Anniston, AL – Seeing themselves as underdogs, Burgess-McCullum keep challengers at bay, finish strong to win 45th Sunny King Charity Classic by three strokes.
By Joe Medley
Garrett Burgess moved to Santa Rosa Beach, Fla., a year ago, and the Sunny King Charity Classic regular who teamed with Cypress Hathorn to win the 2013 Tourney thought he might miss the 45th version, back in his hometown.
Taylor McCullum called looking for a partner, and they came up with a team for their first-ever Sunny King together.
“”It was pros versus Joes,” the 38-year-old Burgess said, with a quick echo from his 30-year-old playing partner. “That’s the best way to put it.”
The Joes prevailed. With a 12-under-par 58 in Sunday’s final round at Anniston Country Club, Burgess-McCullum fought off challenges from Jacob LeCroy-Harrison Hughston, defending champions Layton Bussey-Jesus Montenegro and four-time winners Ty Cole-Gary Wigington to finished off a wire-to-wire victory.
Burgess-McCullum went 55-58-58–171 over the tournament’s three rounds at Silver Lakes, Cider Ridge and ACC and beat LeCroy-Hughston (58-58-60—174) by three strokes. Cole-Wigington (58-57-60—175) prevailed over Bussey-Montenegro (56-58-61—175) in a scorecard playoff for third.
The tournament raised $126,000 for local charities, organizers announced.
Sunday’s final round also produced a hole-in-one. Brennan Clay, who teamed with long-time partner Jeremy McGatha to shoot 63-60-58—181 for eight place in the Championship-Grand Highlander flight, used a 7-iron to ace ACC No. 4.
“It’s the best shot I’ve hit in a while,” he said. “I just hit right at it, and it took a couple of hops and went in.”
The hole came with a hole-in-one prize … a travel package for two people to The Masters. Clay said Chastin, his wife, has never been to The Masters.
“I found out I had a lot of friends today,” Clay joked.
Burgess-McCullum found out they had a lot of challengers … and “ham-and-egged it” while answering every challenge, McCullum said.
They came into Sunday’s final round with a one-stroke lead on LeCroy-Hughston and Bussey-Montenegro, and Cole-Wigington shot Saturday’s best round at Cider Ridge at 15 under to move within two strokes.
Like Burgess-McCullum, LeCroy-Hughston were a first-time team with a previous winner. LeCroy teamed with Jacob Harper to set tournament records for scoring (51 under) and victory margin (13 strokes) in 2019.
Burgess-McCullum started with a par on 1, but McCullum birdied 2 and 3. Burgess answered with birdies on 3 and 4, and they hit 4 under through five holes and 35 under for the tournament.
“He birdied both of the par 3s, and that’s when we knew when we were in a good spot,” McCullum said.
Burgess made a 10-footer for birdie on 7, and the made the turn at 5 under.
McCullum took a mulligan on a 4-footer for birdie on 10, and Burgess eagled 11.
“I hit it right and hit up there about 12 foot and made eagle, and from there, it was just like, ‘Hold on, hold on,’” Burgess said.
After pars on 13, 14 and 15, Burgess-McCullum finished strong to take the tournament. Playing with Bussey-Montenegro in the final group, they came unto 16 tied with LeCroy-Hughston for the lead. McCullum, an ACC member who lives in Pelham, hit what Burgess called “the shot of the tournament” on 16.
“It was about 148 (yards),” McCullum said. “That’s about max for my 9 iron, and I pumped it. I didn’t know where. We got up there, it was about 8 inches.
“That got us back started.”
That birdie was the first of three in a row to finish the tournament for Burgess-McCullum. Burgess finished it with a by nearly holing in from the fairway on 18 then tapped in for birdie.
The victory marked McCullum’s first in three tries with other partners. His previous best finish was third, with Kyle Daugherty.
Burgess, who’s from Calhoun County, couldn’t give a definitive number for his Sunny King appearances. Winning with Hathorn in 2013 was fun, he said, and winning another one 11 years later “means a lot.”
“We were the underdogs,” he said. “We had everything going against us coming here, and we knew it was going to be a shootout, and we rose to the challenge.”
The former Donoho School golf coach took some satisfaction in knowing that two of his former players, LeCroy and Hughston, made up the second-place team. They won a state title together in 2018 and finished as runners up in 2019.
“We knew they were going to be tough,” Burgess said. “We knew Harrison and Jacob were going to be strong coming into today.”
Photo gallery by Joe Medley
