Our Julie Williams is on the road this season covering the Golfweek Collegiate Series. This is the latest installment in blogging her road trip.

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PAWLEYS ISLAND, S.C. – The applause for Tomasz Anderson on Tuesday at True Blue Golf Club was the loudest I’ve ever heard at a college golf tournament.

Three full teams, several spectators and volunteers were hanging over the railing on the back porch of the clubhouse while Anderson putted out for a 12-under 60, and they went berserk when the Jacksonville State senior made his 12th and final birdie. It reminded me of the grandstands that line the 18th hole of Mission Hills Country Club at the Kraft Nabisco Championship. Fans on True Blue’s porch took off their hats and and waved them, whistled and then several of them – coaches and players – lined the way to the scoring table to shake Anderson’s hand and thump his back before he signed his card.

Anderson, 22, of Hertfordshire, England, was 19 under for 54 holes at True Blue, which was saturated by early week rain. Soft conditions and rules that allowed players to lift, clean and place their golf balls during the final 36 holes helped, but no other competitor got close to Anderson’s score. He won his second Golfweek Program Challenge title (he also won in 2011) by five shots, and he trotted out a well-worn golf maxim to describe how he did it.

“It’s just about staying in the present, hitting one shot after another and staying in your routine,” he said.

In the final round, Gardner-Webb’s Clement Kurniawan shot 5-under 67 in the same group as Anderson. Kurniawan was displaying more body language for Anderson’s putts than he was for his own. He went 5 under and was outscored by seven shots, but he was beaming all the way to the scorer’s table. How often does that happen?

To contend at True Blue, a team needs a lot of birdies. The fairways are wide – wider than usual for a tournament venue – but as Jacksonville State head coach James Hobbs said, “Every day you have to think low.”

The Gamecocks posted the best score of the tournament on Tuesday, a 17-under 271 that was aided heavily by Anderson’s score. Of the 15 scores that eventual winner Old Dominion posted, 14 were under par. First-round leader Valparaiso’s team score of 15-under 273 broke the Crusaders’ 18-hole program scoring record by 10 shots on Sunday, and Jacksonville posted a 273 the next day to break its program record by one shot.

It was an entirely different story at Caledonia Golf Club. The women’s field had to keep it under control on a tighter layout with lots of water and places to find trouble. It was a good blend of golf for the program format. The men had to be aggressive to make enough red numbers to be in contention, but the women had to keep it in play.

“You can kind of let your hair down and get after it,” Hobbs said of True Blue.

It wasn’t so much reckless golf as test-your-game golf, and it made the week feel like a Tour event. True Blue offered the chance to watch players score, not lay up. There’s a time and a place for each, but True Blue gave players at the Program Challenge a green light to push the limits – perfect for the beginning of the season.