TUPELO – Area players and teams highlighted a rain-shortened Tupelo Girls Golf Invitational on Tuesday at the Tupelo Country Club.
The host Golden Wave were the top area finishers in the team standings. Their score of 178 was good for third place behind DeSoto Central and Lewisburg.
“(We) just got some girls to play some 18-hole rounds and kind of get some fresh legs going into (region),” first-year Tupelo coach Chris McCrory said. “So hopefully we keep improving a little bit more between now and division and put some good scores together.”
Tupelo was led on the individual leaderboard by Autumn Simmons with an 87, which was good for eighth overall. She was followed by Sidney Kelly (10th), Josephine Frazier (12th), Summer Wilson (13th) and River Dempsey (19th).
The invitational featured four teams coming off of third-place finishes at last year’s state meets in their respective classes. That, as well as the two other 7A schools in attendance, created a level of competition that McCrory thinks the Golden Wave can build off.
“It gives us something to shoot forward to and kind of practice for the next couple of weeks,” he said.
In that time, McCrory hopes Tupelo can continue to show improved consistency.
“I feel like we’ve gotten a little bit more consistent with our scores since we started at the beginning of the year,” he said. “We just need to kind of put some good rounds together towards the end, and we could still be a little bit more consistent than what we have been the past couple of weeks.”
Tupelo will have two more invitationals before the region tournament, which will be Wednesday, Oct. 16. They’ll be at Mallard Pointe Golf Course in Sardis on Oct. 1 and the Mississippi State Golf Course on Oct. 3.
Andie Kate Ramey of Booneville was tied with Esther Kim of DeSoto Central for the best score among individuals at 75. Adeline Bailey, New Albany’s lone representative at Tupelo Country Club, was right behind them with a 76.
As a team, Booneville finished tied for fourth with Corinth. Itawamba AHS finished sixth.
