Davis Richards had to make a choice over the weekend.

At the 3A Midwest regional tournament May 4, he secured his third straight trip to the 3A state boys golf championship. Three days later, he played in a pre-qualifying tournament for the Wells Fargo Championship.

Richards, a senior at South Rowan, shot 69 to tie for eighth and advance to the Monday qualifier for the PGA tournament held at the Quail Hollow Club in Charlotte. The kicker: The qualifier was the same day as the first round of the 3A state tournament at Longleaf Golf and Country Club in Southern Pines.

“So I made it past Thursday and I kind of had to decide which was best for my career,” Richards said. “So I decided playing in the Monday qualifier would be best for me.” 

Richards sought advice from a few people. One of those was swing coach Dana Rader, who runs a well-known golf school in Ballantyne on the southeast side of Charlotte. The instructor said she told her student it’s about what he feels in his gut.

“I want the student to feel comfortable in the decision-making process,” she said. “He said, ‘I really, really want to play in the Wells Fargo.’ I said, ‘I think that lines up with your long-term goals, and that it’s a good decision.’”

Richards got off to a rough start with bogeys on the first two holes. A birdie on the par-four fourth got him back to 1-over for the day. That was erased by a bogey on the 11th hole, but a bounce-back birdie on the next hole moved him back to 1-over. He closed with a birdie on the par-five finishing hole for an even-par 72.

The tournament only takes four players from the qualifier. That left two players from the five-way tie for second on the outside looking in. Richards wound up tying for 44th, seven shots behind winner Scott Gutschewski and six shots from making the show.  

“I didn’t really make any putts, but all in all, I’m happy with the way I finished,” Richards said.

Meanwhile, in Southern Pines, East Rowan’s Nick Lyerly carded a 71 on Monday and had a chance at winning the 3A state championship Richards likely would have contended for. Lyerly, who finished runner-up to Richards in the race for the South Piedmont Conference title, caught fire Tuesday and blazed his way to a 4-under 67 to capture the first boys golf title in East Rowan history.

Was it hard foregoing a chance at a state title for a long shot at making a PGA Tour event?

“Winning the state championship wasn’t guaranteed either,” Richards said. “I called people that have been in my golf career over the past three, four years. They all just said, ‘You’re working toward the next level, and you would learn so much more working to play in the Wells Fargo instead of playing in a state championship.’”

It was the third time Richards decided to go for it. Richards played in the 2014 pre-qualifier for the same pro tournament. He said he missed last year’s Monday qualifier by two shots. About a month later, he teed it up in the sectional qualifying in Columbus, Ohio, for the 2014 U.S. Open as a 16-year-old alternate, but he failed in his bid to get to Pinehurst.

The timing of this one, though, could not have been worse.

“It’s like I told him, opportunity rarely comes, and it comes at times when you have to make a decision to go this way or go that way,” Rader said. “So he made the decision to go for the Wells Fargo, and he made a heck of a run at it.”

Richards used the experience as a chance to learn. His playing partners were tour veterans Dick Mast and Matt Bettencourt. Mast made his PGA Tour debut in 1974 and has spent the past 15 years playing both the PGA and Champions tours. Since 2009, Bettencourt won $2.85 million in PGA Tour events.

Mast, like Richards, was even on the day, and Bettencourt beat both coming in with a 1-under 71.

Richards used the time on the course to pick both of their brains. He said they told him he needs to work on his short game and not leave himself short on approach shots.

“The experience he got from that is just things he needs to take his game to the next level,” Rader said.

Still, foregoing a shot at a state title only to come up short in a run for one of four spots in a PGA Tour event begs the question if Richards has any regrets.

His answer: “No. Not at all.”