Playing at the Azalea Golf Course at Lakewood Golf Club, your CACC Trojan Golfers showed up in fine fashion. The 36-hole tournament was hosted by Coastal Alabama Community College and consisted of 9 teams from Alabama, Georgia and Florida.
The golf course was in great shape and the weather was terrific. Probably because the Trojans have had to endure practicing and playing golf in cold wet conditions, this good weather lifted their spirits and good scores were enjoyed by everyone on the team in round The Team consisted of: Tanner Guthrie, Hayden Carner, Keith Watkins, Tanner Brown and Jarod Edwards all of who had fine scores in round 1. Guthrie shot 69, Carner and Watkins 71, Edwards 72 and Tanner Brown shot 73. Any event where we throw out a 73, we will be contenting for the win. The Trojans began the tournament with a 10-shot lead over 2nd place Eastern Florida State College and 11 shots over Jeff State.
We had struggled in our first event in Melbourne, FL early in February, playing in 30-40 mph winds, but it helped to build character for our boys as they worked extremely hard to get their games in shape for the remaining spring tournaments. In round 2, putts weren’t falling as they had in round 1, but the Trojans hung in. Jennings said, “I was watching us leak oil and was becoming concerned if Eastern Florida or Jeff State would catch on fire. Patience as a coach is just as important as patience is for a player. I was proud in how the boys grinded out the second round. They definitely were making lemonade out of lemons.â€
Led by Carner’s 2nd round 72, the Trojans hung on for the win by 9 shots over 2nd place teams; Jefferson State and Eastern Florida. Carner finished in 2nd place individually and both Watkins and Guthrie tied for 5th. Freshman golfer Hayden Carner has finished in the Top-5 of every tournament we have played this calendar year. Hayden has length and at times throws darts with his irons. On days when his putter is working best, he can go crazy low.
CACC will be hosting the next tournament at Glenlakes Golf Club in Foley, AL on March 15 & 16. It’s a busy season for Coach Jennings. Hosting one tournament in a season is a bear but Coach Jennings will be hosting 3 this spring. Following Glenlakes, the Trojans travel to Decatur, AL to play in Calhoun’s Spring Invitational at Burningtree C.C. at the end of March. April begins post-season where CACC will host the Conference Championship at Lagoon Park in mid-April then then the District-4 Championship at Arrowhead C.C, both in Montgomery, in late April. The year will conclude with Nationals being played at the Rawls Course in Lubbock, TX in May.
I love to see how hard this team is working to better their games. This is a great group of young men. During the fall season, 4 of them earned all A’s, 3 of them A’s & B’s and the other 2 just slightly missed honor roll recognition. They have a great sense of priorities. Each one of them are hungry to defend our 2019 National Championship win. Let’s see if the planets line up again. Go Trojans!