Calhoun County, AL – Jeremy McGatha shoots 4-under 66 to lead the Calhoun County Golf Championship, 13 players under par within three shots of the lead
By Al Muskewitz
With the Player of the Year award for all intents out of reach, Jeremy McGatha went into the Calhoun County Championship this week with his eye on prize right in front of him – the county tournament itself.
He took a big first step Saturday, making birdies on four of his last six holes to post a 4-under-par 66 to take a one-shot lead over five player with 13 players under par and within three shots of the lead.
It’s been a while since that many contenders are in the hunt on Championship Sunday at the county.
As for the Player of the Year race, it’ll be decided by who between Brennan Clay and Gary Wigington finishes higher Sunday. They came into the weekend tied for the series points lead and after Saturday’s round Clay holds the advantage, but neither were particularly pleased with their opening rounds.
Clay is among the five at 67 and Wigington among three at 68. Based on the current leaderboard, Clay would project as the POY with 1340 points with McGatha second and Wigington third. Jacob LeCroy would hold the final spot in the 16-player Match Play Championship.
With that in mind, McGatha is keeping is eye on the weekend’s prize.
“My only chance for Player of the Year would have been for them (Clay and Wigington) to finish like seventh, eighth, something like that and I know ain’t neither one of them going to do that,” he said. “I’m just trying to get the best I can in the county.
“This is one of my favorite tournaments. I’ve won this thing three times and I’ve finished second eight times. I don’t want to finish second again.”
An 11-time winner on the Calhoun County Tour, McGatha won his last County in 2017. He won unexpectedly earlier this year at Pine Hill, a win that reinforced a lesson in patience. He got a refresher in it Saturday.
He parred his first eight holes before finally making a birdie on 12, then gave the stroke right back with a bogey on 13 from the middle of the fairway with a lob wedge in his hand. He stayed at even par until his big finish with birdies at 18, 1, 3 and 5. Three of those holes were scoreable par-5s.
“Just like at Pine Hill, I’m a ticking timebomb,” he said. “It happened so fast at Pine Hill and I did get out of my own way and finished strong. I’d love to do it tomorrow, but you’ve got to be patient out here. I think I had eight straight pars, finally birdied my ninth hole, now I’m leading. After that start, I’m like no way, not making any birdies. You’ve just got to be patient.”
| PROJECTED TOP 16 (based on Saturday’s leaderboard) |
| Brennan Clay | 1340 | Mason Dennis | 788.75 |
| Jeremy McGatha | 1290 | Dane Moore | 785 |
| Gary Wigington | 1287.5 | Kevin Daugherty | 767.5 |
| Ty Cole | 1212.25 | Corey Ray | 760 |
| Layton Bussey | 976 | Sawyer Edwards | 757.5 |
| Landon Straub | 974.75 | Clay Calkins | 742.5 |
| Chad Calvert | 957.5 | Randy Lipscomb | 732.5 |
| Gage Ledbetter | 922.5 | Jacob LeCroy | 600 |
Wigington had one of his craziest competition rounds in a long drive. It was as if the golf gods were conspiring to keep him away from the POY award. He started birdie, bogey, eagle, double. He virtually followed every good hole with something bad. He lipped out seven putts.
The roller-coaster ride finally ended with a birdie on 18, but even that was a head scratcher. He hit one of his best drives ever on the par-5, then hit an equally impressive 9-iron over the trees from 155 he thought was going to give him an eagle opportunity only to find the ball off the back of the green.
“It’s was just stuff you don’t even dream of doing,” he said. “It was just one of those that everything that could go wrong did. I just couldn’t hit it any better and it turned out … terrible.
“I’ve just got to play hard tomorrow and hopefully good things happen tomorrow instead of the bad.”
Clay was equally as irritated about his round, but it was more over the way he played opposed to any bad breaks he may have incurred. He missed four birdie putts inside four feet and another short par putt on his next-to-last hole.
He came into the weekend among the Tour leaders in putting, but needed 30 strikes to get around the course Saturday despite hitting 14 greens. He made two long putts on his back nine from bad chip shots.
