By Randy Seal. The Russellville Golden Tigers golf team came in 13th place at the West Alabama Classic last week. Pictured are (L to R): Blake Bendall, Luke Bendall, Eli Hodges, Coach Jason Haithcock, Aaron Jackson and Joshua Seal.

By Randy Seal

For the FCT

The Russellville Golden Tiger golf team competed in the West Alabama Classic at Ol’Colony in Tuscaloosa March 3-4.

The field consisted of 23 teams in which four of those teams were defending champions – 6A Spain Park, 5A St. Pauls, 4A Guntersville and 3A Bayside Academy.

On day one, the Tigers found themselves in 11^th place after shooting a round of 346.

Individual scores on day one included: Eli Hodges-81, Luke Bendall-83, Aaron Jackson-89, Blake Bendall-94 and Joshua Seal-95.

“Eli and Luke really held us together on day one,” RHS golf coach Jason Haithcock said.

“Without their scores we would have fallen further behind.”

On day two, the Tigers improved their score by 19 strokes but fell to 13^th place overall and 3^rd place among 5A teams.

The team shot 327 and individual’s scores were as follows: Eli Hodges-77, Aaron Jackson-81, Joshua Seal-81, Luke Bendall-88 and Blake Bendall-89.

“I was really proud for Joshua and Aaron to bounce back on day two after having a rough day one,” Haithcock said.

Eli Hodges two-day totals were 158, which was good enough to place him 11^th out of 118 golfers competing in the tournament.  “Eli played some really solid golf considering the weather that he was competing in,” Haithcock said.

“Moving forward, we have to be more consistent as a team. We can’t continue to shoot bad one day and good the next, especially since most matches in the future will only be one-day matches.

“I believe we have potential to be a good team but we haven’t shot a score yet to prove it.”