Cameron Champ, 23, won the Sanderson Farms Championship — in his second start as a PGA Tour member — on Oct. 28 to earn a ticket to the Sentry Tournament of Champions, set for Jan. 3-6 at the Kapalua Plantation Course. Getty Images / Streeter Lecka photo

Oh my, how things have changed for Cameron Champ in the past seven weeks.

But with a last name like his, Champ appears to have been groomed his entire life for all of this.

Champ won the Sanderson Farms Championship on Oct. 28 to earn a ticket to the Sentry Tournament of Champions, set for Jan. 3-6 at the Kapalua Plantation Course.

“Oh yeah, as a kid all of my friends used to mess with me,” the 23-year-old said via phone on Thursday. “If I lost to them, they’d call me ‘Chump.’ … Obviously, it’s a great last name to have.

“In golf, we don’t win as much as you’d want to, but it’s a cool name to live up to. It’s kind of cool when I walk down the fairways and people just call my name, basically just saying ‘Champ’ instead of my actual name, so it’s kind of neat.”

Champ will arrive at Kapalua as the latest sensation on the PGA Tour. He leads the wraparound 2019 season statistics in driving distance average at 328.2 yards, is second in birdie average and ranks sixth on the FedEx Cup points list.

His win at the Sanderson Farms came in his second start as a PGA Tour member. In his debut as a Tour member at the Safeway Open, where he tied for 25th, his statistical numbers from the tee jumped off the page.

His 192.67 mph ball speed was more than 6 mph better than second-best there. His 129 mph swing speed led to a 318.6 carry distance off the tee, where his shots gained number is also ranked first on tour.

His 68.968 scoring average is currently seventh on tour.

His speed numbers driving the ball caught the eye of renowned golf coach Sean Foley early on.

“I’d never seen speed like this,” Foley said to Golfweek last year. “We’re basically looking at Usain Bolt.”

Champ’s win catapulted him into the winners-only field at Kapalua, where his family, girlfriend and friends will join him.

Although he has not yet officially qualified for the Masters — his win does not carry automatic status to Augusta because it was played opposite a World Golf Championship event — he was recently listed at 50-1 to win a green jacket, the 20th-best odds on the board.

“Now, I’m in the top 100 in the rankings,” Champ said. “It’s all come at me pretty fast, but I feel like I’m prepared for it.”

The 7,453-yard Plantation layout, with its wide, long fairways, is right up Champ’s alley, although he has never been to the course.

“Length is what everyone talks about right now, but yeah, Kapalua from my understanding, it will fit me very well,” he said.

Champ said some of his recent drives have even caught his Tour peers off-guard from time to time.

“I’ve always been long since I was a little kid, but if I catch one, especially if I know the guys, they’ll just laugh at me, kind of give me the middle finger sometimes, just messing with me,” he said. “The majority of them know I’m long and I’m kind of at the point now that I don’t really pay attention to it.”

Champ already has his own foundation that “is focused on accessible STEM education and golf development programming that fosters an environment for academic achievement and healthy living for children/youth from under-served communities,” according to his bio on pgatour.com.

“That’s always been one of our things as a kid, my parents always made me give back and do charity stuff,” he said. “I guess where I come from, I always wanted to have my own program there for kids.”

His grandfather, Mack Champ, is still closely involved with a First Tee program for autistic youths in the Sacramento, Calif., area and Cameron Champ, a First Tee graduate, wears blue on tournament Sundays in tribute to the Autism Speaks movement.

His younger sister Madison is autistic.

“(Family) means everything, it’s what has gotten me to where I am today — if it wasn’t for them, I probably would not be on the PGA Tour,” Cameron Champ said. “Family has always been a huge part of my career and honestly my success.”

Mack Champ, a Vietnam veteran who is African-American, introduced Cameron to the game when he was 2 years old. For Cameron, his grandfather’s experiences growing up in Houston, Texas, during segregation — Cameron’s grandmother, Lulu, is white — is something he carries with him.

“Just knowing he wasn’t allowed on the majority of the courses I play now, or have played, (Mack) wasn’t able to really play,” Cameron Champ said. “He wasn’t able to come back to the states with my grandma at a certain point in his life because a black man couldn’t marry a white woman at the time, so I think it just puts everything in perspective for me.”

* Robert Collias is at rcollias@mauinews.com.