Coming of age

By EASportsToday.com
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Updated: May 1, 2022

Sawyer Edwards, 15, becomes the youngest player to win on the Calhoun County Golf Tour, only player under par in Oxford City Championship

By Al Muskewitz
East Alabama Sports Today

OXFORD — Sawyer Edwards isn’t even old enough to drive by himself, but he sure knows how to drive it around the golf course.

The White Plains sophomore became the youngest player to win on the Calhoun County Golf Tour when he overcame a balky Sunday start to win the Oxford City Championship at Cider Ridge Golf Club.

Edwards shot a final-round 75 for a 36-hole total 141 that was three shots better than runner-up Ty Cole, 31 years his senior. Edwards turns 16 on May 10, the final day of the state high school championship he is expected to be a contender for. He’s 15 years, 356 days old.

“I didn’t even know that, to be honest with you; I had no clue,” he said. “I figured (Jacob) LeCroy won when he was 15 or 16. I didn’t know. I just need to keep working.”

The win represents a significant milestone in the player’s career. He’s already beaten all the kids in the county as the youngest medalist in this year’s Calhoun County High School Tournament and now he has beaten the best men.

“That is cool,” he said.

Edwards entered the day tied for the lead with Landon Straub after an impressive 6-under 66 on Saturday, but got off to a slow start. He three-putted each of his first two holes and bogeyed three of his first four.

After that, he stuck to a piece of advice he heard from a college coach a couple weeks ago — fat, fat, two; hit the fat part of the fairway, the fat part of the green and two-putt. He played the rest of the round in even par.

“I told myself I needed to get back to 1-over on the front nine,” Edwards said. “I birdied 5 and thought I could birdie 9 and I didn’t, so I just kept trying to keep going making a bunch of pars. I really thought a birdie would come, but it actually didn’t.”

The round turned for him on 9 when playing partners Straub and Jake Goggans had trouble off the tee and made 7s and steady Sawyer moved to the top of the leaderboard. The lead grew when Straub bogeyed 10 and 11 as well.

“I was hitting it good until 9 and then I kind of lost it for a second, made a few mistakes and never recovered,” Straub said. “And I couldn’t make a putt. I was hitting a bunch of putts that looked like they were going in, but none of them went in.”

Edwards kept his round going with what he called “probably the best shot I’ve hit in my life.” He guessed he was about 115 yards out on 13, down in the hollow where the cart path curls back to the 14 tee. He opened up a 50-degree wedge, hit it over the trees to the back of the green and spun it back to within eight feet of the cup.

He made par to maintain his lead and drove on to the rest of the round.

NOTES: It was a difficult scoring day. Nobody in the Championship A flight posted a better round Sunday than they had the day before and only four players in the top three flights did — Brad Moultrie, Dalton Chandler, Justin Graveman and Scott Martin. Only three players shot under par – Moultrie (70), Graveman (70) and Kenny Okins (69) … This is the last Oxford City Championship on Cider Ridge’s bent grass greens. The course begins the process of installing TifEagle bermuda in 10 days … The next event on the CCGT schedule is RTJ Silver Lakes Championship May 14-15. Spots are still available.

Oxford City Championship

CHAMPIONSHIP A
Sawyer Edwards	66	75	141
Ty Cole	72	72	144
Brennan Clay	70	75	145
Landon Straub	66	80	146
Morton Holcomb	70	76	146
Gary Wigington	73	73	146
Corey Ray	73	76	149
Alex Harper	72	77	149
Jeremy McGatha	70	80	150
Layton Bussey	70	81	151
Jake Goggans	69	83	152
Kent Whitley	72	81	153
Matt Bell	73	83	156
CHAMPIONSHIP B
Brad Moultrie	75	70	145
Dalton Chandler	74	72	146
Kevin Daugherty	74	74	148
Logan Archer	75	76	151
Mason Dennis	75	76	151
Clay Calkins	74	79	153
Randy Archer	75	79	154
Ryan Limbaugh	75	80	155
Chance Harris	75	82	157
Gage Miller	75	83	158
Chad Calvert	76	84	160
Landon Winfrey	75	86	161
Timmy Woodard	75	90	165
Daniel Black	75	92	167
FIRST FLIGHT
Justin Graveman	78	70	148
Scott Martin	77	76	153
Chase Hollingsworth	78	78	156
Billy McCroskey	77	79	156
Jason Rich	77	81	158
Chris Reaves	77	82	159
Hunter Carr	77	84	161
Zac Mangum	78	83	161
Adam Wright	76	87	163
Billy Thompson	78	86	164
Logan Craft	78	86	164
Wesley Jenkins	78	NC	NC
SECOND FLIGHT
Kenny Okins	80	69	149
Chip Howell	80	75	155
Kenny Wright	79	78	157
Skyler Dennis	81	76	157
Ward Campbell	80	78	158
Lamar Carter	80	78	158
Harrison Hughston	81	77	158
Eric Cannington	81	79	160
C.J. Taylor	79	81	160
Dre Davenport	81	80	161
Mark McCaig	79	82	161
Casey Harmon	79	82	161
Tanner Wells	81	83	164
Danny Whittaker	80	90	170
THIRD FLIGHT
Jeff Bain	83	72	155
Daily Thomas	82	74	156
Cole McNeal	82	75	157
Josh Poole	84	74	158
Bradley Elliott	83	82	165
Clayton Chandler	83	82	165
Andy Jenkins	83	83	166
Josh Reynolds	84	83	167
Maurice Dates	84	84	168
Ryan Huff	84	85	169
Jared Chapman	82	NC	NC
Mark Durden	82	NC	NC
FOURTH FLIGHT
Michael Casey	85	76	161
Scott McFry	87	77	164
Rick Okins	86	79	165
Jared Waits	85	80	165
Matt Rogers	85	81	166
Benji Turley	87	80	167
Landon Holley	85	87	172
Austin Elliott	87	85	172
Chance Haywood	86	88	174
Scott Watson	86	88	174
Traay Floyd	87	87	174
Mike Hughston	87	87	174
Brock Young	85	96	181
Adam Johnson	87	NC	NC
FIFTH FLIGHT
Heath Hammond	90	79	169
Craig Duncan	89	82	171
Brad Young	89	85	174
Bart Smith	93	88	176
Josh Davis	94	82	176
Mark Gaines	93	88	181
Shane Lee	89	93	182
Kolby Slick	92	105	197
Mark Guyther	94	NS	NS
SIXTH FLIGHT
Alex Whaley	95	86	181
Seth Collett	98	87	185
Nash Messer	95	92	187
Ty Johnson	101	91	192
Kobe Messer	104	88	192
Riley Boyd	99	95	194
Kasey Ray	100	100	200
Ricky Carden	102	98	200
Warren Sewell	119	104	223
Ken Renfroe	106	NS	NS
SENIOR A
James Beavers	72	74	146
Tim Steward	74	76	150
David Messer	73	78	151
Gary Austin	76	76	152
Charlie Estes	77	76	153
Jerry Kemp	76	80	156
SENIOR B
Keith Haywood	78	85	163
Rick Barthel	87	79	166
Lamar Ward	85	82	167
Dennis Austin	90	84	174
Lee Clark	104	98	202