A golfer from Wellington, Alec Prentice arrived at USC Upstate in the autumn of 2023 and won the Big South Freshman of the Year award in his first season. In his sophomore year in 2024-25 he shot a school record 63, helped USC Upstate win their first team title since 2019, and recorded two top-five individual finishes. He is still only in his second year of college golf.
Alec Prentice trained under PGA Professional Kevin Smith in Wellington before heading to the United States, a coaching relationship that places him in distinguished company. Kevin Smith has previously developed two of New Zealand's most successful young golfers in Daniel Hillier and Julianne Alvarez, both of whom went on to compete at the highest level internationally. The standard of coaching Alec came from, and what it produced, was evident from his very first months at USC Upstate.
He arrived in South Carolina in the autumn of 2023 as an unknown quantity to most of the Big South Conference. By the end of his freshman season he had won the conference's Freshman of the Year award, been named Freshman of the Week three times, won the programme's first individual event title since the 2020-21 season, and etched his name into the USC Upstate record books on multiple occasions. His sophomore year has continued in the same direction, and then some.
Alec attended Paraparaumu College in Wellington, developing his game on New Zealand's Kapiti Coast before making the move to the United States. The coaching relationship with Kevin Smith gave him a technical foundation well above what most junior golfers his age would have access to, and the discipline and competitive instincts that come from training under someone who has developed multiple internationally competitive players.
That foundation mattered immediately. USC Upstate head coach Todd Lawton recruited Alec knowing the quality of his development pathway in New Zealand, and the expectation from the outset was that he would contribute in his first season rather than serve a development year on the bench. That expectation proved accurate.
Alec's freshman season in 2023-24 produced results that most collegiate golfers at any programme would be pleased to deliver across four years, let alone one.
In November 2023 he won the Big South Preview at Fripp Island with rounds of 65-71 for a six under total of 136, claiming the first individual event title for the USC Upstate programme since the 2020-21 season. His opening round of 65 tied for the second-lowest single round by score in programme history. His 36-hole total of 136 tied for the fifth-lowest total in the programme's history. He also led the entire field in birdies across the tournament with 12, and tied for the tournament lead in par-3 and par-5 scoring.
He backed that up with consistent contributions across 28 rounds of competition, finishing the season with a 74.7 scoring average and 283 individual victories. At the end of the season the Big South Conference named him Freshman of the Year, with coach Lawton reflecting: "Alec had a special year filled with memorable moments. There's no doubt he's still growing as a golfer and will use his talent to be an even stronger competitor next year. I'm incredibly proud of him."
That final line, there is no doubt he is still growing, is the most important part of that quote. A freshman season that rewrites programme records and wins a conference award is not the ceiling of an athlete who has been trained by a coach who has developed internationally competitive players. It is the floor.
Alec's sophomore season in 2024-25 confirmed everything his freshman year had suggested and added a new level of individual excellence to it.
In November 2024, competing at the Fripp Island Intercollegiate on the same Ocean Creek Course where he had won as a freshman, he shot a second-round 63 that set a new USC Upstate school record, bettering a mark that had stood since 2016. He tied for first individually with scores of 70-63-73 for a seven under total of 206, and his 63 came in conditions featuring 15 to 20 mph winds, a detail that makes the score considerably more impressive than it appears on paper. USC Upstate won the team title that weekend, their first since 2019, with Alec's performance at the top of the leaderboard throughout the final round.
In March 2026 he finished tied for fifth at the Golden Nugget Invitational, shooting nine under par with rounds of 68-67-72 for a 207 total, his second top-five individual finish of the season and a score that placed him tied for third in the programme record book for lowest 54-hole total.
Alec's pathway from Wellington to South Carolina is instructive for families thinking about college golf recruitment because it illustrates something the source material alone cannot convey: the gap between what a signing announcement describes and what a well-prepared athlete actually goes on to produce.
The original announcement said Alec was well-positioned to thrive at USC Upstate. What has actually happened is that he won the conference Freshman of the Year award, set a school record, helped the team win their first title in six years, and has recorded multiple performances that rank among the best in the programme's history across two seasons.
That is not a coincidence. It is the product of a strong coaching foundation in New Zealand, a programme that fitted his ability and his ambitions, and an athlete who arrived ready to compete and has continued to raise his own standard season after season.
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