Cole wins Calhoun County Championship, matches his county-season-best five victories and clinches eighth county player-of-the-year points title.
Sponsored by Ted’s Flooring & Beyond
(Winner/defending champion in parenthesis)
March 28-29
Calhoun County 2-Man Championship @ RTJ Silver Lakes (Jacob LeCroy/Tanner Wells)
April 18-19
Anniston City Championship @ Cane Creek Golf Course (Ty Cole)
May 2-3
Pine Hill Country Club Invitational (Ty Cole)
May 15-17
Gadsden Country Club Invitational (Dane Moore)
May 29-31
Wilfred Galbraith Invitational @ Anniston Country Club (‘Ty Cole)
June 13-14
RTJ Silver Lakes Championship (Gary Wigington)
June 27-28
Gadsden City Championship @ Twin Bridges Golf Course (Andrew Weathers)
July 18-19
Etowah County Open @ The Links, Briarmeade (Gary Wigington)
Aug. 1-2
Oxford City Championship @ Cider Ridge Golf Course (Ty Cole)
Aug. 15-16
90th Calhoun County Championship @ Anniston Municipal Golf Course (Ty Cole)
Sept. 26-27
17th Calhoun County Match Play Championship @ Anniston Municipal Golf Course (’25: Gary Wigington)
2026 PLAYER OF THE YEAR: Ty Cole.
By Joe Medley
ANNISTON — Ty Cole’s eighth championship season on the Calhoun County Golf Tour started with a Gladiator moment and ended with him tying his personal Tour-best season.
Cole shot 67-65–132 to win the Calhoun County Championship by four strokes over John Rollins and Brennan Clay, scoring his fifth Tour victory this season and clinching his eighth player-of-the-year honor.
He tied his 2019 victory total to finish with a perfect 1,650 points for his top-five finishes, the player-of-the-year benchmark. The county championship counts points and a half, with the winner taking 450 points. The winner gets 300 points in the other eight points events.
Cole, 51, won at Cane Creek, Pine Hill, Anniston Country Club, Cider Ridge and The Hill.
Cole also finished second at Twin Bridges, third at Silver Lakes and fifth at Briarmeade to amass 2,315 total points. He didn’t play at Gadsden Country Club because the GCC Invitational conflicted with the state senior championship.
He shot nine out of 17 rounds in the 60s, with an average score of 68.7 and season-low 65s at Anniston Municipal, Briarmeade and Cider Ridge. He won both playoffs in which he played … against Jacob LeCroy at Cane Creek and against Tanner Wells at Cider Ridge.
He started the season by sinking a putt from one side off the green to the other to prevail over LeCroy in a two-hole playoff. When the ball disappeared in the hole, Cole turned to the gallery outside of the Cane Creek restaurant, raised his arms and proclaimed, “Are you not entertained?!”
The Albertville resident went from quoting Maximus Decimus Meridius in the movie “Gladiator” to conquering the Tour once again, showing strength and honor.
Cole and friend/five-time player of the year Gary Wigington often speak of how much harder winning has become as they’ve aged, but they keep winning. Cole said turning 50 in 2025 and playing on the state senior circuit has kept him sharp.
He won the state senior match play championship Aug. 6-9 in Scottsboro.
“Turning 50 and being able to play the state senior stuff has motivated me, instead of just, with all of the young people playing the Calhoun County stuff, I’m getting older, and they’re getting younger, blah, blah, blah,” said Cole, who won county player of the year in 2015, 2016, 2018, 2019, 2021, 2023, 2025 and 2026. “With me playing the state senior stuff now, it motivates me to work, work, work, and it shows up out here.
“Plus, I love to practice. I love hitting balls. I love chipping and putting.”
It showed Saturday and Sunday on “The Hill.” Cole and Clay (67-69—16) finished as the only players to shoot under 70 both days.
It’s a familiar refrain for Cole.
“Slow and steady wins the race,” he said.
Tour president Jeremy McGatha said Cole “has gotten so much better with age.”
“He just won the state senior match play, and he’s just kicking our ass in every event,” McGatha said. “He’s pretty damned good, and I’m glad to have somebody that good part of our Tour.
“It makes it even more competitive. If you don’t want to beat him, what do you do? You’ve got to beat the best.:
The Tour just finished its 20th season with the 90th Calhoun County Championship as its final points event. The County Match Play, the Tour’s postseason all-star event, will likely play out on a September date to be determined.
McGatha called the state of the Tour “great.”
“It’s hard to believe another season has come and gone,” he said. “We’ve got a lot of surrounding areas that are pretty envious of what we’ve got going on in Calhoun County.
