It's not about Tiger, it's not about Augusta. It's about Roanoke Rapids High School graduate Jackson Collier and Chockoyette Country Club.

It was a column that started in 2012 when the writer was coming back from Augusta and stopped by to play a round at the Weldon golf course.

That's when he saw the lefty Collier practicing.

“He was standing there and watching Jackson,” club manager Susan Smith said. “He thought he had a phenomenal swing. He has a God-give talent.”

The article can be found on page 120 of this month's Golf Digest.

Members of the country club, both past and present, have been abuzz about Bamberger's piece since it was published in the February issue. “I hope it opens some doors for Jackson. He does have such a remarkable talent,” Smith said. “It makes you so proud. I think of all the people I've known that have played golf here that have never made Golf Digest.”

For Collier, now a student at Wake Tech and member of its golf team, the column was somewhat of a surprise.

“I didn't know it was full page,” the son of Kim and Tommie Collier said in a telephone interview after a class Wednesday. “I never met him face to face. He was talking to Susan and he asked who I was.”

At the time Collier, a 2011 RRHS graduate, was working at the country club and chasing the course record of 61, which he has tied.

There was talk between the Bamberger and Smith of what the future held for Collier. “I really didn't know what I wanted to do. I knew I was going to college. I was tired of school. I wanted to take a break. I knew I wanted to do something with golf, playing for a school like Campbell or State.”

While on his post high school hiatus he received a call from a friend, Chris Freeman, who told Wake Tech's golfing coach about him. “I hadn't talked to Chris in a while. I'm still grateful he told the coach about me.”

Collier is now in his final year at Wake Tech and plans to go to N.C. State upon graduation and enter the professional golf management program.

He has no interest in trying to make the professional tour. His big interest is in becoming a golf pro and helping others learn the game.

His late grandfather, Donald Moye, got him interested in golf. “I never paid too much attention to it. I was along the lines of playing baseball. Then something hit me. In seventh grade I played golf at lot and put down the baseball bat and picked up the golf clubs.”

At Roanoke Rapids he won player of the year his junior and senior year and was named to the all-conference team four years straight. He made it to state as an individual his junior and senior year and with his team his freshman and sophomore year.

Golf became his passion, he said, because it is an individual sport. “Golf relies on me. Every shot I hit I control the outcome.”

Collier works out of a sand trap.

Being a natural lefty is not a stumbling block to his game. “I look at it as being left-handed you stand out from other people. You don't see it a lot. I think it's all how you swing the club and how much practice you put into it.”

The practice is paying off at Wake Tech. “Last year we did pretty good. We made it to the nationals in Texas and finished second in our region.”

The team should do fairly well this season, he said. “We should do pretty good although we lost a couple because their eligibility was up.”

He has thoughts about trying to make the State team but even if he doesn't he knows golf will be in his future.

He takes from Chockoyette a desire to continually improve his game. “It doesn't matter where I'm playing, I go to play the best I can play. You've got to take the good with the bad, just learning from my mistakes.”

For Collier, there is no real pressure from the column and he believes his grandfather would be proud. “I owe everything I know and how to play golf to him.”

Smith believes the column will give the country club some exposure and believes it will ultimately help Collier in his future career as a golf pro. “I think of the doors it can open. I think he would be phenomenal.”