“The short game let me down,” he said. “I’ve been putting good the last few months and today they weren’t going in. Lucky to be one back. I’m shocked there wasn’t a 7- or 8-under out there.
“The only thing I’m concentrating on is winning the tournament. If I win the tournament, it takes care of everything. That’s my main goal is win the tournament. I’m not going to try to play him and I still have to play the golf course. Try to win the golf tournament, that’s all I’m worried about.”
He’s not alone in that approach.
NOTES: Gage Ledbetter is getting another turn in the final pairing on Sunday. He won the Dennis Gable Duffer Award for fewest putts in Saturday’s round (21) because he was sharp after missing the green. He hit only six greens, but was 10-of-12 getting up and down. He also had the morning wave’s longest drive … Closest to the pin prizes went to Randy Watson (2/11) and Will Brown (7/16) in the morning, Tanner Wells (2/11) and Tyler Dopson (7/16) in the afternoon. Bradley Elliott had the longest drive in the afternoon … One of the most dynamic groups of the day was the Wigington, Scott Eaton, Chip Howell, Randy Reaves pairing in the afternoon. Eaton, Howell and eight-time winner Wigington have combined for 14 County crowns and were the only ones winning them between 1997 and 1999.
| CALHOUN COUNTY CHAMPIONSHIP | |||
| CHAMPIONSHIP A | |||
| Jeremy McGatha | 32 | 34 | 66 |
| Brennan Clay | 34 | 33 | 67 |
| Chad Calvert | 33 | 34 | 67 |
| Gage Ledbetter | 33 | 34 | 67 |
| Layton Bussey | 35 | 32 | 67 |
| Sawyer Edwards | 34 | 33 | 67 |
| Clay Calkins | 33 | 35 | 68 |
| Gary Wigington | 34 | 34 | 68 |
| Josh Poole | 35 | 33 | 68 |
| CHAMPIONSHIP B | |||
| Jonathan Pate | 35 | 34 | 69 |
| Landon Straub | 32 | 37 | 69 |
| Scott Eaton | 35 | 34 | 69 |
| Tyler Dopson | 34 | 35 | 69 |
| Andrew Brooks | 35 | 35 | 70 |
| Chip Howell | 33 | 37 | 70 |
| Robin Wood | 34 | 36 | 70 |
| Tim Turner | 37 | 33 | 70 |
| David Sanders | 33 | 38 | 71 |
| Timmy Woodard | 37 | 34 | 71 |
| Vance Lewis | 37 | 34 | 71 |
| FIRST FLIGHT | |||
| Billy Thompson | 35 | 37 | 72 |
| Randy Lipscomb | 37 | 35 | 72 |
| Tanner Wells | 33 | 39 | 72 |
| Bob Eaton | 37 | 36 | 73 |
| Chase Hollingsworth | 37 | 36 | 73 |
| Lenn Coffey | 36 | 37 | 73 |
| Will Brown | 34 | 39 | 73 |
| Cam Hurst | 39 | 35 | 74 |
| Chris Reaves | 38 | 36 | 74 |
| Hunter Carr | 38 | 36 | 74 |
| Landon Winfrey | 39 | 35 | 74 |
| Mark Gaines | 36 | 38 | 74 |
| Max Basler | 38 | 36 | 74 |
| Randy Reaves | 34 | 40 | 74 |
| SECOND FLIGHT | |||
| Blake Jones | 38 | 37 | 75 |
| Frankie Hanvey | 37 | 38 | 75 |
| George Salmon | 40 | 35 | 75 |
| Bradley Elliott | 40 | 36 | 76 |
| Kenny Fulmer | 36 | 40 | 76 |
| Mark McCaig | 37 | 39 | 76 |
