By Andy Simmons

Two Troy golfers are participating in the 49th annual Girl’s State Junior Championship.

The tournmanet began Tuesday at the Troy Country Club. Troy was represented by Lindsay Lee and Susie Stell.

Beauford McCarty, Director of Tournament operations, is excited about getting the competition started.

“This is the first time doing it for the girls championship.” McCarty said. “We were here last year for the women’s four ball and, as usual, the golf course is in great shape.”

The tournament is divided into three separate age groups: girls 12-13, girls 14-15 and girls 16-18. Stell is competing in the 12-13 age group and Lee is competing in the 14-15 age group.  Stell finished the day with a 101. Lee finished with a 146.

The older division began Tuesday morning while the younger divisions had afternoon tee-times.

“We’ve got three girls that are at plus two [at the time] in the older age division, so it looks like we’re going to have a pretty good shootout.” McCarty said.

There was a slight concern Tuesday about the unpredictable path of Tropical Storm Debby. McCarty said he hoped the storm would steer clear of Troy so the tournament could continue full speed ahead. McCarty said he’d be monitoring the storm’s path inside an RV set up as the tournament headquarters, just to be certain that Debby didn’t change course.

“The weather looks like it’s going to be fine, so we’re not worried about that as long as that stuff just stays on the east coast,” McCarty said.

As of Tuesday, Gabi Oubre and Sarah Robertson stand atop the leaderboard for the 16-18 division, both with scores of 74. Sarah Grace Drop leads the 14-15 division with a score of 83. Caroline Waldrop leads the 12-13 division with a score of 80.

The tournament will continue until the final round, Thursday.