As Austin Hitt contended for not only his maiden Korn Ferry Tour title but first PGA Tour card, his mother, Jennifer, watched from afar, trying to remain hidden.
“I didn’t want to mess up any of his focus,” said Jennifer Hitt, who flew from Orlando, Florida, to Richmond, Virginia, on Saturday morning, arriving at The Federal Club with Austin on the 15th hole of his third round, which would end with the 28-year-old Hitt trailing 19-year-old Blades Brown by a single shot at the Korn Ferry Tour Championship, the feeder tour’s playoff finale.
When Jennifer awoke Sunday morning to persistent rain leftover from a dissipating Hurricane Isaias, she had an overwhelming feeling it would be her son’s day. Her husband, Chip, who died from cancer in February 2024, grew up in Salem, Virginia, just a few hours west, and was a local golf standout at Roanoke College.
Now, Austin, a spitting image of his dad, was on the cusp of realizing his lifelong dream.
“I said to myself, ‘He’s going to win this today.’ I knew it,” said Jennifer, who, still incognito, witnessed Austin fire a 5-under 66, a final round that was equal parts gritty and heroic, to win by two and punch his ticket to the PGA Tour.
“He’s always showed resilience. He’s always risen to the occasion. He was so calm today, so confident, and to do this in his dad’s home state, his dad would be so proud.
“This was all for Chip today.”
Aubrey Milan Hitt III was his full name, but he went by Chip. Born to a blue-collar family in Salem, Chip started working multiple jobs at 12 years old, delivering newspapers, mowing lawns and taking shifts at the local pizza joint. But when he accepted a position at the local golf course, he fell in love with the game. Years later, so did his son Austin, and Chip’s passion shifted from playing golf tournaments to watching his son compete in them.
Chip was diagnosed with renal cell carcinoma during Austin’s sophomore season at North Carolina. The initial prognosis was devastating, but Chip fought for six years, even returning to the course to root on Austin as he developed into one of the best Tar Heels in program history.
Austin Hitt got his infectious positivity and candor from his dad, who would often tell him after a bad shot, round or tournament, “On to the next one.”
It was that mentality that convinced North Carolina head coach Andrew DiBitetto to offer Hitt a scholarship despite the top schools in Florida passing on the Lake Mary High product. DiBitetto remembers recruiting Hitt at an AJGA invitational in The Woodlands, Texas, and Hitt was wearing a bright orange shirt, not exactly the attire one wants to have when they have the chunks.
“He’d always ask me, ‘What did you see in me?’” DiBitetto said. “As coaches, it was what we love to see – when kids don’t have their A-games, how do they respond, how do they treat their playing partners, what is their competitive spirit like? Hitt has always been very steady, and he just loves the game so much.”
DiBitetto’s favorite photo saved in his phone is of Hitt during the final round of the 2019 Hayt Invitational, where conditions were marked by a freezing downpour and puddles on the greens. Hitt is lining up a putt, hatless and soaked but with a look of unmatched determination.
“I wanted that image to be the image of Carolina Golf, that toughness,” DiBitetto said.
Added Hitt: “That day, you needed to be extra tough.”
That’s another trait Hitt learned from his pops – and it’s manifested itself throughout Hitt’s professional career.
He birdied the last four holes to card a closing 65 at PGA Tour Canada Q-School in 2021.
Two years later, he hung on to graduate from PGA Tour Latinoamerica by one stroke in the final event, saying of that moment, “That was the most nervous I’ll ever be. When you’re playing in Latin America, you can sometimes feel stuck, like there’s no way to move up, even when you feel like you’re good enough.”
With Chip’s health declining rapidly just a few events into his son’s rookie season on the Korn Ferry Tour, Austin rushed home from Bogota, Colombia, to be with his father, who passed away on Feb. 13, 2024.
“I can’t believe how strong he always was,” DiBitetto said. “Internally, you don’t know exactly what’s going on, but to the rest of us, he looked steady as a rock the whole time.”
Added Jennifer of her son: “He can get through anything.”
Despite missing six of his next eight cuts, Austin Hitt managed a few top-10s down the stretch to qualify for the KFT Championship and keep full status. He advanced to the playoff finale last season, too, though tied for 70th among 75 players to finish 30th in points.
Seeing former college teammates Ben Griffin and Ryan Gerard, who is now his roommate, experience success made Hitt wonder what he was doing wrong. He could beat those guys at home, but when they’d go to the airport, Hitt would be flying in a different direction.