| Matt Rogers | 37 | 39 | 76 |
| Ted Towns | 39 | 37 | 76 |
| THIRD FLIGHT | |||
| Lamar Carter | 38 | 38 | 76 |
| Austin Jones | 38 | 39 | 77 |
| Jerry Kemp | 40 | 37 | 77 |
| Kurt Duryea | 37 | 40 | 77 |
| Tony Strickland | 37 | 40 | 77 |
| Andy Jenkins | 37 | 41 | 78 |
| Jared Waits | 38 | 40 | 78 |
| Keaton Borrelli | 39 | 39 | 78 |
| Ladon Rogers | 40 | 38 | 78 |
| FOURTH FLIGHT | |||
| Chris Sanford | 41 | 38 | 79 |
| Dalton Faulkner | 40 | 39 | 79 |
| Jeff Noah | 42 | 37 | 79 |
| Kaden Parramore | 39 | 40 | 79 |
| Kelly Rogers | 39 | 40 | 79 |
| Kevin Wells | 39 | 40 | 79 |
| Johnny Barnes | 40 | 40 | 80 |
| Ted Heim | 42 | 38 | 80 |
| Tim Steward | 42 | 38 | 80 |
| FIFTH FLIGHT | |||
| Austin Elliott | 39 | 42 | 81 |
| Daniel Black | 43 | 38 | 81 |
| Derrick Cotton | 39 | 42 | 81 |
| Fisher Prichard | 40 | 41 | 81 |
| Zack Goss | 38 | 43 | 81 |
| Cal Lambert | 43 | 39 | 82 |
| Daily Thomas | 41 | 41 | 82 |
| Dennis Austin | 42 | 40 | 82 |
| Mark Durden | 44 | 38 | 82 |
| Rom Fleming | 41 | 41 | 82 |
| Tyler Rich | 40 | 42 | 82 |
| SIXTH FLIGHT | |||
| Danny Whittaker | 38 | 45 | 83 |
| Roger Smith | 43 | 40 | 83 |
| Daniel Ricks | 41 | 45 | 86 |
| Charles Carden | 42 | 45 | 87 |
| Mark Cotton | 44 | 43 | 87 |
| Randy Watson | 46 | 42 | 88 |
| Nick Ledbetter | 47 | 42 | 89 |
| SEVENTH FLIGHT | |||
| Byron Preston | 43 | 49 | 92 |
| Lamar Ward | 46 | 46 | 92 |
| Gene Hicks | 51 | 44 | 95 |
| Ken Renfroe | 51 | 55 | 106 |
Sunday tee assignments
8 a.m. Shotgun
1A: Kurt Duryea, Andy Jenkins, Keaton Borrelli, Ladon Rogers
1B: Lamar Carter, Austin Jones, Jerry Kemp, Tony Strickland
2: Jared Waits, Jeff Noah, Chris Sanford, Kelly Rogers
3: Kevin Wells, Kaden Parramore, Dalton Falkner, Ted Heim
4: Johnny Barnes, Tim Steward, Daniel Black, Austin Elliott
5: Fisher Prichard, Derrick Cotton, Zack Goss, Daily Thomas
6: Cal Lambert, Tyler Rich, Mark Durden, Dennis Austin
7: Ron Fleming, Danny Whittaker, Roger Smith, Daniel Ricks
8: Charles Carden, Mark Cotton, Randy Watson, Nick Ledbetter
9: Byron Preston, Lamar Ward, Gene Hicks, Ken Renfroe
1 p.m. Shotgun
1A: Sawyer Edwards, Chad Calvert, Gary Wigington, Clay Calkins
1B: Jeremy McGatha, Brennan Clay, Layton Bussey, Greg Ledbetter
2: Josh Poole, Tyler Dopson, Landon Straub, Jonathan Pate
3: Scott Eaton, Chip Howell, Robin Wood, Tim Turner
4: Andrew Brooks, David Sanders, Timmy Woodard, Vance Lewis
5: Billy Thompson, Tanner Wells, Randy Lipscomb, Chase Hollingsworth
6: Bob Eaton, Lenn Coffey, Will Brown, Mark Gaines
7: Randy Reaves, Max Basler, Chris Reaves, Cam Hurst
8: Landon Winfrey, Hunter Carr, Frankie Hanvey, Blake Jones, George Salmon
9: Matt Rogers, Mark McCaig, Kenny Fulmer, Bradley Elliott, Ted Towns
