Golf team wins fourth straight tournament
Published 11:12 pm Monday, April 10, 2006
MOULTRIE — Colquitt County High golf coach Donald Dale says the most tournaments any of his teams had won in a season before this year was two, by the 2002 team.
The 2006 team has doubled that. And it has won those four in a row.
Colquitt County and Tift County each shot a 304 at the 26th Blue Devil Invitational held Monday at Spring Hill Country Club in Tifton, but the tiebreaker was the score of the teams’ No. 5 players.
And the Packers’ Dusty Campbell shot an 84, eight shot better than Tift County’s Matthew Driggers’ 92 to give Colquitt the tournament championship.
The Packers started their remarkable streak on March 27 when they won Lee County’s Trojan Invitational at Grand Island Club in Albany with a 289.
The following Saturday, Colquitt won its own tournament for just the second time, shooting a 294 in the Knuck McCrary Packer Invitational.
Last Saturday, the Packers a second straight 294 to win the rain-shortened Indian Invitational at Rocky Creek Country Club in Vidalia.
The 304 the Packers shot on Monday was the highest score they have posted during the streak, but Dale said the course played harder than it usually does.
Aaron Elrod turned in the Packers low score, a 1-over 73.
Freshman Clarke Hendrick had a 75, senior Matt Smith shot a 77 and senior Josh Dale had a 79.
“The scores were a little higher than they have been,” Donald Dale said. “But if you get down close to 300, you’ve got a chance.
“I didn’t think a 304 would win it, but I thought we’d be near the top.”
Smith birdied the last hole to get back to 5-over.
“That was big for us,” Donald Dale said of Smith’s birdie. “That was the stroke that tied it.”
Donald Dale called the run of four straight tournament wins “unbelievable.”
“Some years you have a good team and you don’t win a tournament,” he said. “It’s been pretty amazing.”
The Packers have been a model of consistency, finishing in second in its other two tournaments.
Colquitt has had to count a score of 80 just one time this season and that was at Warner Robins when the tournament was played in windy and cold conditions.
Donald Dale said he is especially pleased with the play of his two underclassmen, Elrod and Hendrick.
“They have been real consistent for us,” he said.
Dale said the current team showed its potential when its players were on the middle school team. Smith and Josh Dale played on teams that did not lose in three seasons.
Tift County was led by Chesley Gunn, who shot a 69 and was the low medalist for the fourth time this season.
Also for the Blue Devils, Evan Hanna had a 75, Jordan Hall turned in a 78 and and Stephen Pritchett shot an 82.
Columbus High finished third with a 305 and would have had the tiebreaker if it had shot a 304.
It’s top five scores were 73, 77, 77, 78, 79.
Houston County was fourth with a 311, followed by Pierce County with a 313.
The other Region 1-AAAAA teams that participated were Coffee, ninth with a 320; Valdosta, 11th with a 326; and Lowndes, 12th with a 328.
Warner Robins was sixth with a 315, followed by Ware County with a 317 and Lee County with a 318.
Colquitt County will travel to Columbus this weekend to play in the Hardaway Invitational.