Hitt was interviewed at the beginning of this year for a Golf Channel profile on Gerard, and he shared a story from Gerard’s first qualifier, where he shot 49 on the opening nine alongside Hitt, who thought to himself, “What is going on with this guy?” Later that season, Gerard posted 81 after being subbed into the 2018 NCAA Championship, yet still did things like wearing a shirt with the phrase, MR. CLUTCH, written across the front.
“He would still talk at that time like he was going to be a PGA Tour player,” Hitt recalled. “Back then, all of us were like, you’re delusional. … He was either going to make it, or he was going to die trying. Now that he’s backed that up, it’s like, shoot, maybe I need to start talking like that.”
Now, Gerard is going to have to start answering questions about Hitt.
Hitt turned a corner back in July, a few months after changing instructors, to Tony Ruggiero. He tied for eighth at the Evans Scholars Invitational outside of Chicago, then a few weeks later finished runner-up at the AdventHealth Championship in Kansas City. He began the KFT Finals ranked 22nd in points, the same position he entered last week.
Having been striping the ball for months, Hitt sensed some old habits returning ahead of the penultimate playoff event in Tulsa, Oklahoma. He grinded for days on the range before missing the cut. Aware that he did the same thing around last year’s KFT finale, going as far as to drive an hour from French Lick to Wal-Mart and buy some materials for a drill he saw online, Hitt knew he couldn’t afford to hit a million balls and expect to pay well.
So, he and Ruggiero agreed on a ball count at The Federal Club. It worked, as Hitt sandwiched a second-round 62 around two hard-fought 68s to earn himself a spot in the final threesome and perhaps more importantly, a massive cushion as it pertained to cracking the top 20 in points.
Still, Hitt was so nervous on Saturday night that he couldn’t sleep. But he received a few texts ahead of the final round, including one from Griffin, that all shared a similar message: “Just go win.”
“Even all the way to the end, I tried to trick myself into thinking I wouldn’t make it unless I won,” Hitt said. “I feel like it was the only way.”
Griffin also told Hitt: “There’ll be a moment where you don’t need to play safe, you need to play a little more aggressive. … That’s how you’re going to win.”
Embracing the rain by “bunting” the ball around and leaning on his wedges and putter, Hitt shook off an opening bogey and somehow had willed his way to a 2-under front nine when his drive found a nasty lie at the par-5 10th. Hitt then remembered Griffin’s message, and muscled his second shot over a creek to give himself only 110 yards in for his third.
Once Hitt dunked his next shot, with a 50-degree wedge, he turned to his caddie and said, “That was the moment.”
There was one before that, too, as Hitt’s tee ball at the par-4 third seemed destined for the out of bounds until his miraculously hit a tree and kicked out into the fairway, allowing Hitt to save par.
“Maybe my dad from upstairs was throwing the ball back in the fairway or something, I don’t know,” Hitt said. “That was a great break.”
Like Jennifer Hitt, DiBitetto had decided to travel up and surprise Hitt. He spent much of the morning watching the broadcast at a Chipotle, and when he finally decided to drive to the course and stepped out of his car, he heard the massive roar as Hitt sank a 50-foot birdie bomb at the par-3 14th.
DiBitetto found Jennifer and his former assistant Matt Clark, and the three of them walked the rest of the way together, eventually posting up behind the television tower on No. 18, where Hitt tapped in for both his trophy and card.
Jennifer had driven to the course on Sunday listening to the same song, Rachel Platten’s “Fight Song,” that she listened to before Austin won the state championship as a high-school senior, three years after finishing dead last as a freshman.
Losing friends and I’m chasing sleep.
Everybody’s worried about me.
In too deep.
Say I’m in too deep.
And it’s been two years, I miss my home.
But there’s a fire burning in my bones.
Still believe.
Yeah, I still believe.
As Austin walked off the green having won this fight, he finally caught a glimpse of his mom. The two hugged for a few seconds until it was time for Hitt’s post-round interview.
“To get to this level, people don’t understand, but it really does take a village, a team,” said on-course reporter Mel Reid. “I know your mom just came and surprised you, that was a fantastic moment. But who’s the one person you’re thinking of right now?”
“My dad,” Hitt responded, looking as if he was on the verge of uncharacteristically losing his emotions. But Hitt took one big gulp, and continued, succinctly:
“Yeah, I wish he could be here.”