to first place at Sectionals

By STEVEN G. WATSON

Sports Editor

The Charles Henderson High School golf team picked the perfect time to pick up their first two first place finishes of the year.

With their second-straight first place showing, the Trojan Linksters qualified for the State Tournament next Monday in Prattville at the Robert Trent Jones Legislator. They scored a 318 on the Spring Hill College course in Mobile, outscoring their closest competitor by 13 strokes.

CHHS also sported the low medalist winner as Will Mills finished with a 75 to tie for the low round, then defeated Opp’s star player in a two-hole playoff. Fellow senior Rory Murphy also put up an impressive score with a 77 on the day.

"I was real proud of the way the guys played," CHHS head coach Kevin Watson said. "At first I was a little scared, but when I saw Rory and Will’s scores I felt a lot better."

Watson feels that the team’s tough schedule throughout the season helped them more than anything. The team played some of the toughest Class 6A competition in the area during the year knowing it would prepare them for the Sectional and State Championships.

"During the season we wanted to schedule the bigger and better schools so we could compete with the best around this area," Watson said. "That was out goal all year, to beat the best and while we never placed first we did very well against them. I think that helped us out the most in getting us ready for sectionals."

Carroll and Citronelle had to play in a sudden-death playoff to decide the second place and final qualifier for state. Carroll managed to edge out Citronelle who had to settle with third, while Andalusia took fourth with a 332, Opp was fifth with a 356 and Jackson had a 376 for sixth.

Now the Trojans will travel to Prattville to face their toughest challenge yet. The Legislator at Prattville is the sight of the Class 4A-6A State Championships and a part of the Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail.

Making the challenge even tougher is the fact that the Charles Henderson golfers are having trouble slating a practice time. While they finished their Sectional on Tuesday, the other teams across the state finished on Monday and have already filled up all the spots on Sunday for practice.

The course is not closing for just high school students so there are other golfers with tee times as well. Something Watson is very concerned about going into the championship.

"You can’t go into a Robert Trent Jones golf course blind because it will eat you up," Watson said. "This will without a doubt be the toughest course we play all year. Our guys play well going into a course for the first time, but not on a course like this.

"I’m not sure what we are going to do, but it’s really unfair to the kids," he continued. "Not only that, but they are charging all the kids $45 just to play a practice round. I’m not sure what we are going to do yet, but it’s important for us to work something out."

Teams get under way at 8 a.m. Monday morning at the Championship.