LeCroy laps field

LeCroy runs away with his second ACC title, shooting 10-under 200 and winning by 13; Howell scores ace

By Al Muskewitz
East Alabama Sports Today

Jacob LeCroy remembered the feeling last year when he went into the final round of the Wilfred Galbraith Anniston Country Club Invitational with the lead and let it get away.

It wasn’t the driving force behind his play this weekend, but it was in the back of his mind and he was determined not to have that feeling again.

He didn’t. Not by a mile.

To say the South Alabama junior ran away with the tournament is an understatement. He shot a final-round 66 and won his home club’s invitational for the second time in five years by a margin that made Tiger Woods’ rout of Stephen Ames in the PGA Tour’s 2006 Match Play look like a nail biter.

He shot 10-under-par 200 for the three-day tournament and won by a whopping 13 shots. It was reminiscent of the show he and Jacob Harper put on in winning the 2019 Sunny King Charity Classic. The 10-under was two strokes better than his winning score in 2018, which had been the tournament’s lowest winning score since at least 2014. No one had won it by more than four in that same period.

And it wasn’t like he was playing against a bunch of choose-up superstars who need strokes to make it interesting. He beat the best players on the Calhoun County Golf Tour, players he looked up to as a developing player. Former ACC pro Kevin Daugherty and former Samford golf coach Woodie Eubanks were tied for second at 213. Gary Wigington finished fourth and Brennan Clay tied for fifth.

Last year he went into the final round with a two-shot lead, but met all kinds of disaster on the opening hole, from hitting his first drive out of bounds and stepping in a fire-ant mound once he got one in play, made 7, then bogeyed 3, 4 and 5 to fall three shots off the lead. He got back into the mix on the back nine, but Ty Cole eventually won it with a 15-foot birdie putt on 18.

“It really upset me because I just wasn’t in it at all, like, mentally and I came out here today trying to shoot absolutely nothing,” LeCroy said. “I was still going to take my smart plays if I ever got into bad situation, but I’ve been hitting the ball really well.

“I just wanted to go out there and play good golf. I just wanted to show up, see what the golf course gave me and see if I could capitalize. This is one I’ve been wanting to win. This is my home track and if I’m a good player no one is supposed to come to my home course and beat me and I got to show that today and the last two days.”

It didn’t start well. He birdied the first hole, but bogeyed 2 and 3 that closed the gap. It looked to get really interesting on 5 when LeCroy’s tee shot landed well short of the green and Wigington’s shot looked like it was going to roll in for a 1. But LeCroy actually gained ground on the hole when he chipped in for 2 and Wigington missed his birdie putt.

The lead was nine at the turn after he made birdie at 9 on the heels of a 370-yard drive and was 10 with eight holes to play. LeCroy said he had “no idea” how much he was leading by once the round began.

“I knew coming into the day, I didn’t care after I teed off,” he said. “I kind of lost count really quick because I wasn’t playing against them I was playing against basically myself.”

But even before the round started it appeared the field was playing for second place. LeCroy went into the day with a seven-shot lead after back-to-back 67s and a birdie-birdie-eagle-birdie finish on Saturday. 

“It was a good tournament for second place, a really good tournament,” Daugherty said. “I was just trying to hang in there and fight it out for second. I was pretty happy to be playing in the group in front of them. I could just pretend like I was behind all day and keep charging and charging just trying to make birdies and not get caught up in how I stood with Twig and Woodie and those guys. I was just playing.”

Chip Howell had the shot of the day. He scored a hole-in-one on No. 4 with a 4-hybrid. It was his seventh ace ever, second on ACC’s fourth hole and second in competition. His first in competition came a couple weeks ago in the opening round of the State Senior Championship at Gadsden Country Club.

“Andrew Brooks and that group were on 5 tee and I told the guys (in his group) they’re kind of in my eye,” Howell said. “I hit it right to that spot on the right side of the green the first two days, that was my target area, and I just had a little hybrid like 170. As soon as I hit it, it never got off the hole, and Jake (Goggans) and Clay (Calkins) said, ‘What a great swing.’ I was picking up the tee and they said, ‘That’s close; my God, it’s in.’

“It was interesting. The other one I made on that hole it kinds of shows the age and the distance factor. It was on the back left when I made that one and I hit the same club. That was like 190. This was 170 and I hit the same club.”

He thought he had made two in a row as his tee shot on 5 disappeared from view and settled on the back of the green.

