The Heritage Academy golf team is the defending Mississippi Association of Independent Schools Class AAA champion, but coach Ed Lott feels his team will be the hunter instead of the hunted when it defends its title Tuesday at Old Waverly.
“If they play up to their potential we will have an opportunity,” Lott said. “We have to play at our best and have a lot of breaks for us to even have an opportunity.”
While Heritage Academy will play host to Starkville Academy and six other teams at the MAIS Class AAA state meet, New Hope will play host to Starkville and the rest of the Mississippi High School Activities Association Class 5A State tournament at Columbus Country Club. Both events will tee off at 9 a.m. The MAIS tournament will feature one 18-hole round, while the MHSAA tournament will feature two days of nine holes.
The Caledonia High golf team will travel Tuesday to McComb for the MHSAA Class 4A State tournament.
Heritage Academy, which is the seventh seed, is coming off a fourth-place finish (323) Monday at the MAIS Class AAA North State meet. Evan McElrath shot 75 to lead the Patriots. Cade Lott (77), Mark Adams (85), Hunter Anderson (86), Konrad Vernon (90), and Douglas Kilarski (94) also played for Heritage Academy.
With top-seeded Madison-Ridgeland Academy (307) coming off a North State title and with Pillow Academy, which carded a 308 at the event, figured to be a contender Tuesday, Lott knows his players will have to be at their best. Jackson Prep, the champion from the South, is the No. 2 seed.
“It is just the little things that each player knows (they have to do, like) making a chip shot when you need to, making a putt when you need to and just trying to score,” Lott said. “This is the last tournament of the year and whoever wins is the champion for a year, no matter what somebody has done in the past couple of months. It is a new day.”
Last year, Caleb Westmoreland shot a 72 and Cade Lott had a 79 to pace Heritage Academy to a 318 at Greenwood Country Club.
Heritage Academy players will begin teeing off at 9:20 a.m. The Patriots’ final player will tee off at 11:30 a.m.
Lott feels his players are up for the challenge. He said he won’t tinker with the lineup and that the same squad that shot a season-low round of 312 in Tuscaloosa, Ala., is capable of doing the same thing Tuesday.
“I know the other schools have played better than we have all year,” Lott said. “We have struggled all year. For us to really have an opportunity to win we are going to have to play at our best and have a lot of good things happen for us.”
Heritage Academy hasn’t played Old Waverly as a team this season. All of the teams will get a chance to survey the course today in practice rounds that kick off at 2:10 p.m.
New Hope High coach Drew McBrayer doesn’t feel his players will have to make too many adjustments for their state tournament. After all, the Trojans, the defending Class 5A champions, have practiced at Columbus Country Club, their home course, three to four times a week this season, so they should know all of the breaks and bends it has to offer.
The trick will be for Chase Taylor, Austin Fitch, P.J. Menotti, Brady Davis, and Jayce Hardin to play their best games to give New Hope a chance against the state’s best. New Hope will tee off at 9 a.m. Tuesday with Pascagoula and Ridgeland.
New Hope has an 18-hole low round of 345 and a nine-hole low of 169 this season. Both scores came at Columbus Country Club. McBrayer said Taylor, who has the low round (70) entering the tournament, and Fitch have been the team’s most consistent performers this season. He said the rest of the lineup needs to do its best to match them if the Trojans are going to repeat.
“We have got to play really well for two days to win it,” McBrayer said. “That is pretty much everybody, but it is even moreso with us.”
Last year, New Hope shot a season-best round of 320 and followed it up with a 334 for a 654 that easily outdistanced Ridgeland at Laurel Country Club. Taylor led the way with back-to-back rounds of 74.
“Chase and Austin have been our low scorers most of the year,” McBrayer said. “To begin season, Austin was shooting a lot of low rounds, but Chase has picked it up and both are playing extremely well. The other three have got consistently better as the year has gone by. You go in with a mind-set that hopefully they can improve on what they have done because they have improved their scores all year.”
Pearl River Central (325) has the lowest round from all of the district tournaments.
Adam Minichino is the former Sports Editor for The Commercial Dispatch.
You can help your community
Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 41 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.