OAKWOOD — Uncertainty may well be the word of the day Monday when the annual Hall County Golf Championships get under way at Chicopee Woods Golf Course.
Uncertainty in that many of the top individual golfers from 2018, especially on the boys side, graduated; five of the top 10 finishers from last year, in fact.
Uncertainty on the girls side as several teams are still in a rebuilding mode and will be trying to chase down Gainesville, which will be led by three seniors and sophomore defending champion Karina Collins, once again.
Uncertainty as to what many of the teams actually have on the course as the near-constant rainy weather has limited most of them to just a handful of rounds so far on the season.
And, uncertainty with the course itself, as the recent spat of below-freezing temperatures forced Chicopee Woods to close last week to protect the greens.
Gainesville golf director, and girls coach, Clay McDonald said it is hard to know what to expect.
“This may be the most interesting (Hall County) tournament in many years because few of us have been able to play because of the weather,” McDonald said. “Chicopee is a tough course in normal conditions but because of all the crazy weather we expect there to be higher-than-normal scores on both sides. No one is going to be able to practice the course beforehand so for those players who have not played it or not played on it recently, it just adds to all the uncertainty.”
Both Gainesville teams come in as the defending champions.
The boys held off North Hall last year and the Trojans may be in a rebuilding mode themselves after graduating their top two players from 2018. The Red Elephants’ Andrew Hughes, now a sophomore, is the reigning individual champion and returns.
On the girls side, the Lady Red Elephants also held off North Hall but come in sporting three seniors in Vivian Robinson, Morgan Nichol, and Catie Cook as well as Collins. Collins, Nichol, and Robinson finished 1-2-3 in the 2018 individual race.
But McDonald expects the Lady Trojans to be ready to challenge for the title. North Hall's Mikayla Dubnik recently helped lead the Lady Trojans to a win in the 17-team field West Hall Invitational at Chateau Elan where Dubnik also captured the low medalist honors.
“North Hall will be good and should be right there,” McDonald said. “I’m sure some of the other teams on both the boys and girls sides will be looking to challenge. It’s just with all the weather rainouts of tournaments and not being able to play the course leading up to this makes the hardest year to get a feel for what to truly expect.
“Just total uncertainty.”
2019 HALL COUNTY GOLF CHAMPIONSHIPS
Chicopee Woods Golf Course, March 11-12
DEFENDING TEAM CHAMPIONS:
Boys — Gainesville
Girls — Gainesville
DEFENDING INDIVIDUAL CHAMPIONS:
Boys — So. Andrew Hughes, Gainesville
Girls — So. Karina Collins, Gainesville