NOTES: The back nine was really good to the champion. LeCroy played the side in 11-under for the week with 10 birdies and an eagle and was 8-under on the final four holes … Layton Bussey scored the last hole-in-one in a Calhoun County Golf Tour event, acing No. 2 at Gadsden CC in the opening round of last year’s Gadsden Invitational. Adrian Geeting aced No. 4 at ACC in the final round of the its 2020 Invitational … Ryan Howard’s short putting woes continued in the final round and he did bring out the wedge to putt on No. 7 green. There were two holes he didn’t need the putter, chipping in from off the green for a much-needed birdie on 4 and holing out from the fairway on 13 for eagle … Will Reaves and Ross Napier were paired together in the final round. Their fathers (Randy and Jack) played golf together at Jacksonville State … The next event on the Calhoun County Golf Tour is the Anniston City Championship at Cane Creek June 25-26.

Wilfred Galbraith ACC Invitational

CHAMPIONSHIP A
Jacob LeCroy	67	67	66	200
Kevin Daugherty	75	69	69	213
Woodie Eubanks	72	71	70	213
Gary Wigington	72	69	74	215
Brennan Clay	69	75	74	218
Freeman Fite	72	73	73	218
Landon Straub	73	72	73	218
Ryan Howard	70	71	79	220
Eric Howle	72	73	75	220
Jaylon Ellison	74	73	73	220
Andrew Gladden	71	74	79	224
Randy Lipscomb	75	71	78	224
Sawyer Edwards	72	75	79	226
CHAMPIONSHIP B
Ty Cole	73	77	71	221
Layton Bussey	76	73	72	221
Ross Napier	75	74	72	221
Jeremy McGatha	74	74	75	223
Dalton Chandler	74	74	77	225
Chip Howell	79	75	72	226
Will Reaves	74	76	77	227
Chandler Wilborn	76	74	77	227
Harrison Hughston	77	76	74	227
Timmy Woodard	79	73	77	229
Scott Martin	78	76	76	230
Jonathan Pate	77	74	80	231
Morton Holcomb	75	79	—	WD
CHAMPIONSHIP C
Andrew Brooks	75	82	76	233
Gage Miller	77	81	75	233
Jake Goggans	77	79	77	233
Clay Calkins	75	80	79	234
Chad Key	79	77	81	237
Nick Ledbetter	77	84	76	237
Blayne Armstrong	80	80	80	240
Brandon Fincher	80	78	84	242
Cain Hollingsworth	77	82	83	242
Hunter Carr	78	89	82	249
Cole McNeal	80	77	93	250
Cohen Picton	80	92	85	257
Taylor Morrow	80	80	—	WD

PLAYERS A
Zach Mangum	74	74	148
Tyler Simmons	74	74	148
Ott Chandler	75	75	150
Matt Hunter	76	77	153
Billy Thompson	76	77	153
Will Broome	77	76	153
Keaton Borrelli	76	83	159
Mark Durden	79	80	159
Dyron Johnson	77	83	160
Eric Boutwell	78	84	162
Michael Downey	78	87	165
Wesley Jenkins	78	89	167
PLAYERS B
Matt Rogers	84	76	160
Luke Armstrong	84	79	163
Brian Stewart	84	80	164
Charlie Smith	81	84	165
Tyler Huckeby	86	82	168
Houston Black	82	89	171
Riley Boyd	85	87	172
Henry Pritchett	84	89	173
Lamar Carter	83	91	174
Heath Waldrop	84	91	175
Haden Downey	84	96	180
Shaughn Rankin	86	94	180
Mark Hartdegen	82	104	186
Addison Wood	86	—	WD
SENIOR FLIGHT
Don Springer	82	81	163
Tom Roberts	85	91	176
Don Whitlow	93	89	182
PLAYERS C
Noah Flynn	87	77	164
Sawyer Parks	89	78	166
Jason Britton	87	82	168
Greg Rainey	87	84	171
Sean Kline	89	83	172
Taylor Jones	87	85	172
Corey Mize	88	85	173
Andrew Betts	87	89	176
Kenneth Willingham	88	90	178
Chance Haywood	89	91	180
Josh Davis	88	95	193
Drey Reeves	87	—	WD
PLAYERS D
Joe Hedgepeth	92	77	169
Jason Payne	94	76	170
Eric Stringer	91	89	180
Will Hollingsworth	92	89	181
Austin Elliott	91	91	182
Alex Freeman	93	89	182
Kolby Slick	91	92	183
Johnny Barnes	101	86	187
Zach Limberis	94	98	192
Matt Peters	91	101	192
Adam Benefiel	98	101	199
Keith Hutcheson	105	103	208
Marlee Hedgepeth	111	108	219
Jake Pollard	91	—	WD
Kelly Rogers	95	—	WD

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