Four NCHSAA Men’s Golf Championships Scheduled For May 11-12
CHAPEL HILL – For the ninth year in a row, all four North Carolina High School Athletic Association state men’s golf championships will be played simultaneously at four different sites across the state on Monday and Tuesday.
The 73rd annual 4-A championships will be held at this year Pinehurst no. 4, with the 24th annual 3-A championships at the Keith Hills Country Club in Buies Creek. The 2-A event, also the 24th annual, is scheduled for Longleaf Golf and Country Club in Southern Pines, and the 12th annual 1-A championships will be contested at the Siler City Country Club.
Each course will be set up at approximately 6,500 yards and par 72.
The top three teams from each of the regionals along with the top three individuals not on one of the qualifying teams earned spots in the 36-hole classified championships. Prior to 1986, all NCHSAA golf teams competed for a single title in an open tournament. Play went to three classifications in 1986 and then to four classes beginning with the 1998 tournaments.
Pinecrest prevented Morrisville Green Hope from winning its third consecutive 4-A state team championship and fourth in the last six years in the 2008 state finals, with Pinecrest winning by six shots over Charlotte Providence with Green Hope in third, 10 shots off the pace.
Jack Fields of Pinecrest, with rounds of 71 and 67, won the individual 4-A title by four shots.
Wilson Fike won the state 3-A championship a year ago and Robert Register of Burlington Williams was the individual state champion.
Raleigh Cardinal Gibbons is the defending 2-A team champ and Ryan Lavelle of Gibbons took 2-A medalist honors a year ago.
In the 1-A classification, East Surry has won the last four team championships and Siler City Jordan-Matthews took the two before that. John Weldon of East Surry earned the individual 1-A crown in each of the past two years.
The first threesomes will go off at eight o’clock in the morning on each of the two days of the tournament in three of the classifications, with the first tee times in 4-A set for 8:15.
Wendy’s and the Carolinas Ford Dealers are the presenting sponsors of the NCHSAA sports program.
NCHSAA FastFacts
Event: NCHSAA Men’s Golf Championships
Date: May 11-12. 2009
Site: four different sites
First Held: 1937
Qualifiers: top three teams from each regional, top three individuals not on one of the qualifying teams, in each classification
Defending team champions: 4-A: Pinecrest; 3-A: Wilson Fike; 2-A: Cardinal Gibbons; 1-A: East Surry
Of Interest: The best individual round ever shot in an NCHSAA state championship was a 65 by Charlotte Independence’s Russell Killough on the Pinehurst no. 6 course in the 2001 4-A tournament.
