SAN FRANCISCO – The Howells had dinner plans, so Robert Howell told his 14-year-old son, Mason, to be waiting outside the front of the clubhouse at Glen Arven Country Club in Thomasville, Georgia, by 5:30 p.m. No exceptions. But when Robert and his wife, Lauren, pulled up, Mason was nowhere to be found.

So, where was Mason?

He’d just posted an 8-under 28 on the front nine, playing in a fivesome that included then Auburn standout Megan Schofill, who would win the U.S. Women’s Amateur that next summer.

“Can I finish?” Mason texted, pleading with his parents.

Initially, Robert didn’t budge, but when the club’s longtime director of golf, Bill Connally, saw the teen trudging through the clubhouse with his magnificent, yet incomplete scorecard in hand, he immediately asked, “What the hell ar

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