Still on top

Cole on the rebound from ‘severe dehydration’, and Wigington rebounding from wrist injury, but both share lead after first round of RTJ-Trail Championship.

By Joe Medley
East Alabama Sports Today

SILVER LAKES — Ty Cole withdrew from the State Amateur tournament this week with dehydration. Gary Wigington has battled a wrist injury through the first half of the 2026 Calhoun County Golf Tour.

None of that could keep the two 50-somethings, also the Tour’s winningest veterans, from atop the RTJ-Trail Championship leaderboard Saturday.

Playing in the same foursome, Cole and Wigington each shot a 4-under-par 68 at Silver Lakes and stand tied for the lead after Saturday’s first round.

Newly minted Calhoun County high school player of the year Caden Wood and 2025 Pine Hill winner Cody Robinson lurk one shot back headed into Sunday’s final round.

Zach Contris, John Rollins, Brennan Clay and Ethan McCareeth shot 70 Saturday.

Cole, who has three wins in three Tour starts this season, would’ve missed the Trail Championship had he finished out the State Am, but had to pull out 13 holes into the second round with what he called “severe dehydration” on Birmingham Country Club’s strenuous course.

The State Am requires players to walk the course, which Cole did with Matt Rogers as his caddy. After a tough first round, Cole was having a better second round when he felt familiar symptoms.

“I’ve had severe dehydration before, and I know what it feels like,” he said. “I started kind of feeling that way on 10 or 11 the second day, and I told Matt, ‘We’re probably not going to finish.’”

Rogers encouraged Cole to solder on.

“I was playing good the second day, and I got to about 13, and we were kind of close to the clubhouse,” Cole said. “I said, ‘Let’s go.’

“I said, ‘I’ve got to work tomorrow. There’s no sense (in finishing).’ I’m still not, probably, a hundred percent, physically.”

Carts, complete with roofs for shade, helped players battle temperatures in the 90s at Silver Lakes Saturday, and Cole played a Cole-like round. The Calhoun County Tour reigning player of the year and current points leader finished better than his season average of 69.86 per round.

“Same old thing, hit it good and can’t make nothing on the front,” he said. “Then make a few putts on the back, and that was it. …

“After this week, I’ll take it.”

Wigington, who opened the 2026 Tour with a 66 in the first round at Cane Creek, has battled wrist inflammation all season. He sat out of the Gadsden Country Club Invitational, hoping rest and ice would help.

“It’s better,” he said. “It’s still there, but it’s way more tolerable.

“I took two weeks off after Pine Hill and just did a bunch of icing and heating they told me to. It’s still swollen, but it just doesn’t hurt like it did.”

Wigington might’ve walked out of Silver Lakes with sole possession of the lead Saturday but for a lost-ball misadventure on No. 7.

“I hit it a little bit right off of the tee but didn’t really think anything of it when I hit it, but we just never found it,” he said. “I don’t know if it plugged in the mud or what.

‘It wasn’t that bad of a shot, but we just couldn’t find it. It ended up costing a bogey.”

Sunday’s final-round tee times

7 a.m.: Tony Garnett, Mark Salonia, Shane Price
7:10 a.m.: Ott Chandler, Tony Hicks, Mark Gaines, Wilton Page
7:20 a.m.: Greg Shultz, David Sanders, Andy Jenkins, Jeff Noah
7:30 a.m.: Larry Champion, Jody Andrews, Andrew Keenum
7:40 a.m.: Cody Burgess, Luke Haynie, Gordon Johnson
7:50 a.m.: Keith Hutcheson, Billy DeMersseman, Scott Jimmerson, Landon Price
8 a.m.: Tate Heuer, Danny Whitaker, Matt Greer,. Blake Maxwell
8:10 a.m.: Dillon Parker, Austin Taylor, Hunter Fordham, Kane Stanford
8:20 a.m.: Dre Davenport, Jordan Burgess, Craig Graves, Cody Smitherman
8:30 a.m.: Noah Farmer, James Harrison, Houston Black, Andrew Gunnells
8:40 a.m.: Ryan Townley, Wade Griffith, Andrew Folsom, Ted Gregerson
8:50 a.m.: Cody Boyd, Kyle Glover, Zach Mangum, Dalton Fisher
9 a.m.: Chris Sanford, Chris Fares, Dylan Jackson, Benjamin Campbell
9:10 a.m.: Joel Brock, Drew Clark, Robert Daniel, Chad Hinchman
9:20 a.m.: Carson Chandler, Adam Carns, Jarrod Smith, Nick Hubbard
9:30 a.m.: Chase Hollingsworth, Cain Hollingsworth, Bob Eaton, Aaron Gregerson
9:40 a.m.: Jeff Bain, Matt Rogers, Joseph Salonia, Easton Wright
9:50 a.m.: Jason Rich, Lee Hubbard, J.D. Berndt, Cove McHugh
10 a.m.: Corey Mize, Shawn Ledbetter, Jake Goggans
10:10 a.m.: Dustin Travis, Fisher Prichard, Eric Messer
10:20 a.m.: Sawyer Edwards, Zach Limberis, Chad Key
10:30 a.m.: Jeremy McGatha, Andrew Brooks, Joshua Ashley
10:40 a.m.: Chad Hare, Trent Mansfield, Walker Hobbs, Nicklaus Ledbetter
10:50 a.m.: Dawson Day, Tanner Wells, Will DeMersseman, Matthew Tigrett
11 a.m.: Zach Contris, John Rollins, Brennan Clay, Ethan McCareeth
11:10 a.m.: Ty Cole, Gary Wigington, Caden Wood, Cody Robinson

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