Lamar School wins 3A South State title
By By Robby Atkinson / staff writer
April 21, 2004
The Lamar Raiders may have played their best round of golf of the 2004 season on Tuesday afternoon and the results was an MPSA Class 3A South State Championship.
The Raiders recorded a team score of 295 and got a solid individual performance from Leigh Phillips in the event held at Northwood Country Club.
Lamar will now advance to the state tournament to be held Tuesday at the Country Club of Jackson, with head golf coach Mac Barnes looking for an identical performance next week.
"That was the first time in the last two years that we have broke 300," said Barnes." "The team score today was one of the lowest team scores in the state this year."
Phillips led the Raiders with a low round score of 71 and finished in second place for medalist honors behind Becker Sams of Jackson Prep, who fired a 70.
"Any of our players are capable of shooting low scores," Barnes said. "We are getting better scores each tournament that we play in and we are at the point now where we are trying to win a state championship."
Derrick Smith of Lamar took home third place with a score of 72 and Matt Burrow of Jackson Prep finished in fourth with a 74.
Jackson Prep finished four strokes back to take home a second place spot with a team score of 299 and Hillcrest captured third place with a team score of 339. The final spot for the state tournament was taken by Copiah with a score of 380.
The top four teams from the tournament all advance to the state tournament in Jackson on the home course of Jackson Prep.
"We have played on that course this year and we didn't perform as well as we would like," Barnes said. "We just want to be able to secure a spot in the top three and have a chance to go to the overall state tournament."
Reid Kennedy and Nick Brown each posted 76s, while Clay Bounds shot a 77.
"It was a little windy today and the ball was played down today," added Barnes. "That is the way golf should be played and playing the ball down on the back tees produced a good score today."
