Tourney a first for county golf

Published 10:41 pm Tuesday, April 21, 2009

With the county baseball tournament held last week and the county softball tournament scheduled for next week, local sports fans may have missed the Chilton County Golf Tournament.

The oversight would be understandable, though, because the coaches of the three teams involved didn’t agree to call it that until play was underway.

Chilton County, Isabella and Jemison on Tuesday competed at the Clanton Country Club, the first time at least three county golf teams have teed it up at the time at the same place.

Chilton County had the low score with a 145. Jemison scored a 185, and Isabella finished at 248.

“It’s pretty neat for the guys,” Jemison coach Kelly Smitherman, who’s coached the team for nine years, said. “Golf is kind of up and down. I’ve had as few as one and as many as 12. It’s been difficult to keep it going.”

Isabella, meanwhile has a team for the first time, under coach Chris Baker.

“They love it,” Baker said about his players. “There are kids that don’t do anything else but this.”