickiest part of the course because it gives you a little of everything,” a fitting proving ground for a player whose game now has to hold up on courses like Merion.
Long before Merion, Carter put in the hours on the practice range - the foundation of a game built at Berkeley Hills
Carter Loflin’s swing, tested in front of galleries on golf’s biggest amateur stages
Course Conditions, By Design
That difficulty is by design. Berkeley Hills’ Director of Golf has a great insight:
“Berkeley Hills offers a challenging course that rewards a sharp short game. With small, well-guarded target greens and a layout that calls for every club in your bag, it’s a course that pushes you to grow as a player every time you tee it up.” — Keith Roberts, Director of Golf
Berkeley Hills’ Golf Course Superintendent, Jack Willhite, puts a finer point on it: tight, well- conditioned greens force real decisions – how much green to attack, when to play aggressively versus conservatively.
“The size of the greens make for a tight target where players have to consider where they want to position their tee shots, how much of the green they want to attack, and when it makes sense to be aggressive versus when to play conservatively. That kind of decision-making is a major part of competitive golf that you can find at Berkeley.” — Jack Willhite, Golf Course Superintendent
Getting there daily comes down to close attention to firmness, smoothness, speed, and moisture on the greens, along with fairway and rough heights, bunker conditions, and overall course presentation, adjusted continually for weather, traffic, and tournament play, all while protecting the long-term health of the turf.
Instruction That Goes the Distance
It isn’t just the course. Berkeley Hills’ teaching staff, according to the Director of Golf, has the experience to coach players “all the way to the collegiate and professional levels,” whether refining fundamentals or preparing for competitive play. For a young player with ambitions as big as Loflin’s, that meant access to instruction that could grow with him.
Learning From the Room
If there’s a thread that connects Loflin’s Berkeley Hills upbringing to his run at this year’s U.S. Amateur, it might be this: he’s always played up.
“Being able to grow up around really good golfers and being a younger kid playing around these members helped me significantly,” Carter said. “Helped me develop into who I am today. It really is all about the membership Berkeley has.”
Director of Golf, Keith Roberts, saw that determination firsthand.
“Even early on, Carter was determined, and he played with purpose in every shot he hit,” he said. “It was a lot of fun to watch him grow up here, win the Southeastern Junior Tournament, and take home many other titles at Berkeley Hills.”
That same dynamic showed up at Merion in an unexpected way. Loflin leaned heavily on Jack Hopkins, a Merion caddie in his 35th year on the bag, as Golf Digest reported. Hopkins’ course knowledge and steady presence became, in Loflin’s words, “a positive voice on my shoulder” all week – a veteran mentor guiding a young player through pressure, much the way Berkeley Hills’ members once did for him.
Carter Loflin lines up a putt at the U.S. Amateur, with his caddie reading the green alongside him
A Dream Come True
For Loflin, simply teeing it up at the U.S. Amateur meant something before a single match was played.
“USGA Amateur Tournament has always been the tournament that I have always wanted to be part of,” he said. “Kind of cliché, but it’s been a dream come true. I have worked my whole life towards it. I feel extremely lucky to be part of it.”
Asked to sum up what Berkeley Hills has meant to his journey, Loflin doesn’t need much room:
“It is a shorter, but demanding golf course that really challenges every aspect of your golf game. It is an incredible environment to grow up in and improves your golf game.”
Looking Ahead
Loflin returns to Athens for his senior season at Georgia this fall, chasing an SEC and NCAA title with a game that’s been tested at the highest level of amateur golf. Whatever comes next, Berkeley Hills members can watch it knowing they had a hand in shaping it; from a five-year-old walking up to hole 17, to a Final Four finish at Merion.
Carter Loflin heads into his senior season at the University of Georgia this fall
Develop a Game That Can Take You Anywhere
From a first putt on hole 17 to the US Amateur Semifinals, see what a Berkeley Hills membership can build for your game.
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