“Everyone says, ‘How do you all do it?’ We started it 20 years ago, and we’re still going strong.”
| CHAMPIONSHIP FLIGHT | ||
| PLAYER | RD. 1-2 | TOTAL |
| T. Cole | 67-65 | 132 |
| J. Rollins | 64-72 | 136 |
| B. Clay | 67-69 | 136 |
| D. Travis | 66-71 | 137 |
| G. Wigington | 66-74 | 140 |
| H. Carr | 68-74 | 142 |
| J. Stokes | 69-73 | 142 |
| J. Johnson | 69-73 | 142 |
| R. Lipscomb | 69-74 | 143 |
| C. Wood | 68-79 | 147 |
| T. Wells | WD | |
| CHAMPIOHSHIP B FLIGHT | ||
| PLAYER | RD. 1-2 | TOTAL |
| S. Edwards | 70-66 | 136 |
| L. Bussey | 70-68 | 138 |
| D. Black | 70-70 | 140 |
| C. Howell | 71-75 | 146 |
| T. Shankles | 72-76 | 148 |
| C. Randall | 71-77 | 148 |
| J. Pate | 70-78 | 148 |
| T. Hicks | 71-79 | 150 |
| M. West | 71-80 | 151 |
| B. Eaton | 72-81 | 152 |
| D. Sanders | 72-WD | |
| FIRST FLIGHT | ||
| PLAYER | RD. 1-2 | TOTAL |
| Andrew Brooks | 73-68 | 141 |
| J. McGatha | 73-71 | 144 |
| L. Winfrey | 73-72 | 145 |
| M. McCaig | 73-73 | 146 |
| C. Watson | 74-73 | 147 |
| A. Jenkins | 73-76 | 149 |
| R. Wood | 74-77 | 151 |
| A. Elliott | 73-80 | 153 |
| M. Rogers | 73-80 | 153 |
| L. Watson | 74-81 | 155 |
| L. Holley | 73-83 | 156 |
| SECOND FLIGHT | ||
| PLAYER | RD. 1-2 | TOTAL |
| L. Hubbard | 75-69 | 144 |
| E. Cannington | 75-69 | 144 |
| G. Shultz | 75-71 | 146 |
| B. Elliott | 75-74 | 149 |
| W. Brown | 75-77 | 152 |
| L. Carter | 75-79 | 154 |
| B. Thompson | 76-79 | 155 |
| D. Whittaker | 75-82 | 157 |
| THIRD FLIGHT | ||
| PLAYER | RD. 1-2 | TOTAL |
| Chase Hollingsworth | 76-74 | 150 |
| K. Borrelli | 77-75 | 152 |
| B. Grisham | 76-76 | 152 |
| M. Durden | 76-78 | 154 |
| L. Turner | 77-78 | 155 |
| E. Wright | 76-79 | 155 |
| T. Vera | 76-80 | 156 |
| G. Salmon | 77-80 | 157 |
| B. Jones | 76-86 | 162 |
| G. Hockman | 77-WD | |
| FOURTH FLIGHT | ||
| PLAYER | RD. 1-2 | TOTAL |
| T. Dopson | 78-77 | 155 |
| B. Miller | 78-78 | 156 |
| C. Lambert | 80-76 | 156 |
| E. Capps | 78-79 | 157 |
| J. Borrelli | 79-78 | 157 |
| C. Reaves | 79-80 | 159 |
| J. Noah | 78-83 | 161 |
| S. Chappell | 80-87 | 167 |
| N. Pope | 80-90 | 170 |
| S. Gillespie | 79-WD | |
| FIFTH FLIGHT | ||
| PLAYER | RD. 1-2 | TOTAL |
| R. Vernon | 81-77 | 158 |
| D. Brown | 83-83 | 166 |
| A. Smith | 81-87 | 168 |
| K. Rogers | 83-85 | 168 |
| J. Harrison | 82-87 | 169 |
| Andy Brooks | 83-89 | 172 |
| G. Thomas | 83-90 | 173 |
| E. McCareeth | 81-WD | |
| SIXTH FLIGHT | (Only Sunday’s round counts) | |
| PLAYER | RD. 2 | TOTAL |
| A. Jones | 79 | 79 |
| C. Watts | 83 | 83 |
| D. Cotton | 83 | 83 |
| M. Gaines | 83 | 83 |
| T. Towns | 86 | 86 |
| R. Townley | 87 | 87 |
| W. Page | 92 | 92 |
| L. Champion | 95 | 95 |
| K. Fulmer | WD |
