Aaron Elrod has two Sunset teams in the hunt in the 61st Pot o' Gold.

MOULTRIE — Aaron Elrod would like nothing better than to continue learning his craft and some day succeed his boss Bob Windom as the head golf professional as Sunset Country Club.

And if he applies himself to his current job as he has to his golf career, he could get his wish when Windom retires.

Elrod became the assistant pro at his home course last summer and according to Windom, “he’s been an asset for us. And he’s really done a lot of good work with the kids.”

That could be because Elrod himself was a young junior golfer at Sunset and went on to be part of a state championship team at Colquitt County and a fine player at Darton and Armstrong State who took a shot at professional golf on the Hopkins Tour.

As a youngster, Elrod played football, basketball, baseball and golf and finally settled on golf.

As a middle schooler he played played on teams that included Harris English, Clarke Hendrick, Anna Leigh Keith and Brian Berl, all excellent at getting the ball around the course.

“I couldn’t break 50 in sixth grade,” he remembers. “Then I broke 40 in both the seventh and eighth grades.

“And we never lost in sixth-, seventh- and eighth-grade.”

As a freshman on the Colquitt County varsity under coach Donald Dale, he was good enough to play No. 1 on several occasions and shoot 75 at the state tournament.

As a junior in 2006, he played on the Colquitt County team that won the state championship.

In fact, he was the co-low medalist in the state tournament a the Pine Lakes Golf Course at Jekyll Island, shooting a 69 to lead the Packers to a 291.

Also scoring for the Packers that day were Matt Smith, who had a hole in one on No. 17, Josh Dale and Clarke Hendrick.

After graduating in 2007, he played two seasons for the strong program at Darton.

He played a little as a freshman, but as a sophomore finished 15th at Nationals, was named honorable mention All-American and earned a scholarship to Armstrong State in Savannah.

Again, he didn’t play much his first year, suffering, he says, from from a bad case of the yips.

But as a senior, he dropped his stroke average from a 78 to a 73.9, had five consecutive top-five finishes and was named second team all-conference.

Elrod earned his degree at Armstrong State before turning  professional and playing nine events on the Hopkins Tour, making two cuts and posting a 71.25 stroke average.

Elrod next served one year as the assistant golf coach at his alma mater at Armstrong State.

When Windom called about the assistant pro position, there was little hesitation.

“The club wanted me to do it,” he said.

Married three months to the former Kara Dobbs, a Colquitt County graduate and student at Valdosta State, Elrod is working hard teaching a new crop of young golfers at Sunset and playing as much as he can.

His game hasn’t suffered from his time spent in the clubhouse. After two rounds of the Pot o’ Gold, he is seven shots under par.